Tibetan to Khmer: a polite answer belongs to the person answering
The response particle tracks the speaker
The Khmer lesson from Northern Illinois University distinguishes បាទ for a man’s polite response from ចាស for a woman’s response. A Tibetan dialogue translated into Khmer should select such target material according to the person speaking that turn, rather than the person being addressed or the person discussed.
A Tibetan narrator may report a woman asking a man a question and then quote the man’s answer. The Khmer response choice belongs to the man answering. If the next turn is the woman’s reply, the relevant speaker changes. A translation that keeps the same particle across the exchange merely because the topic remains unchanged can misrepresent the voices.
Knowing the answer does not determine social address
Zeisler describes the Standard Spoken Tibetan perspective system as centred on the addressee in information-seeking questions. That source relationship identifies the expected knowledge perspective; it is not a complete specification of the Khmer social relationship between the participants.
The NIU lesson explains that Khmer pronoun choice depends on the speaker–addressee relationship. The polite first-person form ខ្ញុំ can identify the speaker in the lesson’s illustrated settings, while other choices have narrower social uses. A Tibetan speaker’s authority over information should not be translated as licence to use a familiar or harsh Khmer pronoun. Knowledge and interpersonal register remain separate.
A respected third person is not the current interlocutor
The Khmer lesson documents គាត់ as a polite third-person form. A Tibetan passage that respectfully discusses somebody may therefore need a different target reference from one that directly addresses that person. Respect alone does not tell the translator whether the grammatical relation is second person or third person.
This distinction is practical in a dialogue where one person asks about a teacher and another responds. The teacher can remain the topic without becoming the recipient of the question. Preserve who is speaking to whom before choosing a Khmer pronoun, especially when the Tibetan narrative moves between quoted turns and the narrator’s explanation.
A question particle does not supply the missing answer content
The Khmer lesson presents តើ as a question particle and separately treats questions requesting specific information. A Tibetan question asking for a person, place or other missing information should not become a simple confirmation question merely because the target has an explicit question marker.
The response particles likewise express polite response behaviour, not every piece of substantive information the source answer contains. If a Tibetan reply identifies a location, the Khmer version must retain that location in addition to any appropriate polite particle. Track the information requested and the speaker giving it together: a socially appropriate answer can still fail to translate the exchange if it removes the actual fact the question was asking for.
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