We’ve written about this before (Spelling Question), but today we discovered that in the first edition of Chuon Nath’s dictionary, he uses ឲ្យ as the head word rather than ឱ្យ as is currently placed as the head word in newer editions of his dictionary. It makes sense that Chuon Nath’s first edition would use ឲ្យ as the head word being that in all the examples throughout the dictionary, only ឲ្យ is used (outside of those times where it is stated that ឱ្យ can also be used).

Here’s a screen shot of ឲ្យ as the head word in the first edition of Chuon Nath’s dictionary of the Khmer language:

But what also is interesting is that even though the fifth edition and above say that ឱ្យ is to be preferred (though not excluding ឲ្យ) in the very sentence where it is said ឱ្យ is to be preferred, ឲ្យ is used!

Scan of the fifth edition of Chuon Nath’s Khmer Dictionary showing inconsistent spelling of ឱ្យ:

So the question remains, what is the correct spelling?

Tell us what you think and why in the comments.