Khmer

Khmer, or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. One of the more prominent Austroasiatic languages, the language has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through the vehicles of Hinduism and Buddhism. As a result of geographic proximity, the Khmer language has affected, and also been affected by, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and Cham which all form a sprachbund in peninsular Southeast Asia. Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Thai, Lao and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language. It has three main dialects that are mutually intelligible: * Battambang * Phnom Penh (considered the standard) * Northern Khmer, also known as Khmer Surin, spoken by ethnic Khmer native to Northeast Thailand * Cardamom Khmer, an archaic form spoken by a small population in the Cardamom Mountains of western Cambodia.