Consonants

There are 35 Khmer consonant symbols, although modern Khmer only uses 33, two having become obsolete. Each consonant has an inherent vowel of /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. These inherent vowels are used to determine the pronunciation of the two registers of vowel phonemes represented by the diacritical vowels.

The consonants have subscript forms that are used to write consonant clusters. Also sometimes referred to as "sub-consonants", subscript consonant resemble the corresponding consonant symbol but in a miniscule form. In Khmer, they are known as cheung âksâr (ជើង​អក្សរ), meaning the foot of a letter. Most subscript consonants are written directly below other consonants, although subscript r is written before while a few others have ascending elements which appear after. Subscript consonants were previously used to write final consonants. This method of writing has ceased in modern written Khmer but is retained in the word aôy (ឲ្យ, /aːoj/).

Consonants	Subscript form	UN romanization	IPA
ក	្ក	kâ	kɑ
ខ	្ខ	khâ	kʰɑ
គ	្គ	kô	kɔ
ឃ	្ឃ	khô	kʰɔ
ង	្ង	ngô	ŋɔ
ច	្ច	châ	cɑ
ឆ	្ឆ	chhâ	cʰɑ
ជ	្ជ	chô	cɔ
ឈ	្ឈ	chhô	cʰɔ
ញ	្ញ	nhô	ɲɔ
ដ	្ដ	dâ	ɗɑ
ឋ	្ឋ	thâ	tʰɑ
ឌ	្ឌ	dô	ɗɔ
ឍ	្ឍ	thô	tʰɔ
ណ	្ណ	nâ	nɑ
ត	្ត	tâ	tɑ
ថ	្ថ	thâ	tʰɑ
ទ	្ទ	tô	tɔ
ធ	្ធ	thô	tʰɔ
ន	្ន	nô	nɔ
ប	្ប	bâ	ɓɑ
ផ	្ផ	phâ	pʰɑ
ព	្ព	pô	pɔ
ភ	្ភ	phô	pʰɔ
ម	្ម	mô	mɔ
យ	្យ	yô	jɔ
រ	្រ	rô	rɔ
ល	្ល	lô	lɔ
វ	្វ	vô	ʋɔ
ឝ	្ឝ	shâ	-
ឞ	្ឞ	ssô	-
ស	្ស	sâ	sɑ
ហ	្ហ	hâ	hɑ
ឡ	្ឡ *	lâ	lɑ
អ	្អ	qâ	ʔɑ

* The subscript for the consonant lâ is included in Unicode although its usage in modern Khmer is generally non-existent.

For some phonemes in loanwords, the Khmer writing system has 'created' supplementary consonants. Most of these consonants are created by stacking a subscript under the character for /hɑ/ to form digraphs. The consonant for /pɑ/, however, is created by using the diacritical sign called musĕkâtônd over the consonant for /bɑ/. These additional consonants are mainly used to represent sounds in French and Thai loanwords.

Digraph consonants	UN romanization	IPA
ហ្គ	gâ	ɡɑ
ហ្គ៊	gô	ɡɔ
ហ្ន	nâ	nɑ
ប៉	pâ	pɑ
ហ្ម	mâ	mɑ
ហ្ល	lâ	lɑ
ហ្វ	fâ, wâ	fɑ, wɑ
ហ្វ៊	fô, wô	fɔ, wɔ
ហ្ស	žâ, zâ	ʒɑ, zɑ
ហ្ស៊	žô, zô	ʒɔ, zɔ

Dependent vowels

The Khmer script uses dependent vowels, or diacritical vowels, to modify the inherent vowels of consonants. Dependent vowels are known in Khmer as srăk nissăy (ស្រៈនិស្ស័យ) or srăk phsâm(ស្រៈផ្សំ). Dependent vowels must always be combined with a consonant in orthography. For most of the vowel symbols, there are two sounds (registers). The sound of the vowel used depends on the series (the inherent vowel) of the dominant consonant in a syllable cluster.

Dependent vowels	Un romanization		IPA
	a-series	o-series	a-series	o-series
អា	a	éa	aː	iːə
អិ	ĕ	ĭ	e	ɨ
អី	ei	i	əj	iː
អឹ	œ̆		ə	ɨ
អឺ	œ		əːɨ	ɨː
អុ	ŏ	ŭ	o	u
អូ	o	u	oːu	uː
អួ	uŏ		uːə
អើ	aeu	eu	aːə	əː
អឿ	eua		ɨːə
អៀ	iĕ		iːə
អេ	é		eːi	eː
អែ	ê		aːe	ɛː
អៃ	ai	ey	aj	ɨj
អោ	aô	oŭ	aːo	oː
អៅ	au	ŏu	aw	ɨw

Diacritics	UN romanization		IPA
	a-series	o-series	a-series	o-series
អុំ	om	ŭm	om	um
អំ	âm	um	ɑm	um
អាំ	ăm	ŏâm	am	oəm
អាំង	ăng	eăng	aŋ	eəŋ
អះ	ăh	eăh	aʰ	eəʰ
អុះ	ŏh	uh	oʰ	uʰ
អេះ	éh		eiʰ	eʰ
អោះ	aŏh	uŏh	ɑʰ	ʊəʰ
អៈ			aʔ	eəʔ

For technical reasons, the dependent vowels are seen here paired with the letter អ (KHMER LETTER QA in Unicode) as not all browsers will display them by themselves correctly.

