Creator

David Smyth

Scholar of Thai and Cambodian who wrote the Routledge Colloquial Cambodian course.

David Smyth is a scholar of Thai and Cambodian who taught both languages at the University of London.[1][2] He wrote Colloquial Cambodian: A Complete Language Course, published by Routledge in 1995, and co-wrote the Tuttle Practical Cambodian Dictionary with Tran Kien the same year.[1][3][2][4] His other language books include Thai: A Complete Course for Beginners in the Teach Yourself series and Thai: An Essential Grammar, and he has translated Thai fiction.[5][6][7]

Career

Smyth has been a lecturer in Thai and Cambodian at the University of London[2][8] and Senior Lecturer in Thai at its School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).[6]

Cambodian language books

A whole red and yellow dictionary cover and spine display the title and two authors’ names.
Cover of Tuttle Practical Cambodian Dictionary (1995).

Colloquial Cambodian is a step-by-step course in written and spoken Cambodian for learners with no prior knowledge. It has exercises, short grammar notes, vocabulary, a pronunciation guide and a reference section, and it covers spoken Khmer, conversation and phrase-book use.[4] The 1995 Routledge edition, published in London, has 246 pages.[3] Routledge later published a second edition by Chhany Sak-Humphry, Colloquial Cambodian: The Complete Course for Beginners (2016), whose copyright page credits the first edition to Smyth.[9]

The Tuttle Practical Cambodian Dictionary, part of the Tuttle Language Library, has Cambodian-English and English-Cambodian sections for learners with little or no experience of the language. Its 232 pages hold about 5,500 entries, each in romanized form and in Cambodian script, with definitions, sample phrases and appendixes.[2][8]

Editions of Colloquial Cambodian:[10]

  • 1995, Routledge, paperback (ISBN 9780415100069)
  • Routledge, book with two compact discs, 241 pages with illustrations (ISBN 9780415453028)

Thai studies

His other books are Thai: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself Books, 1995), Thai: An Essential Grammar (Routledge, 2002; third edition 2025) and Kulap Saipradit ('Siburapha'): Journalist & Writer in Early 20th Century Siam (2019), a biography of the Thai writer.[5][6][11][7]

His translations from Thai include:

  • Siburapha, Behind the Painting[12]
  • Siburapha, The Battle of Life[13][7]
  • The Prostitute[7]
  • The Sergeant's Garland and Other Stories (1998, with Manas Chitakasem)[14]
  • The Dreams of an Idealist[7]

Works


See also

References 14
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wikipedia: David A. Smyth
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Tuttle Publishing, Tuttle Practical Cambodian Dictionary (1995)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Glottolog, Smyth, David. 1995. Colloquial Cambodian: a complete language course
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Open Library work record
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Open Library, Thai by David Smyth, edition records (Teach Yourself Books 1995; Routledge 2002)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Routledge, Thai: An Essential Grammar, third edition (2025)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Penguin Random House, Siburapha author page
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 target.com, Tuttle Practical Cambodian Dictionary - (Tuttle Language Library) by David Smyth & Tran Kien (Paperback)
  9. ↑ Routledge, Colloquial Cambodian: The Complete Course for Beginners, second edition by Chhany Sak-Humphry (2016), preview PDF
  10. ↑ AbeBooks, Colloquial Cambodian by David Smyth
  11. ↑ Open Library, Kulap Saipradit ('Siburapha'): Journalist & Writer in Early 20th Century Siam (White Lotus Press, 2019)
  12. ↑ Penguin Books, Behind the Painting by Siburapha
  13. ↑ Silkworm Books, The Battle of Life
  14. ↑ Open Library, The Sergeant's Garland and Other Stories (Oxford University Press, 1998)
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This page was last edited on 27 October 2026, at 03:08.