what do they speak in cambodia?
French Language Cambodian French Khmer language
entailment
 Khmer / kmɛər / or Cambodian ( natively ភាសាខ ្ មែរ [ pʰiːəsaː kʰmaːe ] , or more formally ខេមរភាសា [ kʰeɛmaʔraʔ pʰiːəsaː ] ) is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia . With approximately 16 million speakers , it is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language ( after Vietnamese ) . Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali , especially in the royal and religious registers , through Hinduism and Buddhism . The more colloquial registers have influenced , and have been influenced by , Thai , Lao , Vietnamese , and Cham , all of which , due to geographical proximity and long @-@ term cultural contact , form a sprachbund in peninsular Southeast Asia . It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon – Khmer family , predating Mon and by a significant margin Vietnamese , due to Old Khmer being the language of the historical empires of Chenla , Angkor and , presumably , their earlier predecessor state , Funan . 

contradiction
 Khmer is spoken by some 13 million people in Cambodia , where it is the official language . It is also a second language for most of the minority groups and indigenous hill tribes there . Additionally there are a million speakers of Khmer native to southern Vietnam ( 1999 census ) and 1 @.@ 4 million in northeast Thailand ( 2006 ) . 

contradiction
 Western Khmer , also called Cardamom Khmer or Chanthaburi Khmer , is spoken by a very small , isolated population in the Cardamom mountain range extending from western Cambodia into eastern Central Thailand . Although little studied , this variety is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer . 

neutral
 Khmer Krom or Southern Khmer is spoken by the indigenous Khmer population of the Mekong Delta , formerly controlled by the Khmer Empire but part of Vietnam since 1698 . Khmers are persecuted by the Vietnamese government for using their native language and , since the 1950s , have been forced to take Vietnamese names . Consequently , very little research has been published regarding this dialect . It has been generally influenced by Vietnamese for three centuries and accordingly displays a pronounced accent , tendency toward monosyllablic words and lexical differences from Standard Khmer . 

entailment
 Standard Khmer , or Central Khmer , the language as taught in Cambodian schools and used by the media , is based on the dialect spoken throughout the Central Plain , a region encompassed by the northwest and central provinces . 
