The Khmer people are an Austroasiatic ethnic group native to Cambodia. They comprise over 95% of Cambodia's population of 17 million.They speak the Khmer language, which is part of the larger Austroasiatic-language family alongside Mon and Vietnamese.

Khmer is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Khmer people, and the official and national language of Cambodia. Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through Hinduism and Buddhism. It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon–Khmer family, predating Mon and Vietnamese, due to Old Khmer being the language of the historical empires of Chenla, Angkor and, presumably, their earlier predecessor state, Funan.