Editing Khmer language (section)

==Historical periods==
{{further|Old Khmer|Middle Khmer}}
[[File:AncientKhmerScript.jpg|thumb|A stone carved in Old Khmer]]
[[Linguistics|Linguistic]] study of the Khmer language divides its history into four periods, one of which, the Old Khmer period, is subdivided into pre-Angkorian and Angkorian.<ref name="Sak">Sak-Humphry, Channy. [http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf4/sak-humphry1993syntax.pdf ''The Syntax of Nouns and Noun Phrases in Dated Pre-Angkorian Inscriptions'']. ''[[Mon-Khmer Studies]]'' 22: 1–26.</ref> Pre-Angkorian Khmer is the Old Khmer language from 600 through 800&nbsp;CE. Angkorian Khmer is the language as it was spoken in the [[Khmer Empire]] from the 9th century until the 13th century.<ref name="Jacobs">{{Cite web|last=Jacobs|first=Judith|date=1993|title=The deliberate use of foreign vocabulary by the Khmer: changing fashions, methods, and sources|url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/jacob1993deliberate.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630054754/http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/jacob1993deliberate.pdf |archive-date= Jun 30, 2023|access-date=|website=}}</ref>

The following centuries saw changes in [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], [[phonology]] and [[lexicon]]. The language of this transition period, from about the 14th to 18th centuries, is referred to as Middle Khmer and saw borrowings from Thai in the literary register.<ref name="Jacobs" /> Modern Khmer is dated from the 19th century to today.<ref name="Sak" />

The following table shows the conventionally accepted historical stages of Khmer.<ref name="Sidwell2009" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Historical Stages of Khmer
! c=01| Historical stage
! c=02| Date
|-
| c=01| Pre- or [[Proto-Khmeric language|Proto-Khmer]]
| c=02| Before 600 CE
|-
| c=01| Pre-Angkorian Old Khmer
| c=02| 600–800
|-
| c=01| Angkorian Old Khmer
| c=02| 800 to mid-14th century
|-
| c=01| [[Middle Khmer]]
| c=02| Mid-14th century to 18th century
|-
| c=01| Modern Khmer
| c=02| 1800–present
|}

Just as modern Khmer was emerging from the transitional period represented by Middle Khmer, Cambodia fell under the [[French protectorate of Cambodia|influence]] of [[France|French]] [[French colonial empire|colonialism]].<ref name=CBHP>{{cite book
 | last = Harris | first = Ian | title = Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice | publisher = University of Hawaii Press | year = 2008 | location = Hawaii | isbn = 978-0-8248-3298-8}}</ref> Thailand, which had for centuries claimed suzerainty over Cambodia and controlled succession to the Cambodian throne, began losing its influence on the language.<ref name="Candler1">{{cite book|last1=Chandler|first1=David P.|title=A history of Cambodia|date=1992|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=978-0813309262|edition=2, illustrated|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcambodi00chan}}</ref> In 1887 Cambodia was fully integrated into [[French Indochina]], which brought in a [[French language|French]]-speaking aristocracy. This led to French becoming the language of higher education and the intellectual class. By 1907, the French had wrested over half of modern-day Cambodia, including the north and northwest where Thai had been the prestige language, back from Thai control and reintegrated it into the country.<ref name="Candler1" />

Many native scholars in the early 20th century, led by a monk named [[Chuon Nath]], resisted the French and Thai influences on their language. Forming the government sponsored Cultural Committee to define and standardize the modern language, they championed Khmerization, purging of foreign elements, reviving affixation, and the use of Old Khmer roots and historical Pali and Sanskrit to coin new words for modern ideas.<ref name=CBHP /><ref name="coinage">{{cite journal|last1=Sasagawa|first1=Hideo|title=The Establishment of the National Language in Twentieth-Century Cambodia: Debates on Orthography and Coinage|journal=Southeast Asian Studies|date=2015|volume=4|issue=1|url=http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/197740/1/sas_4_1_5_sasagawa.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/197740/1/sas_4_1_5_sasagawa.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|access-date=6 February 2016}}</ref> Opponents, led by [[Keng Vannsak]], who embraced "total Khmerization" by denouncing the reversion to classical languages and favoring the use of contemporary colloquial Khmer for neologisms, and [[Ieu Koeus]], who favored borrowing from Thai, were also influential.<ref name="coinage" />

Koeus later joined the Cultural Committee and supported Nath. Nath's views and prolific work won out and he is credited with cultivating modern Khmer-language identity and culture, overseeing the translation of the entire Pali Buddhist canon into Khmer. He also created the modern Khmer language dictionary that is still in use today, helping preserve Khmer during the French colonial period.<ref name=CBHP />