Vietnamese 1/Script and grammar
This is a guide for Languages --> Southeast Asian languages --> Vietnamese Language --> Viet script and grammar
Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt is the official language of Vietnam) this lesson explains it's constructive use as a second language for English speakers.
Language of Vietnam (Tiếng_Việt) | |
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Speakers: | 91.5 million + overseas population |
English name: | Vietnamese |
Language name: | Tiếng Việt |
Spoken in: | Vietnam and overseas population |
Pronunciation: | Hanoian, Saigon, Huế, Mekong, Ethnic, Overseas |
Official Language: | Vietnam |
Family of languages: | Austro Asiatic |
Relatives: | Viet, Hmong, Khmer |
Writing system: | Quốc Ngữ, Chữ_Nôm) |
Vietnamese as a Second Language
Language System[edit | edit source]Spoken[edit | edit source]The spoken language of Vietnam differs between provinces. The greater the distance between provinces the stronger the difference. Directly the difference between Hanoian and Saigon, Mekong was once called a dialect difference. Nowadays, the education for all of Vietnam includes the Hanoian dialect. However, each ethnic tribe can have less national education between parents, and may still have a different dialect or vocabulary. In computers[edit | edit source]Currently, there are speaking programs that use the Vietnamese language properly. A commonly available Mozilla Add-on for the Firefox web browser can read Vietnamese (or text) with the 'vietnamization' that is needed. It's called Vietnamese TTS. TTS means Text to Speech. Audio libraries are available to reproduce the Vietnamese language. Google translate uses a TTS reader and sound library to read Vietnamese in simple sentences. Hand held versions are also very popular. Kim Tu Dien makes the most common pocket dictionary for the Vietnamese market. |
Script[edit | edit source]Alphabet[edit | edit source]The Vietnamese alphabet. Vietnamese dipthongs[edit | edit source]The combination of two vowels makes a dipthong. The dipthongs used in the Vietnamese language have some rules when used. For example, one rule states where the singular tone marking for both letters must be placed. Vietnamese tripthongs[edit | edit source]There are more tripthongs in Vietnamese than English. 'uye' is included. Vietnamese syllables[edit | edit source]The syllables refers to the Chinese use of at least two characters as syllables. So, Hong is one and Kong the other. Vietnamese also uses singular syllables as words (monosyllabic). For example: in the same way as English, people can say just 'go'. For more emphasis (in Vietnamese) it could be said twice. The use of the syllable twice is from the history of languages for Asia. Some Australian Aboriginal languages are known do the same thing [1]. So, 'go - go' (đi đi)[2] means definitely go. But also, 'go' would have been enough in Vietnamese. Many singular syllables are used by the Vietnamese language. 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[edit | edit source]Many words from around the world were needed in Vietnamese. When a word gets vietnamization it is changed to sound Vietnamese. Chinese uses the same method of conversion Ao-day-lia in Pinyin means Australia. The first rule[edit | edit source]The first rule for vietnamization is that 'no Vietnamese word/syllable is broken by a consonant'. E.g. (Việt Nam).
An example of how to break a foreign word into two syllables is mô tô which is used for motorbike. It's not the most common word for motorbike, but it is accepted. This word is a vietnamized version of 'motor' and 'auto'(ô tô).
The second rule[edit | edit source]The second (softer) rule for vietnamization is that the sound of each syllable must be made 'a little closer to Viet sounds'. The second rule is made to work by adding the tone marks for vowel letters. For example: lôgicis an alteration of 'logic'. It would be needed to teach a couple of school and science subjects. Computer science uses this word. Exceptions[edit | edit source]Any word can be made an exception to vietnamization.
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Grammar[edit | edit source]Sentence beginnings[edit | edit source]
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