Notes on the Numerals and Numeral Coefficients in Old, Middle and Modern Khmer

Four states of the Khmer language are discussed below, those respectively of the inscriptions of the 7th to 12th centuries (Old Khmer); the 17th century inscriptions (Middle Khmer); the poetry of the Ream Ker1) and present-day spoken Khmer (Modern Khmer). Ideally they would have been treated in this order. The material for the earlier stages is, however, not abundant; the Khmer inscriptions consist chiefly of short accounts of donations to religious foundations, information about boundaries and lists of personnel. It seemed preferable therefore to give as a starting point the fuller statement which is possible on modern Khmer. The other sections then follow in the above order.