Cambodia - Culture
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Language and Writing
The official language in Cambodia is called Khmer. Khmer is also a term used to describe the ethnic majority and cultural majority of Cambodia. The Khmer language is very similar to the Thai and Lao languages, due to cross-cultural interchange between Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia in the early centuries of the Common Era. Khmer writing has been adapted from the Brahmi script of India, which was brought to Cambodia along with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Indian art and performance traditions around the 5th century CE. Khmer includes its own set of vowels, which are written in and around consonants to form full words. Khmer also has nine separate symbols for the numbers 0 through 9. These are used interchangeably with Arabic numerals in modern Cambodia.
There are about 8 million speakers of Khmer world-wide. Along with Khmer, Cambodia has many different indigenous ethnic languages. Some Cambodians also speak French, which was taught during the colonial era in the first half of the 20th century. Today, Cambodians study Khmer, French, and English in school.
An excellent site about written Khmer:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/khmer.htm
