Fonts!

Installing a mac font on OS X was pretty straightforward. I used the installation package provided by Nokorsoft and ran it, then restarted my computer. You then go to System Preferences>International>Input Menu, scroll down to check Khmer NiDA V1 and Khmer NiDA V2, et voila!

At the top right-hand side of your menubar will be a little flag for your default keyboard. When you click on it, you'll now see the two Khmer scripts as options. I had to reset my mouse shortcuts (also in preferences) to the default so that I could press Command+spacebar to switch keyboards, but that makes it super easy in Excel and Word.

ៃដ ta-dah! That is the khmer word for hand. I think. The font in my dictionary and the font in the package (Battambang) are a little different.

If it looks like gibberish, you don't have your font properly installed. Or you're using Opera possibly.

If you're installing a font, make sure to download a layout map. Nokorsoft have a guide image, which I've uploaded here:

 

Right-click to save the full-sized image if you need it. 

For all of the fonts, to type a khmer word you will need to use the shift and option/alt key often. Because some khmer words have bits on top, to the side and underneath, you'll need to type the main letter first, then type another joining key, then the little letter to create a join.

For example, ម្ថខ which is face (mOOk):

• First you type m which gives you: ម
• Then you have to join on the little bit underneath, so you press j to start the join
• And type f which gives you: ម្ថ
• And then the last bit which is x: ខ

It gets a bit easier as you start to remember the keyboard. In Cambodia you can buy keyboards with all the various signs painted onto the keys. My suggestion is to print out a reference sheet. I'm putting together one slowly for this font, and will upload it when it's fully done. 

Some other font links:

• Commercial font for Khmer, which will almost certainly work on any Mac
• Setting up Khmer fonts on Windows 
• More Khmer fonts and software 

The sort-of plan

I had a pretty good vocabulary once, so I'm going to concentrate on picking that back up with seven words to learn each day. I'm keeping them in a spreadsheet which I'll upload regularly to share here, and practicing with an iphone flashcard app.

For February and March, I aim to get back into the habit of practicing vocabulary while I learn to write and read the khmer alphabet. Wikipedia has a pretty detailed article on khmer script, the upshot is: it's hard.

There are over 50 letters to learn, position counts with vowel marks, and there are several versions depending on context. Punctuation is a bit different too. When you handwrite script, you create new letters by joining letters together certain ways, so the printed script is different from handwritten.

A couple of times, I've sat with the children after class at the Riverkids' sites and copied their work. Nothing makes little kids laugh harder (except zombie chase) than an adult struggling to write the simplest alphabet!

Cambodians writing in english tend to have beautifully even script with little flourishes. My khmer is huge and blocky in comparison.

So, for the next two months, I will be practicing writing the alphabet until I am legible and I can look up simple words on my own in the Khmer-side of the dictionary. This means mixing handwritten practice with typing practice, which is important because of the Cambodian font situation.

Which sucks.

Much like Chinese, the QWERTY keyboard has to mucked about with to reflect a non-roman alphabet language. There are several Khmer fonts for the Windows crowd. I use a Mac, so tonight, I'm going to try and install a font and practice typing my first seven Khmer words.

I'll post some font links and a how-to in the next post.