Adventures in transliteration

In a previous post I talked about the difficulties transliterating Khmer words into English. The Khmer alphabet has more letters than any other language. There are 60 distinct vowel sounds. There are sounds in Khmer that simply can't be spelled in English. As a result you will see multiple English spellings of even the simplest Khmer words.

When it comes to more difficult words the possibilities are nearly endless, as the entrance to this hotel shows.

The main tourist beach in Sihanoukville is pronounced -- for foreigners, at least -- OH-cha-teal. The sign in front says Hotel Nokor Samreit Oucheurteal. The sign in back says Nokorsamreth Ochorteal.

Two signs for the same building with different spellings for both the beach and the hotel!