Khmu is the language of the ethnic Khmu people, who traditionally live in the lowlands of Southeast Asia. As such, the Khmu language is spoken throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and China. Today the majority of the Khmu people live in either Northern Vietnam or Northern Laos. In Laos, the Khmu are the largest ethnic minority and make up around 15 percent of the country’s total population. In fact, in many northern provinces in Laos, people speak Khmu more often than they speak Lao.
Linguists classify Khmu as an Austroasiatic language, putting it in the same family as Khmer, Vietnamese, and the Pnong language of Cambodia and Vietnam. With no single unifying standard, the various dialects of Khmu can vary but are mostly mutually intelligible. One of the main factors affecting the different varieties of Khmu is the influence from larger surrounding languages such as Thai or Lao. Similarly, Khmu is written with different scripts and orthographic conventions depending on where it is spoken. Of course, since most Khmu speakers live in Laos, the majority of Khmu is written in the Laotian alphabet.
Communicating with the Khmu Language
As with other Austroasiatic languages, expression in Khmu is highly dependent on context. Taking that into consideration with Khmu dialectal variations, finding translation services for such a complex language can be challenging. We at TranslationServices.com are proud to announce that we are now ready for this task. Our team of translators works and specializes in languages with smaller populations. As such, we have the right background and the needed experience to support you. You can message us now to know more or if you’d like to get a quote for your Khmu translation.