Cambodian is also called Khmer. It is spoken by some 7 million people living in Cambodia. Ninety percent of the population speak it as a first or second language. Cambodian is the official language of Cambodia and is used in most social contexts, government administration, education at all levels, and in mass media. Regional differences are slight and normally mutually intelligible. Based on the dialect of the capital city of Phnom Penh, Modern Cambodian is used throughout the nation and is widely understood. Much of the vocabulary that is used in literature, the military, and administration is borrowed from Sanskrit, or Pali. Due to years of French colonial rule, numerous French words have been incorporated into the language as well. A committee was established during the 1960s with the responsibility of creating neologisms using native linguistic devices instead of borrowing from foreign languages. Later, the reign of the Khmer Rouge also left a significant linguistic legacy by expunging all features that reflected inequality of social status.