Vietnamese language

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Vietnamese
Ti?ng Vi?t
Pronunciation [ti?? v??t] (Northern)
[ti?? j?k] (Southern)
Native to Vietnam
Ethnicity Kinh/Gin people
Native speakers
75 million (2007)[1]
Language family
Austroasiatic
Vietic
VietMuong
Vietnamese
Writing system
Latin (Vietnamese alphabet)
Vietnamese Braille
Ch? nm
Official status
Official language in
Vietnam[2]
Recognised minority language in
Czech Republic[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-1 vi
ISO 639-2 vie
ISO 639-3 vie
Linguasphere 46-EBA
{{{mapalt}}}
Natively Vietnamese-speaking (non-minority) areas of Vietnam and China[4]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, yo
u may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
This article contains Vietnamese text. Without proper rendering support,
you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of ch? nm, ch? Hn and
ch? qu?c ng?.
This article contains Ch? nm text. Without proper rendering support, you
may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Ch? nm.
Percentage of Vietnamese people, by province[5]
<20%
20%-40%
40%-60%
60%-80%
80%-95%
>95%
Vietnamese (ti?ng Vi?t) is the national, official language of Vietnam. It is the
native language of Vietnamese people (Kinh), and of about three million Vietnam
ese residing elsewhere. It also is spoken as a first or second language by many
ethnic minorities of Vietnam.
It is part of the Austroasiatic language family of which it has, by far, the mos
t speakers (several times that of the other Austroasiatic languages combined).[c
itation needed] Vietnamese vocabulary has borrowings from Chinese, and it former
ly used a modified set of Chinese characters called ch? nm given vernacular pronu
nciation. The Vietnamese alphabet (qu?c ng?) in use today is a Latin alphabet wi
th additional diacritics for tones, and certain letters.
Contents [hide]
1 Geographic distribution
2 Linguistic classification
3 Lexicon
4 Phonology
4.1 Vowels
4.2 Consonants
4.3 Tones
5 Language variation
5.1 Tones
6 Grammar
7 Writing systems
7.1 Computer support
8 History
8.1 Proto-VietMuong
8.2 Origin of the tones
8.3 Middle Vietnamese
9 Word play
10 Examples
11 See also
12 Notes
13 Bibliography
13.1 General
13.2 Sound system
13.3 Pragmatics and language variation
13.4 Historical and comparative
13.5 Orthography
13.6 Pedagogical
14 External links
Geographic distribution[edit]
As the national language, Vietnamese is spoken throughout Vietnam by ethnic Viet
namese and by Vietnam's many minorities. A few thousand native speakers live jus
t across the border in China. It also is spoken in overseas Vietnamese communiti
es, most notably in the United States, where it has more than one million speake
rs and is the sixth most-spoken language (it is third in Texas, fourth in Arkans
as and Louisiana, and fifth in California).[6] It is the seventh most-spoken lan
guage in Australia.[7] In France, Vietnamese is the most spoken Asian language a
nd the ninth most spoken immigrant language.[8]
Linguistic classification[edit]
Vietnamese was identified more than 150 years ago[9] as part of the MonKhmer bran
ch of the Austroasiatic language family (a family that also includes Khmer, spok
en in Cambodia, as well as various tribal and regional languages, such as the Mu
nda and Khasi languages spoken in eastern India, and others in southern China).
Later, Mu?ng was found to be more closely related to Vietnamese than other MonKhm
er languages, and a Vi?t-Mu?ng sub-grouping was established, also including Thav
ung, Ch?t, Hung, etc.[10] The term Vietic was proposed by Hayes (1992),[11] who
proposed to redefine Vi?tMu?ng as referring to a sub-branch of Vietic containing
only Vietnamese and Mu?ng. The term Vietic is used, among others, by Grard Difflo
th, with a slightly different proposal on subclassification, within which the te
rm Vi?t-Mu?ng refers to a lower sub-grouping (within an eastern Vietic branch) c
onsisting of Vietnamese dialects, Mu?ng dialects, and Ngu?n (of Qu?ng Bnh Provinc
e).[12]
Lexicon[edit]
The words in orange belong to the Vietnamese native lexical stock while the ones
in green belong to the Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.
