Vietnamese language. What language is spoken in Vietnam: the official language, the language of communication, the necessary colloquial and useful phrases for tourists

The modern Vietnamese script Chữ Quốc Ngữ (literally "national script") based on the Latin alphabet was developed in the 17th century, but became widely used much later - only at the beginning of the 20th century.

Throughout the entire period of the existence of the Vietnamese state and until the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnam used Chinese characters(the Vietnamese name is “hanvan”), as well as the Vietnamese script Chữ Nôm (lit. “folk script”) developed on their basis. At first, this writing was used exclusively for recording geographical names and personal names, but over time, tyn began to spread throughout the country and penetrate into other areas of life, in particular, into literature. Since the XIV century, tyyn began to be used in administrative documents. Over the centuries, this script has become a tool for creating many masterpieces of Vietnamese literature.

The earliest piece of Vietnamese literature that has come down to us, written in Thien, is Thien Tong Ban Hanh, which dates back to the 13th-14th centuries. The poem "Kieu" ("Kim Van Kieu") by Nguyen Du (1766-1820) is one of the exceptional creations of Vietnamese literature.

In the first half of the 17th century, on the basis of the work done earlier in the Far East by French, Spanish missionaries and Vietnamese Christians, a Latin-based alphabet was developed for recording Vietnamese texts, which, in fact, is still used in Vietnam today.

In 1651, the Catechism and the capital Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin lexicon with a lengthy phonetic and grammatical essay were already published in Rome.

While hanvan (Chinese) served the official side of the state, primarily the life of the imperial court and its ritual, the work of officials, the Academy of Literature and the system of competitive examinations, and Vietnamese texts were created in tyin (local hieroglyphic writing), mainly in the field of artistic literature, the new writing became multifunctional: it united all aspects of the life of the Christian diaspora.

During the domination of colonial France in Vietnam, absolute priority in development was given to the national Vietnamese language. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the Vietnamese intelligentsia, advocating the modernization of the country, considered it necessary to officially introduce the phonetic letter kuok ngy (picture on the right).

In 1910, writing on the Latin basis, in which tones are indicated by diacritical marks, received official status.

If at the time of the dominance of hieroglyphic writing, education and literacy were overwhelmingly the property of men (there were extremely few women who received an education, and they belonged to a privileged class), then in modern society the situation has changed dramatically. Moreover, the traditional Confucian teacher of “Chinese literacy” (thầy đò) was replaced by the typical image of a young teacher elementary school(cô giáo), whose prerogative became the pedagogical process.

By the middle of the 20th century, an interesting process of spiritual unification of different generations of Vietnamese studying quoc ngy was observed. At the same time, teenagers who had already learned a new literacy were often teachers of their older relatives and comrades in the evening classes of educational program for adults.

The modern Vietnamese alphabet has 29 letters:

The main difference from Latin letters is the addition of diacritics to the vowels at the top and bottom of the letter. This is done because of the need to correctly label each of the six tones. That is, depending on the intonation (tone) with which the word is pronounced, it can have up to six meanings.

Vietnamese phonetic writing is the language of modern fiction, science, education, government administration, daily friendly and official communication. Written in any language of the world, including non-hieroglyphic texts, texts can be translated into Quoc Ngy with ease and grace.

Calligraphy of kuok ngy on bamboo (picture on the right). The Fourteen Commandments of the Buddha: 1. The biggest enemy in a person's life is himself. 2. The biggest stupidity in a person's life is a lie. 3. The biggest defeat in a person's life is arrogance. 4. The biggest sadness in a person's life is envy. 5. The biggest mistake in a person's life is to lose oneself. 6. The greatest guilt in a person's life is ingratitude. 7. The most worthy regret in a person's life is the belittling of one's dignity. 8. The most admirable thing in a person's life is to rise after a fall. 9. The biggest loss in a person's life is the loss of hope. 10. The greatest asset in a person's life is health and reason. 11. The biggest duty in a person's life is sincere feelings. 12. The greatest gift in a person's life is generosity. 13. The biggest flaw in a person's life is misunderstanding. 14. The greatest consolation in a person's life is good deeds. Source: http://www.nhat-nam.ru/

The Quoc Ngy letter serves as a unifying factor for Vietnamese compatriots living abroad. Due to the fact that the Latin alphabet is taken as the basis in their own alphabet, the Vietnamese learn European languages ​​more easily, and foreigners quickly master Vietnamese, again thanks to familiar letters.

Grammar, morphology of the Vietnamese language

Vietnamese is a tone language. It has six tones: high even, descending smooth (or falling), descending-ascending (acute interrogative), ascending-descending (interrogative), ascending, sharply descending (heavy). Vietnamese is a monosyllabic language: morpheme (or root) boundaries usually coincide with syllable boundaries.

