Vietnamese language

Vietnamese (tiếng Việt) is the official language of Vietnam. Like many other languages in Asia, Vietnamese is a tonal language.

Vietnamese
tiếng Việt
Native to	Vietnam
Native speakers	75 million (2007)
Language family	Austroasiatic Vietic Viet–Muong Vietnamese
Writing system	Latin (Vietnamese alphabet) Vietnamese Braille Chữ Nôm (historical) Chữ Hán (historical)
Official status
Official language in	Vietnam Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Recognised minority language in	Czech Republic
Language codes
ISO 639-1	vi
ISO 639-2	vie
ISO 639-3	vie
Glottolog	viet1252
Linguasphere	46-EBA
Natively Vietnamese-speaking (non-minority) areas of Vietnam

Influences

Vietnamese has been strongly influenced by Chinese languages, as more than 60% of Vietnamese words were borrowed from Chinese. Though some of these words are used in everyday life, most Chinese loanwords are used mostly for special contexts, like Latin and Greek loanwords in English. It is closely related to the Khmer language, but Vietnamese had so many changes that the two languages can no longer be understood unless speakers of one language learn the other.

It now uses a Latin alphabet, or chữ Quốc ngữ, that is based on the French alphabet. It was created by European Jesuit missionaries so that the Bible and other Catholic books could be quickly translated into Vietnamese. For many centuries, only Vietnamese Catholics and Catholic missionaries to Vietnam used the Vietnamese-Latin alphabet until 1910, when the French-controlled government made the Vietnamese-Latin alphabet the only official script, or the writing system of government.

Before Vietnamese used the Latin alphabet, government documents were written using classical Chinese, but everyday Vietnamese was written with a writing system based on Chinese characters, called chữ Nôm. Few people know chữ Nôm today.

Most Chinese speakers who live in Vietnam now use regular Chinese script for calligraphy, but some traditional calligraphy artists can still be found. For example, Hồ Chí Minh City (sometimes still called Sài Gòn) has a district that is famous for its popular Chinatown.

Vietnamese adds new words when they are needed, especially in the professions of engineering, science, and academics. Also there has been an increase in media use. Some social words from the media are now accepted as common.

When Vietnam was controlled by the French, many French loanwords were borrowed into Vietnamese, like cà phê (coffee), bia (beer) and sơ mi (shirt). All these words are still used today. Today, Vietnamese uses many loandwords from English such as tivi (TV), mô tô (motorcycle), and phim (film/movie) because of Internet, social media, and easier travel. Sometimes, the word's spelling would be the same, but it would be said with Vietnamese pronunciation.

Spoken language

The spoken language of Vietnam changes in each province. Even in different cities in the same province, and even different neighborhoods in the same city, Vietnamese dialects can be very different from each other. Usually, the greater the distance between provinces, the stronger the difference. There are many dialects in Vietnamese, including Hanoian, Saigonese, Danang, Hue, and Nghe An. Some dialects are close enough to each other that speakers of said dialects can understand each other without many problems. However, other dialects are so different that even native speakers of Vietnamese have problems understanding, such as the Hue and Nghe An dialects. The national education for all of Vietnam now uses the Hanoian dialect, but each ethnic tribe may still use a different dialect, language, or vocabulary.

Computers

There are speaking programs that use Vietnamese. A computer add-on for the Firefox web browser, Vietnamese TTS (Text to Speech), can read text with the 'Vietnamization needs

Audio libraries are available to reproduce Vietnamese. Google translate uses a TTS reader and sound library to read Vietnamese in simple sentences. Portable electronic translators are also very popular. Kim Tu Dien Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine makes the most common portable dictionary for the Vietnamese market.

Written language

Alphabet

The Vietnamese alphabet (In Vietnamese: "Chữ Quốc Ngữ", means "The National Scripts").

Diphthong

The combination of two vowels makes a diphthong. The dipthongs used in the Vietnamese language have some rules when used. For example, one rule states that the singular tone for both letters must be placed.

Triphthongs

There are more triphthongs in Vietnamese than English, such as 'uye'.

Vietnamese syllables

The syllables refers to the Chinese use of two characters as syllables. Vietnamese also uses one syllable as a word.Like in English, people can say just 'go'. For more emphasis, it could be said twice in Vietnamese. That is common in Asia. n languages. Some Australian Aboriginal languages do the same thing. So, 'go - go' (Vietnamese: đi đi) means "go now" but with emphasis. However, 'go' is also common in Vietnamese.

Many single syllables are used in Vietnamese. They can form sentences without pairing with other syllables as they do in Chinese. Readers (and speakers) still notice that many syllables, in most sentences, are paired.

Vietnamization

Vietnamese has borrowed many words many different languages, including Chinese, French, and English. Words like taxi, sushi, selfie, and TV are common words used by most languages.