As a result of 1000 years of Chinese rule, much of the Vietnamese lexicon relati
ng to science and politics is derived from Chinese see Sino-Vietnamese vocabular
y. Some 30% to 60% of the lexical stock has naturalized word borrowings from Chi
na, although many compound words are composed of native Vietnamese words combine
d with naturalized word borrowings (i.e., having Vietnamese pronunciation) .[cit
ation needed] One can usually distinguish between a native Vietnamese word and a
Chinese borrowing if its meaning does not change when the tone is shifted[examp
les needed]. As a result of French occupation, Vietnamese has since had many wor
ds borrowed from the French language, for example c ph (from French caf). Nowadays,
many new words are being added to the language's lexicon due to heavy Western c
ultural influence; these are usually borrowed from English, for example TV (thou
gh usually seen in the written form as tivi). Sometimes these borrowings are cal
ques literally translated into Vietnamese (for example, software is calqued into
ph?n m?m, which literally means "soft part").
Phonology[edit]
Main article: Vietnamese phonology
Vowels[edit]
Like other southeast Asian languages, Vietnamese has a comparatively large numbe
r of vowels. Below is a vowel diagram of Hanoi Vietnamese.
Front Central Back
High i [i] u [?] u [u]
Upper Mid [e] o [??] [o]
Lower Mid e [?] [?] o [?]
Low a [a] / a [a?]
Front, central, and low vowels (i, , e, u, , o, a, a) are unrounded, whereas the b
ack vowels (u, , o) are rounded. The vowels [?] and a [a] are pronounced very sho
rt, much shorter than the other vowels. Thus, o and are basically pronounced the
same except that o [??] is of normal length while [?] is short the same applies
to the vowels long a [a?] and short a [a].[13]
In addition to single vowels (or monophthongs), Vietnamese has diphthongs[14] an
d triphthongs. The diphthongs consist of a main vowel component followed by a sh
orter semivowel offglide to a high front position [??], a high back position [??
], or a central position [??].[15]
Vowel nucleus Diphthong with front offglide Diphthong with back offglide
Diphthong with centering offglide Triphthong with front offglide Triphtho
ng with back offglide
i iu [i??] ia~i~y [i??] iu [i????]
u [e??]
e eo [???]
u ui [???] uu [???] ua~uo [???] uoi [?????] uou [???
??]
y [???] u [???]
o oi [????]
a ay [a??] au [a??]
a ai [a???] ao [a???]
u ui [u??] ua~u [u??] ui [u????]
i [o??]
o oi [???]
The centering diphthongs are formed with only the three high vowels (i, u, u) as
the main vowel. They are generally spelled as ia, ua, ua when they end a word a
nd are spelled i, uo, u, respectively, when they are followed by a consonant. Ther
e are also restrictions on the high offglides: the high front offglide cannot oc
cur after a front vowel (i, , e) nucleus and the high back offglide cannot occur
after a back vowel (u, , o) nucleus.[16]
The correspondence between the orthography and pronunciation is complicated. For
example, the offglide [??] is usually written as i; however, it may also be rep
resented with y. In addition, in the diphthongs [a??] and [a???] the letters y a
nd i also indicate the pronunciation of the main vowel: ay = a + [??], ai = a +
[??]. Thus, tay "hand" is [ta??] while tai "ear" is [ta???]. Similarly, u and o
indicate different pronunciations of the main vowel: au = a + [??], ao = a + [??
]. Thus, thau "brass" is [t?a??] while thao "raw silk" is [t?a???].
The four triphthongs are formed by adding front and back offglides to the center
ing diphthongs. Similarly to the restrictions involving diphthongs, a triphthong
with front nucleus cannot have a front offglide (after the centering glide) and
a triphthong with a back nucleus cannot have a back offglide.
From the front and back offglides [??], [??], many phonological descriptions ana
lyze these as consonant glides /j/, /w/. Thus, a word such as du "where", phoneti
cally [????], would be analyzed phonemically as /??w/.
Consonants[edit]
The consonants that occur in Vietnamese are listed below in the Vietnamese ortho
graphy with the phonetic pronunciation to the right.
Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m [m] n [n] nh [?] ng/ngh [?]
Stop voiceless p [p] t [t] tr [??~?] ch [c~t?] c/k/q [k
]
voiced b [?] d [?]
aspirated th [t?] kh [x~k?]
Fricative voiceless ph [f] x [s] s [?] h [h]
voiced v [v] d [z~j] r [?~?] gi [z~j] g/gh [?]
Approximant u/o [w] l [l] y/i [j]
Some consonant sounds are written with only one letter (like "p"), other consona
nt sounds are written with a two-letter digraph (like "ph"), and others are writ
ten with more than one letter or digraph (the velar stop is written variously as
"c", "k", or "q").
Not all dialects of Vietnamese have the same consonant in a given word (although
all dialects use the same spelling in the written language). See the language v
ariation section for further elaboration.
The analysis of syllable-final orthographic ch and nh in Hanoi Vietnamese has ha
d different analyses. One analysis has final ch, nh as being phonemes /c/, /?/ c
ontrasting with syllable-final t, c /t/, /k/ and n, ng /n/, /?/ and identifies f
inal ch with the syllable-initial ch /c/. The other analysis has final ch and nh
as predictable allophonic variants of the velar phonemes /k/ and /?/ that occur
before upper front vowels i /i/ and /e/. (See Vietnamese phonology: Analysis of
final ch, nh for further details.)
Tones[edit]
Pitch contours and duration of the six Northern Vietnamese tones as spoken by a
male speaker (not from Hanoi). Fundamental frequency is plotted over time. From
Nguy?n & Edmondson (1998).
Vietnamese vowels are all pronounced with an inherent tone.[17] (More formally,
diacritics indicate the tone of the entire word, centered on the main vowel or g
roup of vowels, whereas accents qualify the vowel(s).) Tones differ in:
length (duration)
pitch contour (i.e. pitch melody)
pitch height
phonation
Tone is indicated by diacritics written above or below the vowel (most of the to
ne diacritics appear above the vowel; however, the n?ng tone dot diacritic goes
below the vowel).[18] The six tones in the northern varieties (including Hanoi),
with their self-referential Vietnamese names, are:
Name Description Diacritic Example Sample vowel
ngang 'level' mid level (no mark) ma 'ghost' About this sound
a (helpinfo)
huy?n 'hanging' low falling (often breathy) ` (grave accent)
m 'but' About this sound (helpinfo)
s?c 'sharp' high rising (acute accent) m 'cheek, mother (southern)'
About this sound (helpinfo)
h?i 'asking' mid dipping-rising ? (hook) m? 'tomb, grave'
About this sound ? (helpinfo)
ng 'tumbling' high breaking-rising (tilde) m 'horse (Sino-Vietnamese),
' About this sound (helpinfo)
n?ng 'heavy' low falling constricted (short length) ? (dot below) m? 'ric
e seedling' About this sound ? (helpinfo)
Other dialects of Vietnamese have fewer tones (typically only five). See the lan
guage variation section for a brief survey of tonal differences among dialects.
In Vietnamese poetry, tones are classed into two groups:
Tone group Tones within tone group
b?ng "level, flat" ngang and huy?n
tr?c "oblique, sharp" s?c, h?i, ng, and n?ng
Words with tones belonging to a particular tone group must occur in certain posi
tions with the poetic verse.
Vietnamese Catholics practice a distinctive style of prayer recitation called d?
c kinh, in which each tone is assigned a specific note or sequence of notes.
