Khmer

As part of the Root Zone, this LGR includes neither decimal digits nor the HYPHEN-MINUS.

Repertoire Listing: Each code point or range is tagged with the script or scripts with which the code point is used and one or more other character categories. For each repertoire element, one or more references document sufficient justification for inclusion in the repertoire; see the “References” below. For code points in the repertoire, comments identify the language using the code point.

Variants

This LGR defines two Khmer consonants as variants of each other in their subscript form only. This is captured by a variant relation between the two subscript sequences, which are listed explicitly in the repertoire. See Section 6, “Variants” in [Proposal-Khmer],

Variant Disposition: All variants are of type “blocked”, making labels that differ only by these variants mutually exclusive: whichever label containing either of these variants is chosen earlier would be delegated, while any other equivalent labels should be blocked. There is no preference among these labels.

This LGR does not define allocatable variants.

The specification of variants in the Root Zone LGR follows the guidelines in [RFC 8228].

Character Classes

Consonants: When more than one consonant occur together in the onset of a grapheme cluster, the additional consonants are written in subscript form, joined with the first consonant in the sequence. In Unicode, this is indicated by preceding each additional consonant with U+17D2 KHMER SIGN COENG. Some consonants have been given the tag “base-only”; these do not take subscript form. Consonants can have light or strong pronunciation indicated by two shifter signs; additionally there are six signs for phonological modifications as discussed below. See Section 5.2, “Consonants” in [Proposal-Khmer].

Independent vowels: These occur independently and cannot combine with any of the marks including dependent vowels and signs. The use of a subscript form, while defined in Unicode, is not supported here. See Section 5.2, “Independent Vowels” in [Proposal-Khmer].

Dependent vowels: The 16 dependent vowels included in the Khmer LGR have been further classified into three subcategories namely dependent vowel 1, dependent vowel 2 and dependent vowel 3, see below. Dependent vowels must follow a consonant, shifter or the Robat sign. They cannot occur independently. See Section 5.3, “Dependent Vowels” in [Proposal-Khmer].

Shifters: the character U+17C9 KHMER SIGN MUUSIKATOAN is used with a subset of first series consonants, code points from this subset have been given the tag “series-one”. The character U+17CA KHMER SIGN TRIISAP is used with subset of second series consonants and with U+1794 KHMER LETTER BA. Code points from this subset have been given the tag “series-two”. The two characters are collectively known as consonant shifters and have been given the tag “shifter”. See Section 5.5, “Shifters” in [Proposal-Khmer] and reference [210].

Robat: The character U+17CC KHMER SIGN ROBAT has been given the tag “robat”. It follows consonants but unlike other signs may be followed by a dependent vowel. See Sections 5.3, “Dependent Vowels” and 5.4, “Signs” in [Proposal-Khmer].

Sign (Bantoc): The character U+17CB KHMER SIGN BANTOC is used with a subset of consonants, that subset has been given the tag “series-three”, see Section 5.4, “Signs” in [Proposal-Khmer] and reference [205].

Signs (Yuukalepintu and Samyoksannya): The character U+17C8 KHMER SIGN YUUKALEAPINTU is written after a consonant to indicate that it is to be followed by a short vowel and a glottal stop. The sign is used with all the consonants. The character U+17D0 KHMER SIGN SAMYOKSANNYA is written above a consonant or a shifter to indicate that the syllable contains a particular short vowel. The sign is used with all the consonants or all the shifters. See Section 5.4, “Signs” in [Proposal-Khmer].

Signs (Nikahit and Reahmuk): The character U+17C6 KHMER SIGN NIKAHIT is used with consonants and some dependent vowels. These dependent vowels have been given a tag “dependent-vowel-1” (see Sections 5.3 and 5.4 in [Proposal-Khmer]). The character U+17C7 KHMER SIGN REAHMUK is used with consonants and some dependent vowels. These dependent vowels have been given a tag “dependent-vowel-2” (see Sections 5.3 and 5.4 in [Proposal-Khmer]).

Sign (Toandakhiat): U+17CD KHMER SIGN TOANDAKHIAT is written over a final consonant to indicate that it is unpronounced. It is used with all consonants or U+17B7 KHMER VOWEL SIGN I. The latter has been given a tag “dependent-vowel-3”. See Section 5.4, “Signs” in [Proposal-Khmer].

Sign (Ahsda): U+17CF KHMER SIGN AHSDA is used to highlight certain consonants as being a discrete word. It can follow a subset of consonants, that subset has been given the tag “series-four”.

Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) and Context Rules

Default Whole Label Evaluation Rules and Actions

The LGR includes the set of required default WLE rules and actions applicable to the Root Zone and defined in [MSR-6]. They are marked with ⍟. The default prohibition on leading combining marks is equivalent to ensuring that a label only starts with a consonant or independent-vowel. The actions compute a label disposition based on WLE rules or variant mapping types.

Khmer-specific Rules and Action

Rules provided in the LGR as described in Section 7 of [Proposal-Khmer] constrain possible labels so that they reasonably conform to Khmer syllable structure. These constraints are presented as context rules on the affected code points, except for the whole-label rule and associated action that enforce the limit on the number of consecutive subscripted consonants.

