Khmer numerals in the Customs of Cambodia

Zhou Daguan's (周達觀) the Customs of Cambodia (真臘風土記) is one of the most important texts on the Khmer Empire. Written in between 1296 and 1297 by the Chinese trade attaché during his stay in Angkor during the reign of Indravarman III, the Customs of Cambodia provides us a highly accurate and valuable portray of the splendour of the Khmer Empire.

Other than the daily life and the customs, Zhou Daguan also dedicated a small section on Khmer language, providing Chinese transliteration of certain Khmer words, including the numerals.

Listed below here are the Khmer numbers as recorded by Zhou Daguan (in the Siku Quanshu edition of the Customs of Cambodia) . From the left, modern Khmer numeral (using Khmer Unicode 1.2.2) , followed by transliteration of modern Khmer pronunciation, and then Zhou Daguan's Chinese transliteration with Modern Standard Mandarin's pinyin.

1. ១ muoy, 梅 méi
2. ២ pi, 別 bié
3. ៣ bei, 卑 bēi
4. ៤ buon, 般 bān
5. ៥ pram, 孛監 bèijiān
6. ៦ bram muoy, 孛監梅 bèijiān méi
7. ៧ bram pi, 孛監別 bèijiān bié
8. ៨ bram bei, 孛監卑 bèijiān bēi
9. ៩ bram buon, 孛監般 bèijiān bān
10. ១០ dop, 荅呼 dáhū

Chinese script is a syllabic writing system (more precisely, morphosyllabic), and has difficulty presenting foreign sounds, including certain sounds from an Austro-Asiatic language like Khmer. One should also take note that both Chinese and Khmer spoken in the 13th century would have been different from today's.