[[File:AncientKhmerScript.jpg|thumb|Ancient Khmer script engraved on stone.]]
[[File:Lolei (5).JPG|thumb|An inscription in Khmer script, at the temple of [[Lolei]]]]
The Khmer script was adapted from the [[Pallava script]], used in southern India and South EastSoutheast Asia during the 5th and 6th centuries AD,<ref>Punnee Soonthornpoct: ''From Freedom to Hell: A History of Foreign Interventions in Cambodian Politics And Wars.'' Page 29. [[Vantage Press]].</ref> which ultimately descended from the [[Tamil-Brahmi]] script,<ref>Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography, R. Malatesha Joshi, Catherine McBride(2019), p.28</ref> The oldest dated [[Khmer inscription]] was found at [[Angkor Borei District]] in [[Takéo Province]] south of Phnom Penh and dates from 611.<ref>Russell R. Ross: ''Cambodia: A Country Study''. Page 112. Library of Congress, USA, Federal Research Division, 1990.</ref> Stelae of the Pre-Angkorean and Angkorean periods, featuring the Khmer script, have been found throughout the former [[Khmer Empire]], from the [[Mekong Delta]] to what is now southern [[Laos]], [[Northeast Thailand]], and [[Central Thailand]].<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Lowman |first1=Ian Nathaniel |title=The Descendants of Kambu: The Political Imagination of Angkorian Cambodia |date=2011 |publisher=UC Berkeley |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06j1b9tp}}</ref> Slight differences can be seen between ancient Khmer inscriptions written in Sanskrit and those written in Khmer. These two different systems have evolved into the modern {{transl|km|âksâr mul}} and {{transl|km|âksâr chriĕng}} styles of Khmer script. The former is used for sacred inscriptions while the latter is used for general use.<ref>{{citation |title=Angkor: A Living Museum |date=2002 |page=39}}</ref> The {{transl|km|âksâr chriĕng}} style is a cursive form of {{transl|km|âksâr mul}}, adapted to fit the Khmer language.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jensen |first1=Hans |title=Sign, symbol and script: an account of man's efforts to write |date=1970 |page=392}}</ref>
The modern Khmer script differs somewhat from precedent forms seen on the inscriptions of the ruins of [[Angkor]]. The [[Thai alphabet|Thai]] and [[Lao script|Lao]] scripts are descendants of an older cursive form of the Khmer script, through the [[Sukhothai script]].
