Editing Khmer Rouge (section)

==== Language reforms ====
The [[Khmer language]] has a complex system of usages to define speakers' rank and social status. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, these usages were abolished. People were encouraged to call each other "friend" (មិត្ត; ''mitt'') and to avoid traditional signs of deference such as bowing or folding the hands in salutation, known as [[sampeah]]. Language was also transformed in other ways. The Khmer Rouge invented new terms. In keeping with the regime's theories on Khmer identity, the majority of new words were coined with reference to [[Pali]] or [[Sanskrit]] terms,<ref name="smyth">Judith; Smyth David A., ed. (2013). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTv_AQAAQBAJ ''Cambodian Linguistics, Literature and History: Collected Articles'']. Routledge. p. 164.</ref> while Chinese and Vietnamese-language borrowings were discouraged. People were told to "forge" (លត់ដំ; ''lot dam'') a new revolutionary character, that they were the "instruments" (ឧបករណ៍; ''opokar'') of the ruling body known as Angkar (អង្គការ, The Organisation) and that nostalgia for pre-revolutionary times (ឈឺសតិអារម្មណ៍; ''chheu satek arom'', or "memory sickness") could result in execution.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}