432 Vietnamese

Vietnamese
J Edmondson, University of Texas Arlington, TX, USA Chinese influence in Vietnamese is generally very
ß 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. important and is the result of (1) 1000 years of occu-
pation by Chinese speakers, (2) the role ofChinese as
the spoken and written language of administration
and, (3) the fact that Chinese continues to be the
Historical Origins source of borrowing even today. Chinese loans in
The Vietnamese are thought to be descended from a contemporary Vietnamese, called Sino-Vietnamese,
precursor people who once dwelled near the Viet-Lao can make up as much as 80% of the vocabulary in
border of Central and Northcentral Vietnam where some semantic domains, (Hoàng, 1991: 5). But the
today are still found Vietic groups such as the depth of Chinese influence extends beyond the lexi-
Mu’ò’ng, Nguô` n, Arem, Ru. c, Po. ng, Arem, Mày, cal. Indeed, some of the typological incongruities of
, morphology and syntax are now considered to be the
Sách, Mã Liê` ng, and Thà Vu. ’ng (Nguyê˜n Tài Cân,
1995), (Ferlus, 1979, 1982, 1991, 1996, 1997). Long result of contact with Chinese and other languages.
ago some of these groups moved north into the Red Politically independent at last, the Vietnamese then
River Valley, lived under their own Hùng Vu’o’ng turned their attention to southern rivals, the Champa
kings, and then allied with the indigenous Tày ethni-, Kingdom. Three hundred years of greater and lesser
cities in the joint Tày-Viet Kingdom of Âu-La. c at Cô hostilities ensued, with ebbs and flows evident in
Loa Citadel near Hanoi (257 to 208 B.C.). This lineage marriage alliances and other accommodations; Viet-
ended when the First Emperor of China and builder namese absorbed some early loans from this source
of the Great Wall dispatched the Chinese general as well. In the 14th century, the Vietnamese gained
Zhào Tuó (in Hanyu Pingyin transcription) or ultimate control and the boundaries of the language
Triê. u Ðà (in Vietnamese), who conquered Âu-La. c and were advanced southward until Vietnam reached its
introduced 100 000 soldiers, Chinese rule, Chinese current geographic extension. Chinese Chũ’ Hán
character writing or Chũ’ Hán ‘Han (Chinese) with an admixture of Chũ’ Nôm writing flourished
script’, and the Mandarin administrative system. until the late 1600s when an outside force, Jesuit
Vietnam remained a Chinese province until A.D. missionaries including Alexander de Rhodes and
939. After the Chinese departed, the Vietnamese Francisco de Pina, developed an orthography based
continued the practice of borrowing from the Chinese loosely on Portuguese and on Italian models that
cultural lexicon as well as structural and grammatical were intended not for the court but for believers
forms, and continued developing the character script, among the common people. It was a romanized
which was then renamed Chũ’ Nho or ‘learned script with diacritics for tones and vowels, called
script’, and which contrasted with newly created Chũ’ Quô´c Ngũ’, whose timeline can be sketched
characters used for writing purely Vietnamese lexical as follows: 1620–1631 embryonic beginnings,
items. This new demotic script was called Chũ’ 1631–1648 revisions, 1651–1659 dissemination,
Nôm ‘southern, local, vernacular script’ or simply and 1772–1838 finalizing stage, (Lý, 1999: 234–5).
Nôm, which was clearly in evidence by the 13th Over the 18th and 19th centuries, official character
century, but was perhaps in use as early as the 10th script and popular roman script co-existed, but grad-
century. Consider the following examples of strate- ually Chũ’ Quô´c Ngũ’, aided first by French colonial
gies used for crafting Nôm characters: (1) giò’i proclivities in favor of a Latin-based script and the
‘heaven, sky’ from Chinese meaning ‘heaven’ and Church and later by populist movements, led to a
meaning
, ‘above’; (2) d–â´t ‘earth’ composed of shift in orthography; the character-based writing of
thô ‘earth’ for the meaning and , taken from one Vietnamese was finished entirely by 1917 when the
half of for the sound d–át; (3) cá ‘fish’ is a French eliminated the Chinese examination system,
combination of ‘fish’ for the meaning and cá cf., Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) and Nguyê˜n Ðı̀nh
for the sound; and (4) ba ‘three’ is composed of the Hoà (1973, 1992).
radical meaning ‘three’ and ba for the sound.
Regional Varieties
These examples show that 10th century Vietnamese
were very much aware of the principles used in the The regional varieties of Vietnamese are divided into
construction of Chinese characters, namely to com- three main types: Northern (e.g., Hanoi), Central (e.g.,
bine a radical part for meaning and a phonetic part Huê´), and Southern (e.g., Hô` Chı́ Minh City). Recently,
for the sound, but the example for sky, heavens it has been suggested by Ferlus and Nguyê˜n Tài Câ’n
shows that sometimes other methods of creation that a fourth regional area should be added, North-
were used. central Vietnam or Area IV (Nghê. An Province), as this
 Vietnamese 433

