ReanKhmer

Khmer IPA Chart: How to Pronounce Every Khmer Sound

Khmer spelling often uses one letter for two sounds and two letters for one sound, so this free chart starts from the sound instead. Every consonant, vowel, and diphthong of Standard (Phnom Penh) Khmer is written in the International Phonetic Alphabet, with a native-speaker recording, plain instructions for your lips and tongue, the Khmer letters that spell it, and example words.

The Khmer sounds English speakers find hardest

• p, t, c, k without a puff of air: ព and ត sound like the p in "spin" and the t in "stop", while ផ and ថ add the puff. The difference changes meaning.
• Implosive ɓ and ɗ: ប and ដ are deeper and hollower than English b and d, made while drawing air slightly inward.
• ŋ and ɲ at the start of a word: ង is the ng of "sing" and ញ is the ny of "canyon", and Khmer starts words with both.
• The glottal stop ʔ: the catch in "uh-oh", written អ at the start of a syllable.
• ɨ and ɨː: a vowel between "ee" and "oo", said with flat lips, as in ទឹក (tɨk, water).
• ɑː and ɔː: the inherent vowels of the two consonant series, as in ក (kɑː) and គ (kɔː).

Khmer is not a tonal language. What changes the meaning of a word is vowel quality, vowel length, and whether a consonant is aspirated. Each sound on the chart links to the sounds it is most often confused with, so you can switch between them and hear the difference.

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