Vietnamese language

1. History:

Vietnamese language is a part of Vietic Grouping of the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family (S.E.A.L.A.N.G, n.d).
Prior to the French domination, Vietnamese used the Chinese written system named Chữ Nôm (adapted Chinese characters) in education (To, 1998). In the 17th century, Catholic missionaries, from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France used roman script to translate bibles. The first Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary by Alexander de Rhodes was published in 1651 (Nguyen, 1980). Later on, in French domination period in late 19th century, roman script was used in South Vietnam, and then became the national language in early 1900 (To, 1998).

2. Characteristics:

Vietnamese alphabet:
A, Ă, Â, B, C, D, Đ, E, Ê, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, Ô, Ơ, P, Q, R, S, T, U, Ư, V, X, Y

a. Vowels, consonants and tone markers:
Vietnamese is tonal and monosyllabic.
It has 11 vowels: (a, ă, â, e, ê, i, o, ô, ơ, u,ư), 18 single consonants, 8 double consonants, and 5 tone-markers (“level”, “hanging”, “sharp”, “asking”, “tumbling” and “heavy”) (Wikipedia, 2007). If applying different tone-markers to the same letters, speaker can create new words, with new meaning, as follows (different tone-markers to the word “ma”)

Name Description Example Sample vowel
ngang high level ma ( ghost) a
'level" (no mark)
huyền
'hanging' low falling mà ( but) à
sắc 'sharp' high rising má ( cheek, mother) á
hỏi 'asking' dipping-rising mả (tomb, grave) ả
ngã 'tumbling' breaking-rising mã (horse, code) ã
nặng 'heavy' constricted mạ (rice seedling, mother)


A large number of Vietnamese words are Hán Việt (Sino-Vietnamese) words. During French colonization, Vietnamese borrows some French vocabulary such as pêđal (pédal), búp bê (poupée).

b. Grammar:
- Tense:
Vietnamese language does not require to conjugate verbs. Instead, particles are employed and put in front of verbs to indicate the tense.
Ex: Particle “đang” to show the present continuous – Tôi đang ăn cơm trưa (I’m having lunch)
Particle “đã” to show the simple past- Tôi đã ăn cơm trưa (I had lunch)
Particle “sẽ” to show the simple future- Tôi sẽ ăn cơm trưa (I will/am going to have lunch)

- Plural
To form plural nouns, it is suggested to put “những”, “các”.
Ex: những cây bút (pens), những con người (people)

- Pronouns
Vietnamese language employs accurately terms of reference.
Using pronouns depends on the relationship between speakers and listeners, such as kinship, gender, hiararchy relationship, age, social position. The most common terms of reference are kinship terms which are different in different regions in Vietnam.
Ex. How to translate “I love you” in Vietnamese?
Anh yêu em. (Male to his female lover)
- Em yêu anh. (Female to her male lover)
- Mẹ yêu con. (Mother to her child)
- Con yêu mẹ. (Child to mother)
Pronouns of kinship:
Ông : grandfather, male senior, also used to respect someone
Bà: grandmother, female senior, also used to respect someone
Cô: aunt (father’s sister, usually younger sister), female teacher
Dì: Aunt (mother’s sister, older or younger)
Chú: Uncle (father’s younger brother), or to address someone is younger than your parents
Bác: Uncle (father’s older brother), or to address someone is older than your parents
Dượng: Husband of father’s sister/ mother’s sister
Thím: Wife of father’s younger brother
Mợ: Wife of mother’s younger/older brother
Cháu: Niece/Nephew
Anh: Brother, or to address a male who is older than you
Chị: Older sister, or to address a female who is older than you
Em: Younger sister, or to address a female/male who is younger than you, or to address a woman in the romantic relationship
Cha/Bố/Ba: Father
Má/ Mẹ/Mạ: Mother

c. Dialects:
A prominent features of Vietnamese language is that different regions of Vietnam employ different accents and some different vocabulary. This partly hinders Vietnamese understanding and learning.

Northern Vietnamese
Hanoi dialect, other Northern dialects in Hai Phong

Central Vietnamese
Hue dialect, Nghe An dialect, Quang Nam dialect

Southern Vietnamese
Saigon dialect, Mekong dialect

Reference
Dien, To (1998). Language and literacy in Vietnamese American communities. In Peréz, Bertha (Ed.). Sociocultual Contexts of language and literacy (123-161). New Jersey, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
S.E.A.L.A.N.G (n.d).Mon-Khmer Language Project. Retrieved April, 20, 2007, from http://sealang.net/mk/vietic.htm?vietic-intro.htm
Wikipedia (2007). Retrieved June, 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_American