Table 1 Vietnamese tone categories Table 2 Vietnamese consonant system

Level Rising Falling ph- [f] th- [ h] kh- [x]

-p [ ] t[ ] c, k, q- [k]
High ngang [NaN33] să´c [săk35 ] ho, i [ho, i323] tr-, ch [t ]
D
Low huyê`n [huien 31] nă. ng [năN21 ] ngã [Na4 5] b- [ b] d– [ d] g(h)- [g] or [X]
¨ ¨ D
x-, s- [s] h-
v- [v] r-, d-, gi- [z]
area preserves several special features lost elsewhere, m [m] n [n] nh [J] ng(h) [N]
1- [1]
cf., below and Alves (2000).
Phonological Forms

Vietnamese of the northern type has six tones, the Table 3 Regional variation of initials from Alves (2000).
southern type five, and central/northcentral types QN=Quô´c Ngũ, NV=Hanoi, NCV=locations in Nghê. An
five or six, all of which can be traced back to a parent Province, CV=Huê´, SV=Hô` Chı́ Minh City
tone system of three columns of level, rising, and
QN NV NCV CV SV
falling tones and two rows, high and low. Haudri-
court (1954) proposed that Vietnamese was originally s s
not a tonal language but that tonality arose as a part x s s s s
of the historical development of Vietnamese. In this tr c r r r
ch c c c c
theory syllable-final consonants caused changes of r z r r r
pitch; rising tones were produced in syllables that d z j j j
formerly ended in -p, -t, -k, - , whereas falling tones gi z z j j
were created in syllables that once ended in -s or -h, v v v j j
and mid-level tones were created when syllables pos- -nh M M n n
-n n n n/N n/N
sessed no final consonants to draw the pitch up or -ng J J N N
down. Haudricourt’s famous theory of Vietnamese -ch c c t t
tonogenesis explains how a non-tonal Mon-Khmer -t t t t/k t/k
language could changes its typological features and -c k k k k
become tonal. Vietnamese tone categories are also
associated with specific voice quality contrasts that
accompany each tone, perhaps a residue of its tono-
genetic history. Thus the tone called ngang demon-
strates mid-level with modal voice (tones are notated In southern Vietnamese there are some important
with the scale-of-five system in which 5 is the highest differences in initials compared to Hanoi. Notably tr-
and 1 is the lowest level, cf. Y. -R. Chao, 1930); huyê` n and s- are retroflexed [<r §] and contrast with ch- [tC]
falls from mid with lax/breathy voice; să´c rises sharp- (with very little friction compared to Hanoi speech)
ly from mid with tense voice ending in a glottalized and x [s] respectively, g- [g], r- [r] (with a lot of
coda; nă. ng falls with increasingly tense voice from variation in realization of the r-), v- [j] (Thompson,
early in the syllable to glottal statis; h i is a fall-rise 1987: 89) d-, gi-[j]. As mentioned above, Northcen-
tone; ngã has a glottal interruption in the center of tral Vietnamese has preserved three distinct pronun-
the syllable, sounding almost as if it were composed ciations for d-, r-, and gi-. See Table 3.
of two syllables V V, with overall a very high rising Vietnamese word structure allows only sequences
pitch, cf., Nguyê˜n and Edmondson (1997). The C1V(V)C2, whereby C1 can be any allowed initial
names ngang, huyê`n, etc., illustrate the tone they (notice that p- cannot be an initial except in words
name. See Table 1. borrowed from French, e.g., pin ‘battery’ and pı́p
Vietnamese consonants in Hanoi speech distin- ‘smoking pipe’). The syllable coda C2 can be - -
guish five places of articulation – labio-dental, denti- - - -m -n -nh [M] -ng [N]. One noteworthy pho-
alveolar (the t series is denti-alveolar initially and nological change in northern speech is engendered by
apico-postalveolar finally), palatal, velar, and glottal, these final consonants. Whenever the velars -c or -ng
and several manners of articulation – voiceless aspi- follow back rounded vowels u, ô, or o, there is double
rated stops, voiceless unaspirated stops, preglotta- closure, and a velar and labial are simultaneously
lized voiced stops, fricatives (x is a lamino- formed (because these are also accompanied by glot-
prepalatal narrow grooved fricative), liquids, and tal stop, in reality they are triply closed). The preced-
nasals. Compare Chũ’ Quô´c Ngũ’ and IPA values of ing round vowel causes simultaneous assimilatory
these consonants in Table 2. rounding of [-k -N] to [- - ] in addition to
434 Vietnamese