Vietnamese is an isolating language. This means that grammatical relations are expressed mainly by word order and auxiliary words.
The author of this text, as well as many of his Vietnamese colleagues, generally consider the Vietnamese language to be one of the most remarkable languages ​​in the world. The parts of speech here do not change either by cases, or by persons, or by numbers - in no way. The words here just don't change.

To form, say, the comparative degree of an adjective, a special service particle is used: đẹp - beautiful, đẹp hơn - more beautiful. Verb tenses are formed in the same way: before the verb, a particle is used - an indicator of the present, past or future tense: viết - write, đã viết - wrote, đang viết - I am writing, sẽ viết - I will write. And forget about English with its complex system of tenses or French with its feminine and masculine articles!

In Vietnamese, the definition always comes after the word it defines: cô đẹp — beautiful girl(lit. beautiful girl). The vast majority of Vietnamese words are monosyllabic, and therefore one might get the impression that in the Vietnamese language all words in writing are divided into syllables...

Vietnamese vocabulary

As a result of long-term Chinese influence in Vietnam, most of the Vietnamese vocabulary in the field of science and politics is borrowed from the Chinese language. Up to 70 percent of all words in modern Vietnamese have Chinese roots. Although many of them are composite and include native Vietnamese words and Chinese loanwords. Most of the roots are also borrowed from the Thai language, which allowed some time ago to put forward a theory about the relationship of the Vietnamese and Thai languages. As a result of French colonization, a large proportion of Vietnamese words have French roots. They also left a mark in Vietnamese, English and Russian.

Since Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet, when borrowing words from English, French, and other Romance languages, there is no need to rewrite them in katakana (as in Japanese) or look for similar-sounding characters, as is done in Chinese. Nevertheless, the Vietnamese language has developed its own system of adaptation foreign words to the sound principles of the Vietnamese language. For example:

What language is spoken in Vietnam is of interest to all tourists who seek to be in this country. And in recent times the number of people who go to this southeastern state is only increasing. Vietnam attracts with its exotic nature, inexpensive vacations and the hospitality of the locals, with whom you want to exchange at least a couple of words in their native language.

Official language

Vietnam is a multinational country. It has both official and unrecognized languages. But still, finding out what language is spoken in Vietnam, it is worth recognizing that the majority prefers Vietnamese. It is state-owned, while part of the population is fluent in French, English and Chinese.

The official language of Vietnam is used for education and international communication. Apart from Vietnam itself, it is also common in Laos, Cambodia, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, France, USA, Germany, Canada and other countries. In total, it is spoken by about 75 million people, of which 72 million live in Vietnam.

This language in Vietnam is spoken by 86 percent of the population. Interestingly, until the very end of the 19th century, it was mainly used only for everyday communication and writing works of art.

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 2nd 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 10th 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 examinations when appointing a new official to a particular position. This was required to select the most qualified employees; for several centuries, examinations were conducted exclusively in Chinese.

How did the Vietnamese language originate?

Vietnam as an independent literary movement began to emerge only at the end of the 17th century. At that time, a French Jesuit monk named Alexandre de Rhode developed the Vietnamese alphabet based on the Latin. In it, tones were indicated by special diacritical marks.

In the second half of the 19th 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 the Hanoi dialect. However, the written form literary language based on the sound composition of the central dialect. An interesting feature is that in writing each syllable is separated by a space.

Now you know what language is in Vietnam. Nowadays, it is spoken by the absolute majority of the inhabitants of this state. At the same time, according to experts, there are about 130 languages ​​in the country, which are more or less common on the territory of this country. Vietnamese is used as a means of communication in the high level as well as among ordinary people. it official language in business and education.

Features of the Vietnamese language

Knowing what language is spoken in Vietnam, it is worth understanding its features. It belongs to the Austroasiatic family, the Vietnamese group. Most likely, in its origin it is close to the Muong language, but it was originally classified as a group of Thai dialects.

It has a large number of dialects, of which three main ones are distinguished, each of which is divided into its own dialects and dialects. The northern dialect is common in the center of the country, in Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding areas, the southern dialect is popular. 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 both tonal and syllabic at the same time.

In almost all languages ​​of this group Difficult words are simplified to monosyllabic, often this also applies to historical words, although the opposite trend has recently begun. The Vietnamese language lacks inflections and analytical forms. That is, all grammatical relations are built solely on the basis of function words, and prefixes, suffixes and affixes do not play any role in this. Significant parts of speech include verbs, adjectives and predicatives. Another one distinguishing feature is the use of related terms instead of personal pronouns.

word formation

Most of the words in the literary Vietnamese language are formed with the help of affixes, mostly of Chinese origin, as well as the addition of roots, doubling words or syllables.

One of key features word formation lies in the fact that all components involved in the formation of words 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: the subject comes first, then the predicate and object. Most Vietnamese words are borrowed from Chinese, and from different historical periods, there is also a lot of Austroasiatic vocabulary.