Language variation[edit]
There are various mutually intelligible regional varieties (or dialects), the ma
in five being:[19]
Dialect region Localities Names under French colonization
Northern Vietnamese Hanoi, Haiphong, Red River Delta, Ty B?c and ng B?c
Tonkinese
North-central (or Area IV) Vietnamese Thanh Ho, Ngh? An, H Tinh Annamese
Mid-Central Vietnamese Qu?ng Bnh, Qu?ng Tr?, Hu?, Th?a Thin Annamese
South-Central Vietnamese (or Area V) N?ng, Qu?ng Nam, Qu?ng Ngi, Bnh ?nh, Ph Yn
Annamese
Southern Vietnamese Nha Trang, B R?aVung Tu, Saigon, Lm ?ng, Mekong Delta
Cochinchinese
Listen to this audio clip of Vietnamese (info)
Icon of loudspeaker
The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights spoken by Nghiem
Mai Phuong, native speaker of a northern variety. (audio help)
Listen to this audio clip of Vietnamese
Icon of loudspeaker
Ho Chi Minh reading his Declaration of Independence. Ho Chi Minh is from Ngh? An
Province, speaking a northern-central variety. (audio help)
Vietnamese has traditionally been divided into three dialect regions: North, Cen
tral, and South. However, Michel Ferlus and Nguy?n Ti C?n offer evidence for cons
idering a North-Central region separate from Central. The term Haut-Annam refers
to dialects spoken from northern Ngh? An Province to southern (former) Th?a Thin
Province that preserve archaic features (like consonant clusters and undiphthon
gized vowels) that have been lost in other modern dialects.
These dialect regions differ mostly in their sound systems (see below), but also
in vocabulary (including basic vocabulary, non-basic vocabulary, and grammatica
l words) and grammar.[20] The North-central and Central regional varieties, whic
h have a significant amount of vocabulary differences, are generally less mutual
ly intelligible to Northern and Southern speakers. There is less internal variat
ion within the Southern region than the other regions due to its relatively late
settlement by Vietnamese speakers (in around the end of the 15th century). The
North-central region is particularly conservative. Along the coastal areas, regi
onal variation has been neutralized to a certain extent, while more mountainous
regions preserve more variation. As for sociolinguistic attitudes, the North-cen
tral varieties are often felt to be "peculiar" or "difficult to understand" by s
peakers of other dialects.
The large movements of people between North and South beginning in the mid-20th
century and continuing to this day have resulted in a sizeable number of Souther
n residents speaking in the Northern accent/dialect and, to a greater extent, No
rthern residents speaking in the Southern accent/dialect. Following the Geneva A
ccords of 1954 that called for the temporary division of the country, about a mi
llion northerners (mainly from Hanoi, Haiphong and the surrounding Red River Del
ta areas) moved south (mainly to Saigon and heavily to Bin Ha and Vung Tu, and the
surrounding areas) as part of Operation Passage to Freedom. About 3% (~30,000) o
f that number of people made the move in the reverse direction.
Following the reunification of Vietnam in 197576, Northern and North-Central spea
kers from the densely populated Red River Delta and the traditionally poorer pro
vinces of Ngh? An, H Tinh and Qu?ng Bnh have continued to move South to look for b
etter economic opportunities, beginning with the Hanoi government's "New Economi
c Zones program" which lasted from 197585.[21] The first half of the program (197
580), resulted in 1.3 million people sent to the New Economic Zones (NEZs), major
ity of which were relocated in the southern half of the country in previously un
inhabited areas, of which 550,000 were Northerners.[21] The second half (198185)
saw almost 1 million Northerners relocated to the NEZs.[21] As well, government
and military personnel, many from Northern and north-central Vietnam, are posted
to various locations throughout the country, often away from their home regions
. More recently, the growth of the free market system has resulted in business p
eople and tourists traveling to distant parts of Vietnam. These movements have r
esulted in some small blending of the dialects, but more significantly, have mad
e the Northern dialect more easily understood in the South and vice versa. Most
Southerners, when singing modern/popular Vietnamese songs, do so in the Northern
accent. This is true in Vietnam as well as in the overseas Vietnamese communiti
es.
Regional variation in grammatical words[22]
Northern Central Southern English gloss
ny ni, n n?y "this"
th? ny ri v?y "thus, this way"
?y n?, t d "that"
th?, th? ?y r?a, r?a t v?y d "thus, so, that way"
kia t d "that yonder"
ka t? d "that yonder (far away)"
du m du "where"
no m? no "which"
sao, th? no rang sao "how, why"
ti tui tui "I, me (polite)"
tao tau tao "I, me (arrogant, familiar)"
chng ti b?n tui t?i tui "we, us (but not you, polite)"
chng tao choa, b?n choa t?i tao "we, us (but not you, arrogant, familiar)"
my mi m?y "you (thou) (arrogant, familiar)"
chng my by, b?n by t?i m?y "you guys, y'all (arrogant, familiar)"
n h?n n "he/him, she/her, it (arrogant, familiar)"
chng n b?n h?n t?i n "they/them (arrogant, familiar)"
ng ?y ng n? ?ng "he/him, that gentleman, sir"
b ?y b n? b? "she/her, that lady, madam"
c ?y d n? c? "she/her, that unmarried young lady"
ch? ?y ch? n? ch? "she/her, that young lady"
anh ?y anh n? ?nh "he/him, that young man (of equal status)"
The syllable-initial ch and tr digraphs are pronounced distinctly in North-centr
al, Central, and Southern varieties, but are merged in Northern varieties (i.e.
