I am puzzling over why មនុស្ស (mo-nuh or m'nuh meaning human/person), ends in a soft aspirated h sound. despite having a double 'sa' as final consonants.

I am not sure why the first 'sa' consonant would not preserve the 'sa' sound, even if the second (subscript) 'sa' would be pronounced with an aspirated h according to the rule.

Ai says -

The final syllable, នុស្ស (nuṣya), consists of the base consonant ន (no), the vowel ុ (u), and a subscripted stack ស្ស (sa + sa). Here is how the final syllable works in terms of spelling, pronunciation, and its origin

The Base: ន (the consonant no).

The Vowel: ុ (the short vowel u). Combined with the consonant, it forms នុ (nu).

The Subscript Stack: ស្ស (a subscript sa written underneath a main sa).

The Orthographic Function: In Sanskrit loanwords ending in ṣya (ష్య / ष्य), Khmer replaces the original characters with a double sa (ស្ស) to preserve the historical spelling. The inherent vowel of the final consonant is muted, meaning the stack acts purely as a final consonant marker.

Phonetic Note: While written with an "s" at the end (មនុស្ស), modern Khmer phonology dictates that a final "s" softens into an aspirated "h" sound, which is why you hear it pronounced as mo-nuh or m'nuh

I recently came across a paper claiming there are poems composed in early Ayutthaya originally in Khmer, both in language and script. One of them referred to as "Kam Chan Dutsadi Sangwoy". The poem can be found HERE written in Thai script, but supposedly still in the Khmer language. I don't speak or read Thai, so I fed the text into Google Gemini to transliterate it back into Khmer script. The result was very interesting. I, as a native modern Khmer speaker, was able to make out many words and understand a decent amount of the meaning, despite the original having been transcribed into Thai script a long time ago and then now rewritten back into modern Khmer script by an AI. And it is clear that the language is middle Khmer, not old Khmer. Even the rhymes are preserved. I couldn't post the whole result the AI gave me here, due to Reddit filters. But as a sample, here are verses of line 21 to 23:

ព្រឹក្សថ្លើងស្តាប់សព្ទផងយំ កុកូរទ្រនំ ដ ពហូរអូកហូក

ខេត្តាថ្ងៃស្តាប់សព្ទក្ងោក ម្រឹគផងរត់ ដ ចោរក បីជ្រៀវជ្រងសព្វនា

ល្ងាចថ្ងៃហោងស្តាប់សព្ទទា ធំយំសព្វនា បីលំអូកថ្លើងហោង

From
พฤกษเถลิงสดับศับทผองยม กุกุรทรนม ด พหูรโอกโฮก

เขดาไถงสดับศับทกุโงก มฤคผองรัด ด โจรก บิเจรียวจรงสบนา

ลงาดไถงฮองสดับศับททธา ธมยมสบนา บิลำโอกเถลิงฮอง

For those interested in seeing the whole thing, simply copy the original text into Gemini and tell it to rewrite the text back into Khmer script.
But I bet someone that know both Thai and Khmer well could do an even better job with the transliteration. It would make for an interesting article in Khmer literature. Any taker?

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https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2SaZrTJFtph2NNXJybMzum?si=dhpq0WRUS8eze4sdJ32IxA&utm_source=copy-link&pi=v6kk8JtlTgeKt

Hi everyone,

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