On other language sites you’ll sometimes find a section with “ signs of the day” , teaching a little bit of the language through random billboards, street signs, and the like.
Khmaesuolhien thinks this is a great method, and so, every so often, I’ll be posting some signs here with transcriptions and translations.
Today’s sign:
វិទ្យាល័យ លាត វើត មេមត់
vittyiəlay haat vəət meemuət
“Hard Word” High School, Memot (a major town in eastern Kompong Cham Province, but also defined in the dictionary as
1 medium, one who can contact the spirit world; witch)
បើកបង្រៀនភាសាបរទេស អង់គ្លេស ចិន ថៃ និង កុំព្យូទ័រ
baək bâŋriən phiəsaa bâârəteeh – âŋglee cən thay nıŋ kompyuuta
Open [to] teach foreign [bâârəteeh – derived from the same root as the word “paradise”] languages – English, Chinese, Thai and computers
As explained in the comments on the post this was taken from, “ Hard Word” is likely a literal translation from ពាក្យខ្លាំង (piək klaŋ) meaning “ strong vocabulary” .
Another interesting thing about this sign is how the vowel sign អិ fuses with the វ in វិទ្យាល័យ in “ Muol” script. This and other peculiarities will be discussed in a future post.
