Vietnam Language: History, Origin of Vietnamese Alphabet

Vietnam Language: Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) is the official and national language of Vietnam and is spoken by a large majority of the Vietnamese People. It is also one of the few languages in Asia that uses the Latin alphabet instead of symbols. This makes it a lot easier to interpret street signs and even learn to speak in Vietnamese.

History and Origin of Vietnamese Language

Vietnamese belongs to the Northern (Viet–Muong) clusters of the Vietic branch, spoken by the Vietic peoples, originating from Northern Vietnam. The language Inscription was carved on stone steles at Temple of Literature, in combined Chữ Hán (Chinese characters used in the Vietnamese traditional writing system) and an archaic form of the Chữ Nôm (writing system for vernacular Vietnamese language using Chinese characters).

vietnamese-alphabet

Vietnamese Alphabet Founded from 1651

Vietnamese had shared more characteristics common to other languages in South East Asia and with the Austroasiatic family, such as an inflectional morphology and a richer set of consonant clusters, which have subsequently disappeared from the language under Chinese influence. Vietnamese is heavily influenced by its location in the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, with the result that it has acquired or converged toward characteristics such as isolating morphology and phonemically distinctive tones, through processes of tonogenesis. These characteristics have become part of many of the genetically unrelated languages of Southeast Asia; for example, Tsat (a member of the Malayo-Polynesian group within Austronesian), and Vietnamese each developed tones as a phonemic feature. The ancestor of the Vietnamese language is usually believed to have been originally based in the area of the Red River Delta in what is now northern Vietnam.

Distinctive tonal variations emerged during the subsequent expansion of the Vietnamese language and people from the Red River Plain into what is now central and southern Vietnam through conquest of the Ancient Nation of Champa and the Khmer people of the Mekong Delta in the vicinity of present-day Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon.

vietnamese-alphabet-and-tone-in-writing-system

Vietnamese Alphabet and Tone in Writing System

Northern Vietnam was primarily influenced by Chinese, which came to predominate politically in the 2nd century BC whilst central and southern lands were occupied by Chamic and Khmer empires. After the emergence of the Ngô dynasty at the beginning of the 10th century, the ruling class adopted Classical Chinese as the formal medium of government, scholarship and literature. With the dominance of Chinese came radical importation of Chinese vocabulary and grammatical influence. The resulting Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary makes up about a third of the Vietnamese lexicon in all realms, and may account for as much as 60% of the vocabulary used in formal texts.

After France invaded Vietnam in the late 19th century, French gradually replaced Chinese as the official language in education and government. Vietnamese adopted many French terms, such as đầm (‘dame’, from madame), ga (‘train station’, from gare), sơ mi (‘shirt’, from chemise), and búp bê (‘doll’, from poupée) as well as the Latin alphabet, resulting in a language that was Austroasiatic but with major Sino-influences and some minor French influences from the French colonial era. The French sinologist, Henri Maspero, described six periods of the Vietnamese language:

  • Proto-Viet–Muong, also known as Pre-Vietnamese, the ancestor of Vietnamese and the related Mường language (before 7th century AD).
  • Proto-Vietnamese, the oldest reconstructable version of Vietnamese, dated to just before the entry of massive amounts of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary into the language, c. 7th to 9th century AD. At this state, the language had three tones.
  • Archaic Vietnamese, the state of the language upon adoption of the Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and the beginning of creation of the Vietnamese characters (chữ Nôm) during the Ngô Dynasty, c. 10th century AD.
  • Ancient Vietnamese, the language represented by Chữ Nôm (c. 15th century), widely used during the Lê dynasty. The Ming glossary “Annanguo Yiyu” (c. 15th century) by the Bureau of Interpreters recorded the language at this point of history. By this point, a tone split had happened in the language, leading to six tones but a loss of contrastive voicing among consonants.
  • Middle Vietnamese, the language found in Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum of the Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (c. 17th century); the dictionary was published in Rome in 1651. Another famous dictionary of this period was written by P. J. Pigneau de Behaine in 1773 and published by Jean-Louis Taberd in 1838.
  • Modern Vietnamese, from the 19th century, the modern Vietnamese language still uses chữ Quốc ngữ which includes 29 main characters and five-tone marks. There are also many letter combinations, diphthongs, and triphthongs. Chữ Quốc ngữ is spoken by about 90% of the Vietnamese population, together with other minority languages such as Ê Đê, Hmong.