Table 4 Vietnamese rhymes with nuclear vowel(s) in the left column and codas in rows. Compiled from Lê´ Vă´n Lý (1948), Haudricourt
(1951), Gordina (1960), Emeneau (1951), as reported in Cao Xuân Ha. o (2003: 88–103)

Ø j w m p n t c r k
-i/y -o/u -m -p -n -t -nh -ch -ng -c

i i - iu im ip in it inh ich - -
ie ia - iêu iêm iêp iên iêt - - - -
e ê - êu êm êp ên êt - - - -
E e - eo em ep en et - - - -
E e - - - - - - - - eng ec
u’ u’i u’u - - - u’t - - u’ng u’c
u’a u’o’i u’ou u’om u’op u’on u’ot - - u’ong u’oc
X - ây âu âm âp ân ât - - âng âc
X o’ o’i - o’m o’p o’n o’t - - - -
a - ay au ăm ăp ăn ăt anh ach ăng ăc
a a ai ao am ap an at - - ang ac
u u ui - um up un ut - - ung uc
u ua uôi - uôm - uôn uôt - - uông uô
o ô ôi - ôm ôp ôn ôt - - ông ôc
O o oi - om op on ot - - ong oc
o - - - - - - - - - ôông -
O - - - - - - - - - oong ooc