Until not long ago, the spelling of loanwords is changed so Vietnamese speakers can say it more easily. Most French loanwords have changed their spelling to make it easier for Vietnamese people to say them out loud. For example, the French word café was changed to cà phê, crème was changed to kem, bière was changed to bia. China uses the same idea: Ao-da-li-ya in Pinyin means Australia.

The first rule for vietnamization is that Vietnamese word or syllables are not normally broken by a consonant: (Việt Nam). An example of how to break a foreign word into two syllables is mô tô, one of the words for "motorbike", is a vietnamized version of 'motor' and 'auto' (ô tô). However, the rule has exceptions: lôgic.

When introducing a common foreign word, people vietnamize the word in at least one spoken demonstration for Vietnamese listeners.

• The rule should explain a problem with the foreign use of the family name Nguyễn. It is not New Yen since y is not a consonant in Vietnamese. The y is pronounced as a vowel as in English many and penny.

The second (softer) rule for vietnamization is that the sound of each syllable must be made a little closer to Vietnamese sounds. Tone marks for vowel letters are added: lôgic is an alteration of logic and would be need for a few subjects.

Exceptions

Any word can be an exception to vietnamization. Names like Barack Obama or Bill Clinton might be attempted by Vietnamese-speakers. In writing, the foreign names mostly stay together. Names like David are easy for the Vietnamese to say and so have become very popular in writing in English.

Foreign placenames that were once vietnamized have changed back to their non-Vietnamese spelling. For example, Niu Di-len was changed back to New Zealand.

Nowadays, vietnamized spellings of loanwords are becoming less and less common. Many loanwords nowadays are spelled without any changes from their parent languages, especially English loanwords. Words like laptop, game, Facebook are all spelled in Vietnamese the same as they would be in English, but they sound different because of the different pronunciation rules in each language. This is because English has become more common in everyday life in Vietnam. Sometimes, foreign words and names in Vietnamese readings will have vietnamized spellings so Vietnamese learners can say them out loud.

Grammar

Exclamations

Exclamations are very popular in Vietnamese. People can use exclamations as an introduction to things said. People can also comment with a quick exclamation after they say something. The exclamation may express a feeling or just an expression.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are used in Vietnamese.

Pronouns

Unlike in many languages, Vietnamese uses kinship terms (older brother (anh), younger sibling (em), uncle (chú), grandchild (cháu), etc.) more than pronouns, even if the speaker and listener are not related. For example, if two men who have little difference in how old they are talk to each other, the older man is usually called anh and the younger man is called em. Anh can either be first-person (I/me/my/mine) or second-person (you/your/yours) because both people know who anh is. For example, if the younger man asks the other man "Anh ăn cơm chưa (Have you eaten, yet?)", the older man is the second person, but the older man can answer "Anh mới ăn cơm (I just ate)," which the older man is the first person. Many kinship terms exist in pairs, so speakers who know each other know what to call each other and themselves. For this reason, people who know each other usually do not need to use pronouns. However, some exceptions exist when using kinship terms.

Kinship term pairs

Kinship term #1	Kinship term #1 meaning	Kinship term #2	Kinship term #2 meaning	Sample sentences
anh	1. older brother: usually used for a man a little older than the other person 2. boyfriend: regardless of whether his girlfriend is older than him or not	em	1. younger sibling: it can be used for men and women 2. girlfriend: even if she is older than her boyfriend	1. Em thích xem phim với anh. (The younger person likes to watch movies with the older man.) 2. Anh yêu em, và em yêu anh. (The boyfriend loves his girlfriend, and she loves him.)
chị	1. older sister: usually used for a man a little older than the other person	em	1. younger sibling: it can be used for men and women	1. Chị sắp mua một ly cà phê cho em. (The older woman is about to buy a coffee for the younger person.)
cô	1. aunt: usually an woman old enough to be the other person's aunt, at least older than the other person	cháu	1. grandchild, niece, nephew: it can be used for people at least one generation younger	1. Cháu muốn cô làm cá nướng để bữa tối. (The much younger person wants the much older woman to make grilled fish for dinner.)
ông	1. grandfather: usually an man old enough to be the other person's grandfather, several generations older than the other person	cháu	1. grandchild, niece, nephew: it can be used for people at least one generation younger	1. Ông nghĩ cháu rất thông minh. (The far older man thinks the far younger person is very smart).

While pronouns do exist, they are mainly saved for formal speech and writing.

Pronouns

Pronoun	Meaning
tôi	I (formal)
bạn	you (formal)
nó	it
đây	this
này	this, here
đó	that, there
kia	that, there
họ	they
ta	I (informal)
mình	I (informal), self-referential pronoun
chúng tôi	we (does not include the listerner)
chúng ta	we (includes the listener)
các bạn	you (formal plural)