2.7: Combination of Consonants and Combination of Consonants with Diacritic “់”

Combination of Consonants

Please note that when final consonants—ក (kɔɔ)​​, ង​ (ngoo), ត (dtɔɔ), ញ (nhoo), ម​ (moo), ប (bɔɔ), ល​ (loo), ន (noo)—occur at the end of a word, their sounds are slightly changed from when they occur at the beginning.

Examples:

• បង​=​​ bɔɔng (not bɔɔ-ngoo)
• សក= sɔɔk (not sɔɔ-kɔɔ)
• ចត= jɔɔt (not jɔɔ-dtɔɔ)
• សម= sɔɔm (not sɔɔ-moo)

Use the audio and Table 1 below to learn how to pronounce the words and the final consonants.

Table 1

No.	Combination of Consonants	English
1	ចត	to park
2	សក	to shed
3	លង	to haunt
4	ទង	stem
5	គង	type of Khmer musical instrument
6	កង	bracelet
7	កក	frozen
8	ឆក	bald
9	ដក	to subtract (from)
10	ពក	bump
11	ដង	carrying stick
12	ចង	to tie up
13	សង	to pay back
14	ពង	egg

Reading and Writing

Read the words in Table 2 and provide the missing consonants. Then check your answer against Table 1.

An example is given.

Table 2

Word	Missing consonants
to park	ច+ត
to tie up	_+_
to pay back	_+_
to haunt	_+_
to subtract from	_+_
to shed	_+_
bald	_+_
frozen	_+_
egg	_+_
carrying stick	_+_
bracelet	_+_
bump	_+_

Combination of Consonants with Diacritic Bɔntɔk “់”

The diacritic Bɔntɔk “់”​ is placed over the final consonant symbol to shorten the vowel sound of that syllable and change the meaning of the word completely.

Examples:

• កក​​​​ “frozen” to កក់ “to book”.
• ចង​ “to tie up” to ចង់ “to want”.

Use the audio and Table 3 below to learn how to pronounce the combination of consonants with diacritic Bɔntɔk “់”.

Table 3

No.	Combination of consonants with diacritic	English
1	សង់	to build
2	សក់	hair
3	ទង់	flag
4	លង់	to drown
5	កក់	to book
6	ឆក់	to be electrocuted
7	កង់	bicycle
8	ចង់	to want
9	ចត់	bitter

Reading

Match the Khmer words with the English words.

Query \(\PageIndex{1}\)