The Drunkards Way to Khmer
Door: Frank
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Rosalie
31 Augustus 2006 | Cambodja, Phnom-Penh
Nog een klein stukje uit "The Year of Living Stupidly", over de taal. Ik heb net ook het hoofdstukje "Clueless in Cambodia" geplaatst, over de Phnom Penh Post.
The people around me (…) were speaking a flat-toned jumble of stretched vowels, snapping consonants, glottal stops, guttural honks… The Khmer are the Dutch of Asia. (…) Helping me out were Sarit, the head waiter, and a shifting crew of young waiters and waitresses. They were a cheerful and patient lot, as they had to be, because getting my barbarian tongue around the subtle sounds of Khmer was a nettlesome task: like threading a needle with a hawser. They were saying the words right –ch’nganh, sro-veung, dtuek kohk (“delicious”, “drunk”, “ice”)– but I just wasn’t hearing them.
“Kh’nyom sro-von,” I’d say to Sarit proudly. I’m drunk.
“Not ‘sro-von’,” Sarit would correct me. “Sro-veung."
“Sro-vong.”
“Sro-veung.”
“Sro-vonk?”
“Sro-veung.”
“Sro-vang!”
“Sro-veung!”
“Sro-veung!”
“Yes! Sro-veung.”
“Srovong.”
“No!”
From: James Eckardt, “The Year of Living Stupidly – Boom, Bust and Cambodia”, Asia Books, 2001, pp. 116-8
The people around me (…) were speaking a flat-toned jumble of stretched vowels, snapping consonants, glottal stops, guttural honks… The Khmer are the Dutch of Asia. (…) Helping me out were Sarit, the head waiter, and a shifting crew of young waiters and waitresses. They were a cheerful and patient lot, as they had to be, because getting my barbarian tongue around the subtle sounds of Khmer was a nettlesome task: like threading a needle with a hawser. They were saying the words right –ch’nganh, sro-veung, dtuek kohk (“delicious”, “drunk”, “ice”)– but I just wasn’t hearing them.
“Kh’nyom sro-von,” I’d say to Sarit proudly. I’m drunk.
“Not ‘sro-von’,” Sarit would correct me. “Sro-veung."
“Sro-vong.”
“Sro-veung.”
“Sro-vonk?”
“Sro-veung.”
“Sro-vang!”
“Sro-veung!”
“Sro-veung!”
“Yes! Sro-veung.”
“Srovong.”
“No!”
From: James Eckardt, “The Year of Living Stupidly – Boom, Bust and Cambodia”, Asia Books, 2001, pp. 116-8
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