Useful Sentences for General Talk in Vietnamese Language:

English

Vietnamees

Pronunciation

Hello

Xin chào

Xin-chao

Bye

Tạm biệt

Tam-biet

How are you?

Bạn khỏe không

Ban-ko-khe-khong

Nice to meet you

Rất vui được gặp bạn

Rat-vui-duoc-gab-ban

Doing well, thanks

Cảm ơn, tôi khỏe

Kam-own, toi-khe

Do you speak English?

Bạn có thể nói tiếng Anh không?

Ban-ko-noi-duok-tien-eng-kong

What’s your name?

Tên bạn bạn là gì

Ten-ban-la-zee

I’m from …

Tôi đến từ…

Toi-den-tu…

My name is…

Tên tôi là…

Ten-toi-la…

Do you understand?

Bạn có hiểu không?

Ban-ko-hiew-kong

I do not understand

Tôi không hiểu

Toi-kong-hiew

Yes

Vâng

Vang

No

Không

Kong

Help!

Cứu!

Kiu

Thank you

Cảm ơn

Kam-own

What?

Cái gì?

Kai-ge

How much?

Bao nhiêu?

Baow-nhiu

Which?

Cái nào?

Cai-now

Where?

Ở đâu?

Ow-dau

When?

Khi nào?

Khi-now

I do not like it

Tôi không thích nó

Toi-kong-thik-no

I like it

Tôi thích nó

Toi-thik-no

Useful Vietnamese Words for Food and Drink

English

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Fish

Ka

Shrimps

Tôm

Tom

Shellfish

So

Rice

Cơm

Kom

Meat

Thịt

Theed

Beef

Thịt bò

Theed-bo

Chicken

Thịt gà

Theed-ga

Egg

Trứng

Trung

Duck

Thịt vịt

Theed-vid

Pork

Thịt lợn

Theed-lon

Lamb

Thịt cừu

Theed-kiu

Seafood

Hải sản

Hai-san

Coffee

Cà phê

Café

Tea

Trà

Traj

Water

Nước

Nuok

Breakfast

Ăn sáng

An-sang

Lunch

Ăn trưa

An-trua

Diner

Ăn tối

An-toi

Chopsticks

Đũa

Dua

Fork

Nĩa

Nia

Knife

Dao

Daow

Spoon

Thìa

Thia

Glas

Cốc

Coke

I’m full

Tôi no rồi

Toi-no-roi

Very tasty!

Rất ngon!

Rat-ngon

Can I have the menu?

Làm ơn cho tôi thực đơn?

Lam-own-cho-toi-thuk-dern

Can I have the menu in English?

Bạn có thực đơn bằng tiếng Anh không?

Ban-ko-thuk-dern-bang-tieng-Anh-kong

May I have the bill?

Làm ơn cho tôi hoá đơn?

Lam-own-cho-toi-hoa-dern

Restaurant

Nhà hàng

Nha-hang

Useful Sentences to Ask for Directions

English

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

I no longer have gas

Tôi bị hết xăng

Toi-bi-het-xang

I am lost, please help me

Tôi bị lac, làm ơn giúp

Toi-bi-lak, lam-own-giup

Waar is ….?

Ở đâu là…?

Ow-dau-la

How far is it?

Nó xa bao nhiêu?

No-xa-baow-nhiew

Go straight ahead

Đi thẳng

Di-thang

Left

Trái

Trai

Right

Phải

Phai

It is an emergency

Đây là một trường hợp khẩn cấp

day-la-mod-truong-hop-khan-cap

Where is the nearest police station?

Đồn cảnh sát gần nhất ở đâu?

Don-canh-sat-gan-nhat-ow-dau

Please help me

Làm ơn giúp tôi

Lam-on-giup-toi

Where is the hospital?

Bệnh viện ở đâu?

Benh-vien-ow-dau

I need a doctor?

Tôi cần một bác sĩ

Toi-kan-mod-bac-si

Police station

Đồn cảnh sát

Don-canh-sat

Market

Chợ

Cho

Hotel

Khách sạn

Khach-san

ATM

Máy rút tiền

May-rud-tien

 

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Vietnam Language: History, Origin of Vietnamese Alphabet Vietnam Language: History, Origin of Vietnamese Alphabet
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