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Vietnamese
Language
Vietnam’s
official language is Vietnamese, a
tonal language spoken as a mother
tongue by 90% the country’s
population. Vietnamese is written
using a 29 letter alphabetical
system. However, the accent of
Vietnamese varies from province to
province. Besides Vietnamese, around
50 other languages are spoken by
ethnic minorities. English is a
popular foreign language and is used
in most offices, restaurants… in big
cities or tourism places. French,
Russian, Chinese, Japanese… are also
popular and can be found in tourist
places.
Vietnamese:
Vietnamese belongs to the
Austro-Asiatic language group. It is
mother tongue to nearly 85% of the
country’s population and an
additional 3 million Vietnamese
living abroad and is the 17th most
spoken language in the world (Ethnologue
estimate 2005).
The language is
most closely related to Khmer but is
heavily influenced by Chinese and
somewhat influenced by French. It is
a mono syllabic language.
Tones:
Vietnamese seems complicated to
foreigners because it is mono
syllabic and has six different
tones. Hence, sounds that are
slightly different will have totally
different meaning. The 6 tones of
Vietnamese are:
- Level: ba
(three/dad)
- High
rising: bá (to hug)
- Low
falling: bà (grandmother)
- Dipping-
rising: bả (poison)
- High
rising glottalized: bã (trash)
- Low
glottalized: bạ (random)
Dialect s:
Vietnamese is spoken differently
depending on geographic location.
Each region and province has its
distinct dialect. Even though
grammatical differences are
negligible, Vietnamese varies
greatly in tone, accents and even
vocabulary. For example, “ch” and
“tr” sounds are distinct in the
South but are merged by Northerners.
The Hanoi accent is considered the
“standard” Vietnamese.
Writing: Many
find it surprising that Vietnamese
is written by Latin letters.
Vietnamese used to be written based
on a complicated Siniform script
that was based heavily on Chinese;
hence was not popular.
During the 17th
century, Roman Catholic missionaries
introduced a Latin-based orthography
for Vietnamese, Quốc Ngữ (national
language) with 29 letters and is now
used widely and officially.
Other
minority languages:
Vietnam has 53
other ethnic groups besides Viet
(making up nearly 10% of the
population, many living in
mountainous areas), each with their
own languages. 24 even have a
written form. A few popular
languages besides Vietnamese are:
Chinese: spoken
by Ethnic Chinese immigrants who
have settled in Vietnam during the
last 300 years, living mainly in big
cities and provincial towns.
Muong: spoken
by the Muong ethnic group inhabiting
the Northern mountainous regions of
Vietnam.
It is not
necessary to know these languages
when visiting places with ethnic
minorities, as Vietnamese is a
common language used between groups.
Languages
you speak:
English is the
most popular foreign language in
Vietnam and is taught is school.
Many people speak English and
information in English can be found
easily in big cities such as Hanoi
or Ho Chi Minh; and growing tourist
places such as Da Nang or Nha Trang.
Guides in English are usually
offered.
French and
Russian are fairly popular,
especially in Northern Vietnam
Japanese,
Korean and Chinese are also growing
in popularity. Tours in these
languages are also possible
depending on location and agency.
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