Talk:Phnom Penh

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[edit] Pronounce

How do you pronounce it ? 24.65.22.111 00:25, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Interesting question - ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News anchors and journalists have always pronounced in "P-nom Pen", with the "o" as in orange. redcountess 19:44, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)

The normal pronunciation on the U.S. East Coast is a bit different. The first sound is difficult to describe, but I'll give a rough estimate.

The lips are pursed as to pronounce a P, but it's never carried out: the lips build up noticeable tension behind them, but the air isn't expelled. Instead, the mouth is kept closed; make an N sound without moving the tongue, then finish the syllable (the O is pronounced as a broad A, typical of broadcasters). "Penh" is like "pen" with a short, tight finish.

The closest approximation I can give to "Pnomh" is "mnam", but the first sound isn't quite right. I have no idea how Phnom Penh should actually be pronounced, but the "mnaam-PEN" is universal to the East Coast.

Pronounciation varies, but its pronounced like Ph'nom Ping by most Khmers (the 'o' sounds like the 'o' in gnome, but shorter). In IPA, I would guess it's as /pʰnom piɳ/. The romanization of Phnom Penh isn't based on its Khmer pronounciation, but its written form. --Dara 03:24, July 10, 2005 (UTC)

I prefer to think of it as something more along the lines of Puh-Nom Peng (which will probably make most linguists turn in their graves). The P is definitely pronounced (except by those tourists who insist upon sticking to what they heard back home).

Myself and my parents are Cambodian, to pronounce it, "pnn-nom" - or you could practice by saying "pin-nom" really fast, then try dropping the 'i' - and the Penh part, yeah it's just like "peng" 60.226.73.18 02:21, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures

Just removed a bunch of pictures added by Ahazan. There's already a Royal palace picture, already a Wat Phnom picture. The pic of the river is uninteresting, and there's no real good place in the article for the train station or central market pix. In any case, someone could add them to the commons if they really wanted them around, but it was an overload on the article to put them there. --Easter Monkey 05:15, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Chinese Name

Would it be useful to list the Chinese name for the city? 金边 has been used in the Chinese community as the name for that city for centuries. Even now, when flying to the city on a Chinese airline, the electronic sign boards at the check in counter flash back and forth between Phnom Penh and 金边. The translation means "Golden Edge." --202.79.62.12, 08:42, 17 February 2006

I don't think it makes sense to add the Chinese name. There is a Chinese name for every place in the world, so what? Some are boring recent phonetic transcriptions, and some others have a bit of history behind them.
To add Jīnbiān 金邊 to the English article on Phnom Penh makes as much or as little sense as adding Wànxiàng 萬象 ("ten thousand elephants") to Vientiane or Jiùjīnshān 舊金山 ("old gold mountain") to San Francisco - and those names have been used by Chinese communities for centuries as well, and Chinese airlines use those names, too - so what? —Babelfisch 03:30, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History section

I reverted the history section that covers this period. I think its a significant period in the cities history and should rate more than a line.

I agree with your restoration of this section. However, you write: "During the Vietnam War, Cambodia, including Phnom Penh, was used as a base by the North Vietnamese Army and the NLF". This suggests that the NVA and the VC actually stationed troops in Phnom Penh, which I'm fairly certain was not the case. You should either provide a source for this or rephrase it. Adam 12:46, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

"...one half to two-thirds died....": I've read most of the sources and cannot recall anyone making a claim that 2/3 of the population died during the Pol Pot years. It is certainly not an accepted figure generally. The one-half number also does not reflect a low end estimate, which is probably Michael Vickery's estimate of 700,000.

[edit] New York and Phnom Penh

These are the section/subsection headings from the New York City article:

1 History
2 Geography
2.1 Climate
2.2 Environment
3 Cityscape
3.1 Architecture
3.2 Boroughs
4 Culture
4.1 Tourism
4.2 Media
4.3 Sports
5 Economy
6 Demographics
7 Government
7.1 Crime
8 Education
9 Transportation
10 Sister cities
11 Notes
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External link

'Twould be nice to use this as a model for the PP article (doesn't need to be follwoed slavishly - just to fill in gaps). PiCo 14:29, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

That was an extremely useful thing to add - thank you! Paxse 09:10, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Depopulation

I'd like some rough graph of population from the Colonial times to the present,, to gauge the impact of the refugees, the depopulation and the vegetative growth. How many people were there during the Khmer Rouge depopulation? Were there embassies? How were the deserted buildings allotted after the KR retreat? Were they squatted or did the previous owners get their homes back? --84.20.17.84 14:56, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

As a corollary to that the Bodies in Formation web exhibition on communist/nationalist gymnastic displays [1] gives a picture of Phnom Penh stadium being used for some kind of mass games in 1977 - at the height of the Khmer Rouge system. Surely the city was fully evacuated and the stadium used for executions rather than spartakiads? Any clues? Lstanley1979 (talk) 18:11, 21 February 2008 (UTC)