Western Khmer dialect

{{Short description|Conservative Khmer dialect of Cambodia and Thailand}}

{{Infobox language

|name = Western Khmer

|nativename =

|altname = Cardamom Khmer
Chanthaburi Khmer

|pronunciation =

|states = Thailand, Cambodia

|region = Cardamom Mountains

|speakers = ?

|date =

|familycolor = Austroasiatic

|fam2 = Khmer

|script =

|iso3 =

|isoexception = dialect

|linglist = khm-car

|glotto = none

}}

{{Khmer language}}

Western Khmer, also known as Cardamom Khmer or Chanthaburi Khmer, is the dialect of the Khmer language spoken by the Khmer people native to the Cardamom Mountains on both sides of the border between western Cambodia (Pailin Province) and eastern Central Thailand (Chanthaburi Province). Developing in an historically isolated region, Western Khmer is the only dialect of modern Khmer to conserve the Middle Khmer phonation contrast of breathy voice versus modal voice that has been all but lost in the other dialects.Wayland & Jongman. [http://sealang.net/archives/mks/pdf/31:65-82.pdf Chanthaburi Vowels: Phonetic and Phonemic Analyses], Mon-Khmer Studies 31:65-82[http://www2.ku.edu/~kuppl/jongman/Wayland%20%26%20Jongman%2003.pdf Acoustic correlates of breathy and clear vowels: the case of Khmer]. Journal of Phonetics 31 (2003). pp 181-201