Chinese characters and Cambodians

Factual Questions
1

I’ve noticed that some but not all Cambodian businesses, etc, both there and here in the immigrant community in the US, use Chinese characters on their signs. But the Khmer language isn’t tonal (or I should say no more than English), doesn’t have a direct connection to Chinese, use loan words (to my knowledge) etc. As best as I could see there aren’t lagre numbers of Chinese dispora in Cambodia as there are in Thailand and there aren’t historic cultural ties and inluence like Vietnam.

So why the Chinese? Is it for other Khmer speakers (and how/why?), or other Asians who could read them (not that you see many other Asian groups in Cambodia)? And can does the average Khmer speaker learn to read these in school (again, why?), or are special sign painters employed?

Thanks in advance or any enlightenment.

2

Here’s a fantastic article that explains a lot about what you are asking. It seems there is much more to Cambodia’s cultural mix than meets the average traveler’s eye:

3

Note that the Japanese adapted Chinese writing centuries ago and Japanese is not only not at all like Chinese, it appears to be a language isolate.

One time at a Chinese banquet, the host (Chinese) couldn’t translate the Chinese name of the dishes into English. So he wrote the name down, showed it to a Japanese guy with better English skills and that guy translated it. Not a perfect system, but good enough.

Such writing systems sometimes have nothing to do with language. The script of Sumeria was also used by peoples who spoke Indo-European and Semitic languages. (Sumerian is also a language isolate.)

4

Huh.

I’m not sure what to make of that article… I was in PP and other Cambodian cities last year (not necessarily all touristy parts) and certainly did not see or hear much of a Chinese community. I think the 200,000 figure sounds very high; that’d be 20% or more of PP. But fascinating stuff in any event; thanks!

5

I’ve spent some time in the region recently. Cambodia last year.

My take on it is this. Japan and China are currently in competition for regional supremacy. One place they are competing is in the developing economies. Both aim to form binding commercial links.

There is a lot of investment from both flowing into Cambodia. My guess is that you have witnessed the output end of some Chinese/Cambodian investment.

I can confirm that I saw no Chinese or Japanese signs in Cambodia for that matter. There are a lot of Japanese visitors however and the technological and manufactured goods are almost exlusively Japanese.

6

The Khmer language is written in a syllabic alphabet that derives from ancient South Indian alphabets. It’s organized similarly to Sanskrit writing and other Indian alphabets. It’s a fundamentally different writing system from Chinese logograms.

Many Japanese kanji do share the same form and meaning as the Chinese characters they were borrowed from, although in Japan the forms of some kanji have been altered and no longer match exactly. You can’t just have a Japanese person read a Chinese sentence right off, because the syntax is very different, although it is possible for a Japanese reader to make out some isolated Chinese words easily enough, as in ftg’s example.

The Chinese have been going to Cambodia for many centuries: Our best sources of historical information on the early Khmer are the Chinese envoys Kang Tai and Zhu Ying, who wrote reports of the ancient Funan culture of Cambodia in the 3rd century; and a Chinese ambassador, Zhou Daguan, who wrote his account of the Angkor civilization in the 13th century.

7

I’m afraid I have to largely discount the investment theory because Cambodian businesses in the US often do the same thing, even though Cambodian and Chinese communities here really have nothing to do with each other and are usually in different parts of town (Chinatowns being generally better established and near the center of cities, getting tourism… most Cambodians with the possible exception of Long Beach basically rehab-ing ghettos).

I think this is a cultural tie of some sort, but it seems a heck of a lot of effort to learn Chinese characters when the syllable alphabet is already fairly complex. Anyone know if the characters if read aloud are read in Chinese or Khmer?

There is Japanese tourism, but I certainly saw no katakana or hiragana, nor the little dots you get around kanji sometimes. And that doesn’t explain why the corner store in a crappy neighborhood has a few either.

Not trying to be difficuly, just looking for an answer. :smiley: Heck maybe I need to walk over to the Cambodian neighborhood and ask around. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d be the Strange White Guy Who Asks Too Many Questions…