Two further rules have been added. One is to ensure that subscript RO is always at the end of a syllable because many fonts render an out-of-order subscript RO without any visual distinction. The other limits U+17CF KHMER SIGN AHSDA to follow ក ដ ន and ហ only.

For any rule that is not a pure context rule, a suitable action has been added that invalidates any label matching the rule.

Compared to Section 7 of [Proposal-Khmer], the context rules for the two shifters have been relaxed when following a subscripted consonant. This slightly increases the set of possible valid labels.

The rules are:

• Subscript-consonant — A rule that specifies allowable consonant sequence. See Section 7.2 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Subscript-consonant-limit — A rule that limits the occurrence of subscript-consonant to two. In case of three, the associate action gives the label the disposition invalid. See Section 7.3 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Coeng-after-subscript-ro — A rule that ensures that subscript RO is not followed by further subscript consonants
• Coeng-context — A context rule for 17D2 that requires a consonant before it and a consonant other than base-only after it. See Section 7.4 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-consonant-robat-shifter — A context rule for those code points that must follow a consonant, robat or shifter. See Section 7.5 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-series-two-or-subscript-consonant — A context rule for those code points that must follow series-two consonants or any consonant if subscripted. See Section 7.6 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-series-one-or-subscript-consonant — A context rule for those code points that must follow series-one consonants or any consonant if subscripted. See Section 7.7 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-consonant — A context rule for those code points that must always follow a consonant. See Section 7.8 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-consonant-shifter A context rule for those code points that must always follow a consonant or shifter. See Section 7.9 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-consonant-depvowel-1-shifter — A context rule for those code points that must follow consonant, shifter or dependent-vowel-1. See Section 7.10 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-consonant-depvowel-2-shifter — A context rule for those code points that must follow consonant, shifter or dependent-vowel-2. See Section 7.11 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-series-three — A context rule for those code points that must follow series-three consonants. See Section 7.12 in [Proposal-Khmer]
• Follows-series-four — A context rule for those code point that must follow series-four consonants
• Follows-consonant-or-vowel-i — A context rule for those code points that must follow a consonant or 17B7 KHMER VOWEL SIGN I. See Section 7.13 in [Proposal-Khmer]

Methodology and Contributors

The Root Zone LGR for the Khmer Script was developed by the Khmer Generation Panel. For details on methodology and contributors, see Sections 4 and 8 in [Proposal-Khmer], as well as [RZ-LGR-6-Overview].

Changes from RZ LGR-5

A WLE rule and action were added in RZ LGR-6 to ensure subscript RO only occurs at end of a syllable because many fonts will not render an incorrectly placed one, which is a security risk. This may affect the validity of labels if they contain a misplaced subscript RO. A similar rule is not needed for subscript MO, due to distinct rendering.

The context rules for the shifters are adjusted to allow them to occur after any subscript consonant, not only one of their corresponding series. This slightly increases the set of valid labels.

Following public comment, the character U+17CF KHMER SIGN AHSDA was added to the repertoire with a context rule. This character occurs in few words, but they are very common. This increases the set of valid labels.

For the prior version see [RZ-LGR-5-Khmr].

References

The following general references are cited in this document:

[MSR-6]

Integration Panel, “Maximal Starting Repertoire — MSR-6 Overview and Rationale”, 23 September 2025, https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/msr-6-overview-23sep25-en.pdf

[Proposal-Khmer]

Khmer Generation Panel, “Proposal for Khmer Script Root Zone LGR”, 15 August 2016, https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/proposal-khmer-lgr-15aug16-en.pdf

[RFC 7940]

Davies, K. and A. Freytag, “Representing Label Generation Rulesets Using XML”, RFC 7940, August 2016, https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7940

[RFC 8228]

A. Freytag, “Guidance on Designing Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) Supporting Variant Labels”, RFC 8228, August 2017, https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8228

[RZ-LGR-5-Khmr]

ICANN, Root Zone Label Generation Rules for the Khmer Script (und-Khmr), Version 5, 26 May 2022 (XML) https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-5-khmer-script-26may22-en.xml
non-normative HTML presentation: https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-5-khmer-script-26may22-en.html

[RZ-LGR-6-Overview]

Integration Panel, “Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ LGR-6): Overview and Summary”, 23 September 2025, https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-overview-23sep25-en.pdf

[RZ-LGR-6]

Integration Panel, “Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR-6)”, 23 September 2025 (XML), https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-common-23sep25-en.xml
non-normative HTML presentation: https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-common-23sep25-en.html

[Unicode 16.0.0]

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0.0, (South San Francisco: The Unicode Consortium, 2024. ISBN 978-1-936213-34-4) https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/

For references consulted, particularly in designing the repertoire for the Khmer script for the Root Zone, please see details in the Table of References below. Reference [3] refers to the Unicode Standard version in which the corresponding code points were initially encoded. References [100], [203], [204], [205], [206], [207], [208], [209] & [210] correspond to sources justifying the inclusion of or classification for the corresponding code points. Entries in the table may have multiple source reference values.