My (very) limited understanding is the dialect spoken in Thailand is not identical to that spoken in Cambodia and I was wondering if there are any books in English or Thai that teach the dialect of Buri Ram or Surin? Or is it basically identical to the version spoken in Cambodia?

Some consider Northern Khmer a separate language to standard Khmer, but it is not clear to me that it has either an army or a navy. There is at least one dictionary for it according to the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Khmer .

I am looking at David (and Dorothy) Thomas

http://www.mksjournal.org/thomas.htm

Searched 'mon-khmer studies' on Amazon.

I very well may end up buying one of these books. If I do, I will let you know