Khmer is an Austroasiatic language spoken natively by the Khmer people and is an official language and national language of Cambodia. It is also widely spoken by Khmer people in Eastern Thailand and Isan, Thailand, and in the Mekong and southeastern regions of Vietnam.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count2019 estimate, first-language (L1) speakers; the infobox also gives a second-language total of 1 million (2024) and a combined total of 21 million (2019-2024), not captured here. StatusWikipedia article on Khmer: a currently spoken living language with an active native-speaker population; checked 2026-09-27. RegionCambodia, Thailand (East and Isan), Vietnam (Mekong Delta and Southeast) 2 Browse and compare
Difficulty for an English Speaker Classification
Language Kind Official Status Connections
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Khmer Language
Written In
Source Wikipedia: Khmer Language
In the Other Atlases
Original Language Of
Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Central Khmer (Glottolog languoid cent1989)
GlottologEndangerment, AES statusQuote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
2. Wikipedia: Khmer Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Khmer ( kə-MAIR; ខ្មែរ, UNGEGN: Khmêr [kʰmae]) is an Austroasiatic language spoken natively by the Khmer people and is an official language and national language of Cambodia. The language is also widely spoken by Khmer people in Eastern Thailand and Isan, Thailand, as well as in the Southeastern and Mekong regions of Vietnam.
Infobox, ISO 639-3
khm
Infobox: date
2019
Lead section
The language is also widely spoken by Khmer people in Eastern Thailand and Isan, Thailand, as well as in the Southeastern and Mekong regions of Vietnam.
Lead section
Khmer ( kə-MAIR; ខ្មែរ, UNGEGN: Khmêr [kʰmae]) is an Austroasiatic language spoken natively by the Khmer people and is an official language and national language of Cambodia.
- Written In: Khmer Script
In Family: Austroasiatic, Infobox, Language family
Austroasiatic
View the Source 3. WALS Online: Datapoint Khmer / Order of Subject, Object and Verb
4. WALS Online: Datapoint Khmer / Tone
5. Effective Language Learning: Language Difficulty Ranking
Effective Language LearningForeign Service Institute categories listQuote, Foreign Service Institute categories list
Category IV: 44 weeks (1100 hours) Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English Albanian Amharic Armenian Azerbaijani Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Burmese Croatian Czech * Estonian * Finnish * Georgian Greek Hebrew Hindi * Hungarian Icelandic Khmer
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