Cultural object
Dictionary of the Kameh language
The Dictionary of the Kameh language is a handwritten Khmer-English word list compiled in 1830 and now held by the British Library.[1] Its full title is "Dictionary of the Kameh language with the English translation to every word."[2]
The object
The manuscript is a book of white European paper in a European-style binding, not a palm-leaf manuscript or a folding book.[2][3] It measures 38.5 by 24 centimeters (15.2 by 9.4 inches) and has 14 lines on each page.[3] Thirty folios hold handwritten Khmer words with their English translations.[1] The Khmer is written below each ruled line and the English above it.[2] Despite its title, the work is a glossary, a list of words, not a full dictionary.[2]
The book was never finished. An inventory counts 39 folios, with pages 32 to 39 left empty, and the library notes that the last nine folios are blank.[3][2] An introductory note planned about 4,000 more words and fuller English explanations if the work were printed. It appears never to have been completed or printed.[2]
Date and origin
The glossary was the joint work of Chaou Bun, a learned Khmer speaker living in Siam, and Karl Gützlaff, a German missionary.[2] Chaou Bun wrote the Khmer text, and Gützlaff wrote the English translations.[2] Gützlaff lived in Bangkok from 1828 to 1831.[4]
The British Library dates the work to 1830.[1] An inventory of the library's Khmer manuscripts gives the early to middle 19th century and marks the date as uncertain.[3]
Provenance
The British Library holds the manuscript under the shelfmark Or 13577.[1]