diphthongization of the vowel, e.g., dùng ‘to use’ thanh âm [voice-[sound
, , N]N] ‘sound’, and verbs
[z 31] du. c a suffix [zM 21 ], ho. c ‘study, -ology’ are left-headed âu thô [V[V vomit]-spit] ‘to vomit’)
[ha 2¨ 1¨ ] and d–ô` ng ‘Vietnamese
u D piastre’ [ d u 31]. or are pure Vietnamese creations of Vietnamese or
D
Similarly, whenever the palatals -ch or -nh follow ¨¨ mixed lexical roots, all left-headed ngù’o’i Viê. t [N[N
the unrounded vowels -i, -ê, or -a, then diphthongiza- people]- Viet] ‘Vietnamese people’, nhà thu’o’ng [N[N
tion occurs as before, but there is no rounding, as house]-of the injured] ‘hospital’, làm viê. c [V[V do]-
all segments are unrounded to begin with, e.g., minh work] ‘to work’, except for the group of father-moth-
‘clear, bright’ [miiM33], thı́ch ‘to like’ [thiic35 ], lê. nh er compounds, which consist mostly of semantically
‘order, command’ [lei J21 ], ê´ch ‘frog’ [eic35 ], anh paired things, e.g., bô´ me. father-mother ‘parents’,
‘Sir, you, older brother’ D [kiM33] and thach ‘stone’
. bàn ghê´ table-chair ‘furniture’, bát dı̃a bowl-plate
i
[thk c21 ]. ‘dishes’, which function as a unit without head. Viet-
The rhymes of Vietnamese syllables can have the namese reduplicatives are also very productive, such
nuclear vowels: / i ie e E E W W: a a u u o o O O/. If as complete reduplicatives having the same onset and
one assumes that /ie ^MV uV / function as the long rhymes, cu’ò’i-cu’ò’i ‘laugh a little’, nói nói ‘keep
versions of /i M u/, then all vowels except /e/ have talking’, register change reduplicatives with the re-
long and short forms. In Table 4 one sees the possible peated part, be it on the right or left, having opposing
combinations of these nuclear vowels with the set of high-low register of the same tone class, e.g., xe. p ‘be
possible codas. Nuclear vowels may occur in open flattened’ vs. xép-xe. p ‘be completely flattened’ (with
syllables, i.e., with -ø coda or in one of the following a să´c tone syllable being here followed by a nă. ng
combinations: -j (graphically -i/-y), w (graphically reduplicant); some have vowel changes in the redu-
-o/-u), -m, -p, -n, -t, -nh, -ch, -ng, -c. There are some plicant, e.g., hô´c ‘hole, hollow’ vs. hô´c-hác ‘be
notable areas where combinations are disallowed. emaciated, gaunt’; some can have changes of onset
For example, there are no rhymes *ij, *uw, or *ow, in the first element and some in the second element
palatal coda may combine only with -a- and -i-, and as rô. n ‘be noisy’ vs. chô. n-rô. n ‘be agitated’ and xe. p
velars may not combine with high front vowels ‘beflattened’ vs. xe. p-lép ‘be completely flattened’,
except /E:/. (Thompson, 1987).
Regarding word categories, Vietnamese has the
Word Category and Constructions
following: nouns Lê Quý Ðôn 18th century author,
Contrary to some reports, Vietnamese is not an abso- ho. c sinh ‘student’, gà ‘chicken’; classifiers hai con chó
lutely monosyllabic language, but one with many two-CLS-dog ‘two dogs’, các cái bàn plural-CLS-
compounds and reduplicated structures. Compounds table ‘tables’; locatives ngoài ‘outside’, bă´c ‘north’;
demonstrate disyllabic construction and have either numerals hai ‘two’, ba ‘three’; verbs d–i ‘to go, walk’,
been borrowed intact, from Chinese (so nouns are nói ‘to talk’; stative verbs (adjectives) tô´t ‘good’, mó’i
right-headed, e.g., cô d–a. i [old-[eraN]N] ‘antiquity’, ‘new’; and pronouns. It is noteworthy for its rich and
 Vietnamese 435

