For many languages, a translator can avoid misspelling easily through the help of tools such as Google or Microsoft spell checkers. Only a little effort is needed to spot the red-underlined word and with a few clicks, all spellings are corrected. However, for some languages such as Khmer, there is no such luxury for the translators and spelling is still a huge and time consuming issue. Here are a few reasons why Khmer spelling is such as challenge, even for a highly experienced translator.
A Short History of Modern Khmer Spellings
During the early days of Khmer modern writing, there was only one acceptable way to spell words, the dictionary of which was created by the scholar and monk, Samdach Chuon Nath. However, this changed when typewriters were introduced into the country. A lot of words are written with different forms of the same alphabet: normal form, superscript or subscript. It is not uncommon that a word has three levels of height such as ដង្កូវ or វល្លិ. With 74 characters, it is not possible to have that many keys on a typewriter. A scholar by the name, Keng Vannsak, re-invented Khmer spellings so that it could be written with a typewriter. His spellings have since been adopted and can be found in both formal and informal documents even today.
Why Khmer spelling is hard to tackle
With the invention of computer, Khmer writing is no longer restricted by the number of keys available on the keyboard. Therefore, it is less problematic to spell words based on Samdach Chuon Nath. Currently, spelling based on Samdach Chuon Nath’s dictionary is considered correct, while Keng Vannsak’s school of spelling is no longer considered correct. However, this decision comes a little too late as the latter has already been so widespread and many still consider Keng Vannsak’s way of spelling is the correct one. It is not always easy to clearly differentiate which spellings belong to which school, so translators have to check relentlessly to see how to spell a word correctly based on the official Samdach Chuon Nath’s way of spelling.
No automatic spell checkers in Khmer
Unlike their fellow translators in other languages, who could detect and fix spelling easily, Khmer translators use sheer power of their eyeballs and dictionary screen/page flipping effort to check and correct spellings. There were efforts to create a Khmer spelling checker plug-in for MS Word but the resulting software is still unusable. It is far from being helpful, and to this date, no reliable spell checker is available for Khmer. So, just imagines you have to check “manually” to make sure that all spellings in your 20k-word project have to be free from spelling errors. It is no small effort and, often, an error is slipping through somewhere.
New informal words are flooding the language scenes
The technology development over the past decades presents a remarkable challenge for Khmer language. As more tech surfaces, there are not enough new words for them. Even though there is an effort from the Royal Academy of Cambodia to coin new terms for the tech sector, the supply is far from meeting the demand. This leaves translators and language users alike to take the matter into their own hands. They start to invent words that can be understood among their content users or circles. As these informal usage grows, younger generation starts to accept that these new words are real words. Khmer translators are especially having a hard time trying to decide which words are the right ones among the available options. Some of the examples are cloud, virtual reality, domain and, of course, many more.
Therefore, Khmer translators still face raw spelling issues as the language is being standardized, and catches up with the invention of new technologies. To ensure your Khmer texts are officially and correctly spelled and free from errors, only use professionals to translate, rather than your Khmer staffs, for the best result.