What language is spoken in Vietnam, are interested in all tourists who seek to be in this country. And recently, the number of people who are sent to this southeastern state is only increasing. Vietnam attracts with its exotic nature, low-cost vacation and hospitality of local residents, with whom I want to exchange a few words in their native language.
Official language
Vietnam is a multinational country. In it there are both official and unrecognized languages. But still, figuring out what language is spoken in Vietnam, it is worth recognizing that the majority prefers Vietnamese. It is a state language, while part of the population is fluent in French, English and Chinese.
The official language of Vietnam is used for education and international communication. In addition to Vietnam itself, it is also common in Laos, Cambodia, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, France, the USA, Germany, Canada and other countries. In total, about 75 million people speak it, of which 72 million live in Vietnam.
86% of the population speak this language in Vietnam. Interestingly, until the very end of the 19th century, it was mainly used only for everyday communication and writing fiction.
History of vietnam
Telling what language is spoken in Vietnam, it should be noted that the history of the state left its mark on this. In the II century BC, the territory of the modern country to which this article is devoted was conquered by China. In fact, the Vietnamese remained under the protectorate of the Chinese until the X century. It is for this reason that Chinese served as the main language for official and written communication.
In addition, the Vietnamese rulers paid close attention to competitive exams when appointing a new official to a particular position. This was required to select the most qualified employees; exams for several centuries were conducted exclusively in Chinese.
How the Vietnamese language appeared
The national language of Vietnam as an independent literary language began to emerge only at the end of the 17th century. At that time, a French Jesuit monk named Alexander de Rod developed the Vietnamese alphabet based on Latin. In it, tones were indicated by special diacritical marks.
In the second half of the XIX century, the colonial administration of France, in order to weaken the traditional influence of the Chinese language on Vietnam, contributed to its development.
The modern literary Vietnamese language is based on the northern dialect of Hanoi dialect. In this case, the written form of the literary language is based on the sound composition of the central dialect. An interesting feature is that in the letter, each syllable is separated by a space.
Now you know what language is in Vietnam. In our time, it is spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants of this state. Moreover, according to experts, there are about 130 languages in the country that are more or less widespread in the country. The Vietnamese language is used as a means of communication at the highest level, as well as among ordinary people. It is an official language in business and education.
Vietnamese language features
Knowing what language is spoken in Vietnam, it is worth understanding its features. He belongs to the Austro-Asian family, the Vietnamese group. Most likely, it is close in origin to the Moyong language, however, it was initially assigned to the group of Thai dialects.
He has a large number of dialects, of which there are three main ones, each of which is divided into its dialects and dialects. The northern dialect is widespread in the center of the country, and the southern dialect is popular in Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding areas. All of them differ in vocabulary and phonetics.
Grammar
In total, the Vietnamese language has about two and a half thousand syllables. Interestingly, their number may vary depending on belonging to a particular dialect. It is an isolating language that is tonal and syllable at the same time.
In almost all languages of this group, complex words are simplified to monosyllabic, often this also applies to historical words, although the opposite trend has recently begun. There are no inflections and analytical forms in the Vietnamese language. That is, all grammatical relationships are built solely on the basis of service words, and prefixes, suffixes and affixes do not play any role in this. Significant parts of speech include verbs, adjectives and predicates. Another distinguishing feature is the use of related terms instead of personal pronouns.
Word formation
Most of the words in the Vietnamese literary language are formed using affixes, mainly of Chinese origin, as well as addition of roots, doubling of words or syllables.
One of the key features of word formation is that all the components involved in word formation are monosyllabic. Surprisingly, one syllable can have several meanings at once, which can change from intonation when they are pronounced.
The sentence has a fixed word order: first comes the subject, and then the predicate and addition. Most of the Vietnamese words are borrowed from the Chinese language, and from different historical periods, there are also a lot of Austro-Asian vocabulary.
The names of people in Vietnam are made up of three words - this is the name of the mother or father, nickname and first name. By the surname of the Viet, they are not called, as in Russia, most often they are identified by name. Another feature of Vietnamese names in earlier times was that the middle name clearly indicated the gender of the child at birth. Moreover, if the name of the girl consisted of one word, then the boy could have a few dozen words. In our time, this tradition has disappeared.
The popularity of the Vietnamese language
Due to the fact that in our time this language is spoken in many Asian and European countries, it is not surprising that its popularity is growing every year. Many teach him in order to open a business in this rapidly developing state.
Certain goods from Vietnam are now not inferior in either quality or value, and the culture and traditions are so interesting and amazing that many tend to join them.
In Vietnam itself, English, French and Chinese are actively used in the field of tourism, quite a lot of Russian-speaking personnel can be found, especially among those who received education in the USSR in Soviet times. Those who master this language note that it is very similar to Chinese. In both languages, syllables carry a special semantic load, and intonations play an almost decisive role.
In Russia, this is a rather rare language; there are only a few schools that will help to master it. If you still decide to study it, then be prepared for the fact that classes can begin only after recruiting a group, you may have to wait long enough, so it is better to focus on meetings with an individual teacher from the beginning.
Common phrases in Vietnamese
So it’s not so easy to learn this language. At the same time, you often want to build communication in Vietnam in your native dialect in order to attract local residents. It’s not difficult to learn a few popular phrases that will demonstrate in a conversation how much you get into the local culture:
- Hello - shin tiao.
- Dear friends, like Ban Than Maine.
- Goodbye - hyung gap lai nya.
- Where will we meet - thung ta gap nyau oh dow?
- Bye - ddi nhe.
- Yes - tso, wang, yes.
- No, Hong.
- Thank you, Kam.
- Please - Hong Tso Chi.
- Sorry - hin loy.
- What is your name - An Thain La Di?
- My name is ... - Toyne la ...
We hope you learned a lot about the language and culture of Vietnam. We wish you interesting trips to this country!