complex set of pronouns. There are personal pro- grammar that might be difficult for some to under-
nouns tôi ‘I, me (with modesty, servant)’, ta ‘I stand. Some of the examples are also no longer
(emphatic), one’, tao ‘I (arrogant)’, mày, mi, bay acceptable to contemporary speakers. Cao Xuân
‘you (arrogant)’, and nó ‘it (animal)’ or ‘he (for chil- Ha. o (2003) in an 800-page collection of his essays
dren or contemptible persons, criminals)’. The term has discussed Vietnamese from the phonological,
mı̀nh, meaning ‘body’ is used for ‘you (intimate)’. The grammatical, and semantic perspectives. His bibliog-
term chúng ‘group of animate objects’ can be com- raphy includes many important scholars from the
bined with the above to make plurals such as chúng U.S. western Europe, and Russia, such as Bloomfield,
tôi ‘we-exclusive’ and chúng ta ‘we-inclusive’. In pub- Bybee, Chao Yuen Ren, Chomsky, Ducrot, McCawley
lic discourse, kinship names are often used, e.g., chi. et al., and a glossary of linguistic terms with English
‘older sister, you-Ms.’, bà ‘grandmother, old woman, definitions. Notable dictionaries are those by Nguyê˜n
you-Madame’, anh ‘older brother you-Sir’, cháu Ðı̀nh Hoà in many editions, Bùi Phu. ng (1995) in many
‘niece/nephew, grandchild, you-Young Person’, cô editions, and Viê. n Ngôn Ngũ’ Ho. c (2000), the model
‘father’s sister, you-Ms.’ (One speaker from Hanoi for the contemporary language and the standard-
said that cô was obligatory to address one’s female setting dictionary from the Linguistics Institute of
teachers.) These can become like 3rd person pro- Vietnam.
nouns by adding â´y, e.g., anh â´y ‘he, that Sir (a Despite the obvious influences of contact, Vietnam-
contemporary)’, chi. â´y ‘she, that Ms. (a contempo- ese shows a surprising number of unique features
rary)’, but there is also nó ‘he (deprecating)’ and ho. (e.g., tense markers for past and future, some right-
‘they’. Kinship names also have features of anaphoric and some left-headed typological features), arguably
nouns, they contain additional information about the richest set of pronouns in East and Southeast Asia
gender and degree of familiarity, and they function as well as properties typical of the linguistic area (e.g.,
differently in tracking participants in discourse. a fully developed tone-voice quality sound system, a
sharply reduced coda inventory, four-syllable elabo-
Phrases and Sentences rate expressions, and a numeral classifier system).
Phrases are mostly left-headed, e.g., attributive adjec- Vietnamese is thus ultimately not very similar to
tives follow heads, d–ô` ng Viê. t Nam piaster-Vietnam Mon-Khmer, cf., Haudricourt (1953), and is certainly
‘the Vietnamese piaster’, complements follow heads, not similar to Sinitic, but a language perhaps analo-
ăn co’m eat-rice ‘to eat (food)’, whereas adverb-like gous in its position to Modern English in the sense
elements can appear to the left or right of the head, that it too has lost many features found in related
râ´t d–ă´t very-expensive ‘very expensive’ but d–ă´t lă´m languages. Yet, despite borrowing and shift influ-
expensive-very ‘very expensive’. ences, Vietnamese, like English, remains an indepen-
Sentences tend to have known, presupposed infor- dent and distinctive language in its own right.
mation at the beginning and new, asserted information
See also: Vietnam: Language Situation.
at the end. One manifestation of this principle is that
after introducing a referent, a close-knit group of
clauses or a topic chain follows whose subjects are
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Viëtor, Wilhelm (1850–1918)

J B Walmsley, Universität Bielefeld, Languages in Liverpool and in 1884 was appointed
Bielefeld, Germany Associate Professor of English Philology at Marburg,
ß 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. where he remained for the rest of his life. He died on
September 22, 1918.
The main areas with which Viëtor concerned him-
Wilhelm Viëtor was born on December 25, 1850, and self were foreign language teaching (FLT) reform
went to school in Cleeberg and Weilburg, Germany. (Viëtor, 1882), philology (Viëtor, 1876), phonetics
From 1869 to 1872 he studied theology and classical (Viëtor, 1884), a national standard for German pro-
philology at Leipzig, Berlin, and Marburg. He then nunciation, and marrying the philological disciplines
taught in England from 1872 to 1874, and from 1874 with the demands of teacher training (Viëtor, 1902).
to 1875 he studied for his doctorate in Marburg, after Viëtor made his name early with his notorious
which he taught at various schools in Germany. From anonymous publication of 1882. This pamphlet is
1882 to 1884 he worked as Lecturer in Teutonic divided into two major sections. In the first section,