Tattoo Lettering Fonts And Styles

For some phonemes in loanwords, the Khmer writing system has 'created' supplementary consonants. Most of these consonants are created by stacking a subscript under the character for /hɑ/ to form digraphs. The consonant for /pɑ/, however, is created by using the diacritical sign called musĕkâtônd over the consonant for /bɑ/. These additional consonants are mainly used to represent sounds in French and Thai loanwords.

* The subscript for the consonant lâ is included in Unicode although its usage in modern Khmer is generally non-existent. The consonants have subscript forms that are used to write consonant clusters. Also sometimes referred to as "sub-consonants", subscript consonant resemble the corresponding consonant symbol but in a miniscule form. In Khmer, they are known as cheung âksâr (ជើង​អក្សរ), meaning the foot of a letter. Most subscript consonants are written directly below other consonants, although subscript r is written before while a few others have ascending elements which appear after. Subscript consonants were previously used to write final consonants. This method of writing has ceased in modern written Khmer but is retained in the word aôy (ឲ្យ, /aːoj/).

There are 35 Khmer consonant symbols, although modern Khmer only uses 33, two having become obsolete. Each consonant has an inherent vowel of /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. These inherent vowels are used to determine the pronunciation of the two registers of vowel phonemes represented by the diacritical vowels.

It was adapted from the Pallava script, a variant of Grantha descended from the Brahmi script of India. The oldest dated inscription in Khmer was found at Angkor Borei in Takev Province south of Phnom Penh and dates from 611 AD. The modern Khmer script differs somewhat from precedent forms seen on the inscriptions of the ruins of Angkor.

The Khmer script (អក្សរខ្មែរ; âksâr khmêr) is an alphasyllabary script used to write the Khmer language (the official language of Cambodia). It is also used to write Pali among the Buddhist liturgy of Cambodia and Thailand.

The Khmer script uses dependent vowels, or diacritical vowels, to modify the inherent vowels of consonants. Dependent vowels are known in Khmer as srăk nissăy (ស្រៈនិស្ស័យ) or srăk phsâm (ស្រៈផ្សំ). Dependent vowels must always be combined with a consonant in orthography. For most of the vowel symbols, there are two sounds (registers). The sound of the vowel used depends on the series (the inherent vowel) of the dominant consonant in a syllable cluster.