An introduction of Vietnamese language
- Thứ năm - 01/12/2016 09:38
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A simple introduction of Vietnamese language will be presented in this page. Let's discover!
Vietnamese (tiếng Việt) is an Austroasiatic language that originated in the north of Vietnam and is the national and official language of the country. It is the native language of the Vietnamese (Kinh) people, as well as a first or second language for the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam.
As the result of Vietnamese emigration and cultural influence, Vietnamese speakers are found throughout the world, notably in East and Southeast Asia, North America, Australia and Western Europe. Vietnamese has also been officially recognized as a minority language in the Czech Republic.
It is part of the Austroasiatic language family of which it has by far the most speakers (several times as many as the other Austroasiatic languages combined). Vietnamese vocabulary has borrowings from Chinese, and it formerly used a modified set ofChinese characters called chữ nôm given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese alphabet (quốc ngữ) in use today is a Latin alphabet with additional diacritics for tones, and certain letters.
Vietnamese vowels are all pronounced with an inherent tone. (More formally, diacritics indicate the tone of the entire word, centered on the main vowel or group of vowels, whereas accents qualify the vowel(s).) Tones differ in:
As the result of Vietnamese emigration and cultural influence, Vietnamese speakers are found throughout the world, notably in East and Southeast Asia, North America, Australia and Western Europe. Vietnamese has also been officially recognized as a minority language in the Czech Republic.
It is part of the Austroasiatic language family of which it has by far the most speakers (several times as many as the other Austroasiatic languages combined). Vietnamese vocabulary has borrowings from Chinese, and it formerly used a modified set ofChinese characters called chữ nôm given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese alphabet (quốc ngữ) in use today is a Latin alphabet with additional diacritics for tones, and certain letters.
Vietnamese vowels are all pronounced with an inherent tone. (More formally, diacritics indicate the tone of the entire word, centered on the main vowel or group of vowels, whereas accents qualify the vowel(s).) Tones differ in:
· length (duration)
· pitch contour (i.e. pitch melody)
· pitch height
· phonation
· pitch contour (i.e. pitch melody)
· pitch height
· phonation
Tone is indicated by diacritics written above or below the vowel (most of the tone diacritics appear above the vowel; however, the nặng tone dot diacritic goes below the vowel). 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' |  a (help·info) |
| huyền 'hanging' | low falling (often breathy) | ` (grave accent) | mà 'but' | à (help·info) |
| sắc 'sharp' | high rising | ´ (acute accent) | má 'cheek, mother (southern)' | á (help·info) |
| hỏi 'asking' | mid dipping-rising | ̉ (hook) | mả 'tomb, grave' | ả (help·info) |
| ngã 'tumbling' | high breaking-rising | ˜ (tilde) | mã 'horse (Sino-Vietnamese), code' | ã (help·info) |
| nặng 'heavy' | low falling constricted (short length) | ̣ (dot below) | mạ 'rice seedling' | ạ (help·info) |
Other dialects of Vietnamese have fewer tones (typically only five). See the language 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 |
| bằng "level, flat" | ngang and huyền |
| trắc "oblique, sharp" | sắc, hỏi, ngã, and nặng |
Words with tones belonging to a particular tone group must occur in certain positions within the poetic verse.
Vietnamese Catholics practice a distinctive style of prayer recitation called đọc kinh, in which each tone is assigned a specific note or sequence of notes.
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You can practice Alphabet pronunciation by this video: