In the summer of 2007, Doug Cooper of SEAlang received permission from Franklin E. Huffman to put the text of Modern Spoken Cambodian online, indicating that he regarded this text (as well as Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader) to be in the public domain. I volunteered to input the text and this site is my version of the book.
This online version differs from the 1970 original in several ways.
In the first place, I’ve changed how the pronunciation is indicated. I’ve substituted the IPA phonetic character ʔ for /q/, v for /w/, ɲ for /ñ/, and pʰ, tʰ, cʰ, and kʰ for /ph/, /th/, /ch/ and /kh/. Where a short /e/, /u/ or /o/ is followed by a /ə/ (schwa), Huffman added a breve (˘) midway between the two vowel symbols. I’m unable to duplicate this placement, so the breve now appears only above the /e/, /u/ or /o/: ĕə, ŏə and ŭə (or, following Headley, as ʊə).
More significantly, I’ve added or substituted pronunciations from the 1997 Cambodian-English Dictionary edited by Robert Headley where they differ from Huffman’s (except for generally following Huffman in the pronunciation drills of vowels in lesson 1, however). Sometimes that means there are discrepancies between the pronunciation indicated here and what is heard on the language recordings made in 1970. I’m not in a position to say that Headley’s work is more authoritative than Huffman’s, but it is more recent and that makes this work consistent with the dictionaries provided online at SEAlang. (It is possible that new recordings of the pronunciation drills in lesson 1 and the dialogues will be made and posted here.)
Lastly, following the work done at ខ្មែរស្រួលរៀន in putting the dialogues of Modern Spoken Cambodian online, I’ve added a Khmer version of the drills and dialogue presented only phonetically in the original. The Khmer text for dialogues 1 through 12 has been supplied by Samnangah and I am grateful for permission to use it. Hopefully, this additional material will prove useful for someone learning to read Khmer while learning to speak it. In his introduction, Huffman recommends that a student begin his study of the writing system only after having mastered the sound system but clearly intends the two to occur together. In part, I'm influenced by the argument of Frank Smith,* who notes: “Khmer is the best system on this planet for representing the sounds of the Khmer language, so why not use it from day one?” Thus I justify adding the Khmer version not only to the dialogues but also to the drills in each lesson.
Modern Spoken Cambodian, the “yellow book,” is available in print and can be purchased from two different publishers, Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications ($23.95; ISBN: 9780877275213) and from Yale University Press ($45; ISBN: 9780300013160).
SEAP indicates that a set of 25 CD's (encompassing the 53 tapes intended for use with the book) can be obtained from The Language Resource Center, Tape Sales, Room G11, Noyes Lodge, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4701 (tel: 607-255-8793, fax: 607-255-6882; www.lrc.cornell.edu/sales/catalog) at $216 (individual CD's, $10). Yale no longer sells the audiotapes, although mp3’s made from them have been located on the web.
The Spoken Cambodian language course sold by Spoken Language Services Inc. (P.O. Box 17113, Urbana, IL, 61803; tel: 217-328-0173) uses Modern Spoken Cambodian. The book ($25) and 14 cassettes ($105) are available separately or as a package ($130; ISBN: 978-0879504731). This package is also sold at Amazon.com.
Google Book Search has scanned and OCR'd all of Modern Spoken Cambodian (which puts it about thirty chapters ahead of me). Not all of the chapters are listed in the linked contents page, but the entire book (with some missing pages) is online and searchable, including the glossary.
— Roger Sperberg
This effort began in October 2007 and was last updated in July 2008, when audio portions began to be added. It may take some time before the 450 pages — and 19 hours of audio — are all online.
A version of the dialogues that contains less hand-holding is being put online at ខ្មែរស្រួលរៀន. As noted above, the Khmer text of the dialogues here is taken from that site.
In order to view this site properly, you will need to have a Khmer Unicode font installed, as well as a font that includes the IPA phonetic symbols. The former can be obtained from the Khmer Software Initiative (website; Khmer Unicode installer for Windows; fonts download page). Note that installing Khmer fonts allows you to view the Khmer text but for Windows XP you will require the additional Unicode software to enter Khmer text from the keyboard. Apart from Khmer several phonetic characters appear in this text that don't appear in most fonts. However, many Windows computers have Arial Unicode MS installed, and that font contains all the IPA characters used here. So does DejaVu Sans, an open-source font based on Bitstream Vera. The css stylesheet for this website and the PDF made from this content use KhmerOS Battamberg and DejaVu Sans.
In addition to the text and tapes of Modern Spoken Cambodian, a student of Cambodian will want to utilize the four parts of Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader by Franklin E. Huffman with the assistance of Chhom-Rak Thong Lambert and Im Proum.
The first two parts of this text, “Cambodian System of Writing” and “Programmed Reading Exercises,” can be found online at pratyeka.org/csw/.
The 226 exercises of Part II are beginning to appear online at Cambodian Language Exercises. There are 50 reading selections in Part III, “Beginning Cambodian Reader,” that are being posted online at Beginning Cambodian Reader. Again, I am contributing the keyboarding for the effort. As with this endeavor, the work is ongoing and progressing slowly.
At present, Part IV, “Cambodian-English glossary” (with all Cambodian words used in Part III’s reading selections) is not available to be downloaded from anywhere online. However, Google Book Search has scanned and OCR'd all of Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader. Two editions have been scanned, one with no preview and the other with what is labeled "limited preview." Most everything seems to be there, however, and can be viewed and searched.
Originally published by Yale ($37 ISBN: 9780300013146), Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader, “the green book,” has also been reissued by Cornell SEAP ($23.95, ISBN: 9780877275206).
In the listing below, entries without a link indicate material that has not been put online.
Title page and copyright
Map of Cambodia
Preface
Introduction (rev 2.6.2008)
1A: Consonants (rev 7.11.2008)
1B: Vowels (rev 2.7.2008)
Long vowels and diphthongs (rev 2.6.2008)
Short vowels and diphthongs
Summary of short vowels and diphthongs
Short vs long vowels
1C: Initial consonant sequences
1D: Disyllables
1E: Polysyllables
2A: Dialogue (rev 2.14.2008)
2B: Grammar and drills (incomplete; rev 7.11.2008)
(no PDF)
2C: Comprehension
2D: Conversation
3A: Dialogue (rev 2.7.2008)
(no PDF)
3B: Grammar and drills
3C: Comprehension
3D: Conversation
4A: Dialogue (incomplete; rev 2.11.2008)
(no PDF)
4B: Grammar and drills
4C: Comprehension
4D: Conversation
* In the introduction to Muk Khmae (Khmer Faces): A beginning Khmer language textbook, (Bangkok: 2007; www.studykhmer.com/textbooks/beginning.html), p. ii. (Back to note in text.)
rev 7.11.2008a