ABSTRACT
Cambodian – also known as Khmer – belongs to the Mon-Khmer sub-division of the Austro-Asiatic family, and is therefore related to Vietnamese. There are at least 10 million native speakers in Cambodia and Vietnam. The oldest inscriptions in Khmer date from the seventh century AD. From the end of the Angkor period (twelfth century) onwards, three main divisions of Cambodian literature may be distinguished: (1) Hindu influence is exemplified in the Ream Ker, the Cambodian version of the Rāmāyaņa – in part, this is very old; (2) Buddhist influence (Cambodia became converted to Buddhism in the twelfth century) – the translation of the Tripitaka has proved enormously influential, as, in addition to providing much of the Buddhist canon, it gave Cambodian literature a rich supply of motifs for the specifically Cambodian genre of the verse-novel; (3) the verse-novel – Cambodians seem to be particularly addicted to romantic stories of a sentimental type in which, latterly, French influence may be discerned.
