Television in Khmer Language in Vietnam

Authors: Cao Thi Hao, Dao Thuy Nguyen (Thai Nguyen University of Education, Vietnam)
Speakers: Cao Thi Hao
Strand: Language Minorities and Majorities
Session Type: General Session

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of surveying and analyzing the reality of television in Khmer language in Vietnam through aspects such as organizational structure, broadcast volume, program content, categories, and the ways to make news, articles and how to use the Khmer language on television. From there, propose some solutions to improve the quality and efficiency of this type of communication. Television in the Khmer language has partly met the demand of information acquisition and enjoyment of ethnic culture in the native language of the Southern Khmer people. However, the reality of operations of this communication type is raising many issues that need discussing and require effective solutions to improve the quality and promote the role of ethnic communication in the sustainable development of ethnic minority areas.

The Khmer language belongs to the Mon group – Khmer, the South Asian language family – is the same family name as the Vietnamese language, so there are both differences and similarities between Khmer and Vietnamese. The Khmer language uses the South Indian script, while the Vietnamese language uses the Latin script. Khmer language has no intonation, only some high distinctions in some dialects, while Vietnamese has polyphonic tones. Khmer language is more complex, richer than Vietnamese with 33 consonants and 40 vowels. Khmer language has monosyllabic types, one-and-a-half or multi-syllable types, while Vietnamese is only monosyllabic.

Keywords: Television, Khmer language, Ethnic communication, Ethnic minority areas