Origin from 611
An abugida used to write Khmer, the language of Cambodia, and adapted for several minority languages of the region. It descends from the Pallava variety of Brahmi, and the earliest dated Khmer inscription, from Angkor Borei, is conventionally placed at 611 CE, making it one of the oldest attested scripts in mainland Southeast Asia. Khmer script uniquely tracks two registers for each consonant, reflecting a historical vowel-quality split, so a vowel sign is read differently depending on which register its base consonant belongs to, a feature that later shaped the Thai and Lao scripts derived in part from the same Brahmic Southeast Asian tradition.
Facts
Directionality In Use Since (Year) Connections
Ancestor Of
Source Wikipedia: Lao Language
Descends From
Source Wikipedia: Khmer Language
Script Of
Source Wikipedia: Khmer Language
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Khmer Language
Wikipedia: Lao Language
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.