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Vietnamese
Vietnamese
Vietnamese is the national language of Vietnam; however, due to immigration it is spoken around the world. It is the sixth most spoken language in the United States, with speakers concentrated in a few states (Texas, Washington, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, and California). There are also many Vietnamese speakers in China, Cambodia, and Laos.
Many Vietnamese immigrated to the United States and other countries at the end of the Vietnam war in the 1970s. Still others were forced into ‘re-education camps’, where they were tortured and endured many hardships before survivors were allowed to eventually leave. The Vietnamese has grown and thrived in many parts of the world, showing the enduring strength of their community and language traditions.
Word order: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), the same as English
Sounds: The English /v/ is not native; Vietnamese uses /v/ in northern dialects but /f/ is also common. In addition, Vietnamese is less likely to use dipthongs and consonant clusters found in English; the language has simpler syllable structure, using context and tone for meaning.
Tones and Additional Voice Variations: in Vietnamese, some words are spoken in what is called ‘breathy voice’ or ‘creaky voice’, which can change the meaning or words, much as tone does. Vietnamese is also a tonal language, with six tones used in the Northern dialects and fewer used in the south of the country.
Writing System: Vietnamese is written in the Vietnamese alphabet, based on the Latin script, adapted to Vietnamese with numerous diacritics to show different vowel sounds and tones. It used to be written in the Chinese writing system.
Useful Phrases
Useful Phrases
Welcome: Hoan nghênh
General greeting: Chào anh
How are you? Anh khỏe không?
What’s your name? Bạn tên gì?
My name is . . . Tôi tên là …
Good morning: Chào buổi sáng
I don’t understand: Tôi không hiểu
Sorry: Xin lỗi
Stop! Ngừng lại!
Resources
Resources
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