they are both pronounced the same way). The North-central varieties preserve thr
ee distinct pronunciations for d, gi, and r whereas the North has a three-way me
rger and the Central and South have a merger of d and gi while keeping r distinc
t. At the end of syllables, palatals ch and nh have merged with alveolars t and
n, which, in turn, have also partially merged with velars c and ng in Central an
d Southern varieties.
Regional consonant correspondences
Syllable position Orthography Northern North-central Central
Southern
syllable-initial x [s] [s]
s [?] [?, s]
ch [c] [c]
tr [t?] [t?, c]
r [z] [?, ?]
d [z] [j]
gi [?]
v[23] [v]
syllable-final c [k] [k] [k]
t [t]
t
after e [k, t]
t
after [t]
t
after i
ch [k]
ng [?] [?]
n [n]
n
after i, [n]
nh [?]
In addition to the regional variation described above, there is also a merger of
l and n in certain rural varieties:
l, n variation
Orthography "Mainstream" varieties Rural varieties
n [n] [n]
l [l]
Variation between l and n can be found even in mainstream Vietnamese in certain
words. For example, the numeral "five" appears as nam by itself and in compound
numerals like nam muoi "fifty" but appears as lam in mu?i lam "fifteen". (See Vi
etnamese syntax: Cardinal numerals.) In some northern varieties, this numeral ap
pears with an initial nh instead of l: hai muoi nham "twenty-five" vs. mainstrea
m hai muoi lam.[24]
The consonant clusters that were originally present in Middle Vietnamese (of the
17th century) have been lost in almost all modern Vietnamese varieties (but ret
ained in other closely related Vietic languages). However, some speech communiti
es have preserved some of these archaic clusters: "sky" is bl?i with a cluster i
n H?o Nho (Yn M prefecture, Ninh Bnh Province) but tr?i in Southern Vietnamese and
gi?i in Hanoi Vietnamese (initial single consonants /??/, /z/, respectively).
Tones[edit]
Generally, the Northern varieties have six tones while those in other regions ha
ve five tones. The h?i and ng tones are distinct in North and some North-central
varieties (although often with different pitch contours) but have merged in Cent
ral, Southern, and some North-central varieties (also with different pitch conto
urs). Some North-central varieties (such as H Tinh Vietnamese) have a merger of t
he ng and n?ng tones while keeping the h?i tone distinct. Still other North-centr
al varieties have a three-way merger of h?i, ng, and n?ng resulting in a four-ton
e system. In addition, there are several phonetic differences (mostly in pitch c
ontour and phonation type) in the tones among dialects.
Regional tone correspondences
Tone Northern North-central Central Southern
Vinh Thanh
Chuong H Tinh
ngang ? 33 ?? 35 ?? 35 ?? 35, ??? 353 ?? 35 ? 33
huy?n ??? 21? ? 33 ? 33 ? 33 ? 33 ?? 21
s?c ?? 35 ? 11 ? 11, ??? 13? ??? 13? ??? 13? ?? 35
h?i ???? 31?3 ?? 31 ?? 31 ???? 31?? ??? 312 ??? 214
ng ??? 3?5 ??? 13? ?? 22?
n?ng ???? 21?? ? 22 ?? 22? ?? 22? ??? 212
The table above shows the pitch contour of each tone using Chao tone number nota
tion (where 1 = lowest pitch, 5 = highest pitch); glottalization (creaky, stiff,
harsh) is indicated with the <??> symbol; breathy voice with <??>; glottal stop
with <?>; sub-dialectal variants are separated with commas. (See also the tone
section below.)
Grammar[edit]
Main articles: Vietnamese syntax and Vietnamese morphology
Vietnamese, like many languages in Southeast Asia, is an analytic (or isolating)
language. Vietnamese does not use morphological marking of case, gender, number
or tense (and, as a result, has no finite/nonfinite distinction).[25] Also like
other languages in the region, Vietnamese syntax conforms to subjectverbobject wo
rd order, is head-initial (displaying modified-modifier ordering), and has a nou
n classifier system. Additionally, it is pro-drop, wh-in-situ, and allows verb s
erialization.
Some Vietnamese sentences with English word glosses and translations are provide
d below.
Mai l sinh vin.
Mai be student
"Mai is a student." (College student)
Gip r?t cao.
Giap very tall
"Giap is very tall."
Ngu?i d l anh c?a n.
person that be brother he
"That person is his brother."
Con ch ny ch?ng bao gi? s?a c?.
classifier dog this not ever bark at.all
"This dog never barks at all."
N ch? an com Vi?t Nam thi.
he only eat rice.colloquial Vietnam only
"He only eats Vietnamese rice."
Ci th?ng ch?ng em n ch?ng ra g.
focus classifier husband I (as wife) he not turn.out
what
"That husband of mine, he is good for nothing."
Ti thch con ng?a den.
I (generic) like classifier horse black
"I like the black horse."
Ti thch ci con ng?a den.
I (generic) like focus classifier horse black
"I like any black horses."
Writing systems[edit]
Main articles: History of writing in Vietnam, Vietnamese alphabet and Vietnamese
braille
Up to the late 19th century, two writing systems based on Chinese characters wer
e used in Vietnam.[26] All formal writing, including government business, schola
rship and formal literature, was done in Literary Chinese (ch? nho ??? "scholar'
s characters"). Folk literature in Vietnamese was recorded using the Ch? Nm scrip
t, in which many Chinese characters were borrowed and many more modified and inv
ented to represent native Vietnamese words. Created in the 13th century or earli
er, the Nm writing reached its zenith in the 18th century when many Vietnamese wr
iters and poets composed their works in Nm, most notably Nguy?n Du and H? Xun Huon
g (dubbed "the Queen of Nm poetry"). However it was only used for official purpos
es during the brief H? and Ty Son dynasties.
A Vietnamese Catholic Nguyen Truong To sent petitions to the Court which suggest
ed a Chinese character-based syllabary which would be used for Vietnamese sounds
; however, his petition failed. The French colonial administration sought to eli
minate the Chinese writing system, Confucianism, and other Chinese influences fr
om Vietnam by getting rid of Nm.[27]
A romanization of Vietnamese was codified in the 17th century by the French Jesu
it missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (15911660), based on works of earlier Portugues
e missionaries Gaspar do Amaral and Antnio Barbosa. This Vietnamese alphabet (qu?
c ng? or "national script", literally "national language") was gradually expande
d from its initial domain in Christian writing to become more popular among the
general public. However, the Romanized script did not come to predominate until
the beginning of the 20th century, when education became widespread and a simple
r writing system was found more expedient for teaching and communication with th
e general population. Under French colonial rule, French superseded Chinese in a
dministration. Vietnamese written with the alphabet became required for all publ
ic documents in 1910 by issue of a decree by the French Rsident Suprieur of the pr
otectorate of Tonkin. By the middle of the 20th century virtually all writing wa
s done in qu?c ng?, which became the official script on independence. Ch? nho wa
s still in use on early North Vietnamese and late French Indochinese banknotes i
ssued after World War II[28] but fell out of official use shortly thereafter. On
ly a few scholars and some extremely elderly people are able to read ch? nm today
. In China, members of the Jing minority still write in Ch? Nm.
Changes in the script were made by French scholars and administrators and by con
ferences held after independence during 19541974. The script now reflects a so-ca
lled Middle Vietnamese dialect that has vowels and final consonants most similar
to northern dialects and initial consonants most similar to southern dialects (
Nguy?n 1996). This Middle Vietnamese is presumably close to the Hanoi variety as
spoken