Independent vowels

Independent vowels are non-diacritical characters used to represent vowel phonemes occurring at the beginning of syllables. In Khmer they are called srăk penhtuŏ (ស្រៈពេញតួ) which means complete vowels.

Independent vowels	UN romanization	IPA
ឣ	â	ʔɑʔ
ឤ	a	ʔa
ឥ	ĕ	ʔe
ឦ	ei	ʔəj
ឧ	ŏ	ʔ
ឨ
ឩ	ŭ	ʔu
ឪ	ŏu	ʔɨw
ឫ	rœ̆	ʔrɨ
ឬ	rœ	ʔrɨː
ឭ	lœ̆	ʔlɨ
ឮ	lœ	ʔlɨː
ឯ	é	ʔeː
ឰ	ai	ʔaj
ឱ, ឲ	aô, aôy	ʔaːo
ឳ	âu	ʔaw

Diacritics

Diacritics	Name	Notes
ំ	nĭkkôhĕt (និគ្គហិត)	niggahita; nasalizes the inherent vowels and some of the dependent vowels, see anusvara, sometimes used to represent [aɲ] in Sanskrit loanwords
ះ	reăhmŭkh (រះមុខ)	"shining face"; adds final aspiration to dependent or inherent vowels, usually omitted, corresponds to the visarga diacritic, it maybe included as dependent vowel symbol
ៈ	yŭkôleăkpĭntŭ(យុគលពិន្ទុ)	yugalabindu ("pair of dots"); adds final glottalness to dependent or inherent vowels, usually omitted
៉	musĕkâtônd(មូសិកទន្ត)	mūsikadanta ("mouse teeth"); used to convert some o-series consonants to the a-series
៊	reisâpt (ត្រីសព្ទ)	trīsabda; used to convert some a-series consonants to the o-series
ុ	kbiĕh kraôm(ក្បៀសក្រោម)	also known as bŏkcheung (បុកជើង); used in place when the diacritics treisâpt and musĕkâtônd impede with superscript vowels
់	bântăk (បន្តក់)	used to shorten some vowels
៌	rôbat (របាទ) répheăk (រេផៈ)	rapāda, repha; behave similarly to the tôndâkhéat, corresponds to the Devanagari diacritic repha, however it lost its original function which was to represent avocalic r
៍	tôndâkhéat(ទណ្ឌឃាដ)	daṇḍaghāta; used to render some letters as unpronounced
៎	kakâbat (កាកបាទ)	kākapāda ("crow's foot"); more a punctuation mark than a diacritic; used in writing to indicate the rising intonation of an exclamation or interjection; often placed onparticles such as /na/, /nɑː/, /nɛː/, /vəːj/, and the feminine response /cah/
៏	âsda (អស្តា)	denotes stressed intonation in some single-consonant words[5]
័	sanhyoŭk sannha(សំយោគសញ្ញា)	represents a short inherent vowel in Sanskrit and Pali words; usually omitted
៑	vĭréam (វិរាម)	a mostly obsolete diacritic, corresponds to the virāma
្	cheung (ជើង)	a.w. coeng; a sign developed for Unicode​ to input subscript consonants, appearance of this sign varies among fonts

Punctuation marks

The Khmer script uses several unique punctuation marks as well as some borrowed from the Latin script such as the question mark. The period in the Khmer language "។" resembles an eighth rest in music writing. Guillemets are used for quotation.

Ligatures

Most consonants, including a few of the subscripts, form ligatures with all dependent vowels that contain the symbol used for the vowel a (ា). A lot of these ligatures are easily recognizable, however a few may not be. One of the more unrecognizable is the ligature for the bâ and a which was created to differentiate it from the consonant symbol hâ as well as the ligature for châ and a. It is not always necessary to connect consonants with the dependent vowel a.

Examples of ligatured symbols:

 

léa (/liːə/) An example of the vowel a (ា) forming a connection with the serif of a consonant.

 

chba (/cɓaː/) Subscript consonants with ascending strokes above the baseline also form ligatures with the dependent vowel a (ា).

 

msau (/msaw/) Another example of a subscript consonant forming a ligature. In this case, it is with the digraph dependent vowel au. The digraph dependent vowel au includes the cane-like stroke of the vowel a.

 

bau (/ɓaw/) The combination of the consonant bâ (ប) and any vowels or digraph vowels based on the vowel a (ា) is written with a stroke in the center of the ligature to give a distinction between the consonant hâ (ហ).

 

tra (/traː/) The subscript for rô (រ) is written precedent to the consonant it is pronounced after.

Numerals

Main article: Khmer numerals

The numerals of the Khmer script, similar to that used by other civilizations in Southeast Asia, are also derived from the southern Indian script. Arabic numerals are also used, but to a lesser extent.

Khmer numerals	០	១	២	៣	៤	៥	៦	៧	៨	៩
Arabic numerals	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9