Meeting New People

This unit marks the beginning of the Phnom Penh dialect in transcription. You will learn greetings, introductions, and how to discuss occupations and relationships when meeting new people. From this unit on, Basic Dialogues reflect colloquial Phnom Penh speech rather than the standard language of Units 1–20.

Basic Dialogue

Cambodian (romanized)	English
cmiep suoJ	Hello!
cmiep suoJ	Hello!
look sok sɔbaay’ cia teh?	How are you?
baat, khñom sok sɔbaay’ cia tee. coh look kùu.	I’m fine. And you, teacher?
ou, khñom sok sɔbaay douc thómɔdaa.	Oh, I’m well as usual.
look James, nih’ ɔ, kañaa vansii’ ɔ.	James, this is Vansy.
cmiep suoJ	Hello!
soum tooh, khñom sdap chmúh m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t catch your name.
caah, khñom chmúh vansii.	My name is Vansy.
oo kun. chmúh niŋ lʔoo’ ah.	Thank you. That’s very nice name.
oo kun. look thee kaa ɛy?	Thank you. What is your job?
baat, khñom cia anuʔpún niw ambasaat ameriʔkaŋ.	I’m an attaché at the American Embassy.
coh look inoh, cia puoʔ-maaʔ look’ ih?	And that gentleman, is he a friend of yours?
baat, soum tooh, kañãa. look Jones cia puoʔ-maaʔ khñom cɨt-dɛt’ nah.	Yes, excuse me, Miss. Mr. Jones is a very close friend of mine.
cmiep suo, look Jones.	Hello, Mr. Jones.
cmiep suoJ	Hello.
caah, khñom thee niw kesuoŋ kaa-booreteh, khaaŋ vóppethóa.	I work at the Foreign Ministry, in the cultural field.
baat, soum tooh, khaaŋ ɛy?	Excuse me, what field?
caah, khaaŋ vóppethóa.	The cultural field.
ou, khaaŋ vóppethóaJ baat, khñom sdap baan’ eh.	Oh, the cultural field! Now I understand.
look cɛh niʔyiey khmaɛ lʔoo’ ah.	You speak Cambodian very well.
oo, khñom cmnaay peel cɛɛn’ ah, dmbey-nŋ rien khmaɛ.	Well, I put in a lot of time trying to learn Cambodian.

Key Vocabulary

Cambodian	English
cmiep suo	hello, greetings
sok sɔbaay	to be well, fine
chmúh	name
look	sir, you (polite)
look sɛ̀y	ma’am, madam
kañaa	miss
kùu	teacher (PPn form of kruu)
anuʔpún	attaché
ambasaat	embassy
ameriʔkaŋ	American
puoʔ-maaʔ	friend
cɨt-dɛt	close, intimate
kesuoŋ	ministry
kaa-booreteh	foreign affairs
vóppethóa	culture, cultural
khaaŋ	field, section, side
thee kaa	to work, to do work
cmnaay	to spend (time)
peel	time
dmbey	in order to

Grammar Notes

Phnom Penh Dialect Differences

From this unit onward, the transcription reflects Phnom Penh colloquial speech (PPn) rather than the standard language (Std). Key differences include:

1. Unstressed first syllables are reduced: Std krɔsuoŋ → PPn kesuoŋ; Std daembey → PPn dmbey; Std comnaay → PPn cmnaay
2. Initial consonant clusters are simplified: Std kruu → PPn kùu; Std craen → PPn cɔ̀en; Std cumriep → PPn cmiep
3. Unstressed functional words are reduced: Std min → PPn m; Std niŋ → PPn nŋ, n, ŋ; Std haey → PPn eh, eyh

Greetings and Introductions

The standard Khmer greeting is cmiep suoJ (Hello!). To ask ‘How are you?’: look sok sɔbaay’ cia teh? The response: baat, khñom sok sɔbaay’ cia tee. (Yes, I’m fine.) To introduce someone: nih’ ɔ, kañaa vansii’ ɔ. (This is Miss Vansy.)

Practice Drills

Drill A. Response Greetings

Cambodian	English
cmiep suoJ (look sɛ̀y) → cmiep suo, look sɛ̀y.	Hello! (ma’am) → Hello, ma’am.
cmiep suoJ (kañaa) → cmiep suo, kañaa.	Hello! (miss) → Hello, miss.
cmiep suoJ (look kùu) → cmiep suo, look kùu.	Hello! (teacher) → Hello, teacher.
cmiep suoJ (look tŋ-oh khnia) → cmiep suo, look tŋ-oh khnia.	Hello! (all of you) → Hello, everybody.
cmiep suoJ (vansii) → cmiep suo, vansii.	Hello! (Vansy) → Hello, Vansy.

Drill D. Substitution

Cambodian	English
soum tooh, khñom sdap m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t catch it!
soum tooh, khñom mɔel m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t have time to look at it!
soum tooh, khñom aan m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t have time to read it!
soum tooh, khñom rien m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t have time to learn it!
soum tooh, khñom teste m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t have time to write it!
soum tooh, khñom pàɛ m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t have time to translate it!
soum tooh, khñom thee m tón’ ehJ	Excuse me, I didn’t have time to do it!