The names of people in Vietnam are made up of three words - this is the surname of the mother or father, the nickname and the name. The Viet are not called by their last name, as in Russia, most often they are identified by name. Another feature of Vietnamese names in earlier times was that the middle name explicitly indicated the sex of the child at birth. Moreover, if the name of the girl consisted of one word, then the boy could have several dozen words. In our time, this tradition has disappeared.

Popularity of the Vietnamese language

Due to the fact that today this language is spoken in many Asian and European countries, it is not surprising that its popularity is growing every year. Many learn it in order to open a business in this rapidly developing state.

Certain goods from Vietnam are now not inferior either in quality or in value, and the culture and traditions are so interesting and amazing that many seek to join them.

In Vietnam itself, English, French and Chinese are actively used in the tourism sector, quite a lot of Russian-speaking staff 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 intonation plays an almost decisive role.

In Russia, this is a rather rare language, there are only a few schools that will help you master it. If you nevertheless decide to study it, then be prepared for the fact that classes can begin only after the group is recruited, you may have to wait a long time, so it is better to initially focus on meetings with an individual teacher.

Common phrases in Vietnamese

So it's not easy to learn this language. At the same time, you often want to build communication in Vietnam in your native dialect in order to win over local residents. It is not difficult to master a few popular phrases that will demonstrate in a conversation how much you penetrate the local culture:

• Hello xing tiao.
• Dear friends - like bang than mein.
• Goodbye - hyung gap lay nya.
• Where will we meet - tyung ta gap nyau o dau?
• Bye - ddi nhe.
• Yes - tso, wang, yes.
• No - hong.
• Thank you - he is.
• Please - hong tso chi.
• Sorry - hin loy.
• What is your name - an tein la di?
• My name is... toy tein la...

We hope you have learned a lot of interesting things about the language and culture of Vietnam. We wish you interesting trips to this country!

But how to read it? - you ask. Yes, I agree. Latin in Latin, but in order to read correctly, you need to know the features of Vietnamese phonetics. We'll talk about this today. For those who know what IPA (aka MPA) is, I also give sounds according to this standard. For simplicity, I give an approximate comparison with Russian sounds. I also rely on my knowledge gained from native speakers on trips to Vietnam (to Nha Trang and the Northern regions of Vietnam). Well, let's get started!

Alphabet

So, let me remind you the alphabet.

Let's go over the "difficult" letters of the Vietnamese alphabet and their combinations. Mostly consonants and some vowels read almost like English, German or even Russian, with a few exceptions (see table below). Vietnamese letters C, T, P at the beginning of words are pronounced without aspiration, i.e. almost like russians K, T, P respectively. And at the end of the words they are almost silent, also without aspiration, just like a stop.

single letters

Abbreviations in the table: NE=Northern dialect, Cent.L=Central dialect, SouthL=Southern dialect.

Letter combinations

And now consider the common combinations of letters and their reading. The hyphen "-" after the letters means that this combination is at the beginning of the word. If "-" is in front of the letters, then it is at the end of the word.

Here is an example text for you to practice reading.
Nguyên tắc của IPA nói chung là để cung cấp một ký hiệu độc nhất cho mỗi âm đoạn, trong khi tránh những đơn âm được viết bằng cách kết hợp hai mẫu tự khác nhau (như th và ph trong tiếng Việt) và tránh những trường hợp có hai cách đọc đối với cùng một cách viết. Theo nguyên tắc này, mỗi mẫu tự trong bảng chỉ có duy nhất một cách đọc và không phụ thuộc vào vị trí của nó trong từ. Do đó, hệ thống này đòi hỏi rất nhiều mẫu tự khác nhau. Để học cách sử dụng hệ thống này thường phải qua một khóa đào tạo chuyên sâu về IPA từ các trường Đại học lớnth. Vì hệ thống âm khá nhiều và phức tạp. Marburg, Đại học Newcastle có dạy về IPA cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ học.

Vietnamese is one of the most spoken languages ​​in the world, with about 90 million native speakers. It is the official language in Vietnam and is also widely spoken in places where Vietnamese have immigrated, such as the US and Australia. Vietnamese grammar is very simple: nouns and adjectives do not have genders and are not conjugated. Vietnamese is a tonal language; the meaning of the word depends on how high or low your voice is. Vietnamese is not related to Chinese, although it contains many borrowings from Chinese due to centuries of Chinese dominance in Vietnam, and even used Chinese characters as a writing system called "Chu NOM" until Vietnam was colonized by the French.

Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook

At least with him you will feel much more confident. Especially if you learn some useful phrases in Vietnamese. Most often, Vietnamese is needed in restaurants to deal with the menu. It is best to print a Vietnamese phrasebook so as not to be dependent on the level of charge of your gadgets.

I have prepared for you a small Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook.