VIETNAMESE WRITING SYSTEM

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IMPLIED BY

QUC NG
1. BACKGROUND
-With the colonization of China, Vietnamese is influenced by Chinese. In fact, Vietnamese was
obliged to adopt Chinese writing system. It, nevertheless, included Vietnamese own features in
its writing system.
- Ch nm apparently existed for several centuries alongside the standard written Chinese of
royal court (called ch nho or ch hn)
-The adaptation of the Roman alphabet in the seventeenth century represents Vietnamese
words. Alexandre de Rhodes, who invented Vietnamese writing system did use the Roman
alphabet and base on the phonetic transcription on his first work namedDictionarium
Annamiticum-Lusitanum-Latinum (A Vietnamese -Portugese- Latin Dictionary) (p.16, Hoang
Thi Quynh Hoa thesis)
-Modern Written Vietnamese represents the phonological system of a Northern dialect at
some period between the seventeenth century and the present. (p.55)
-The system does not fit exactly any modern dialect yet observed
yelling a tradition rather than a real dialect.
Neccessary to reconstruct the writing system
-More information can be gleaned from the description of sounds of de Rhodes 1651b, as well
as from the letters of the Roman alphabet which were used to represent the distinctive elements
(phonemes).
2.CONSONANT SYSTEMS
-Five main positions: Include two different positions where the tongue tip formed consonants:
+ One against or near the backs of the upper teeth
+ The other farther back in the mouth-around the aveolar ridge or in the back of it.
-More distinctive manner than Hanoi system
(hard to say exactly because of the lack of phonetic detail)
-Consonants which are similar to Hanoi speech today are t, ch, k, th, h, g, l, m, n, nh, ng
-Different consonants:
Examples: Labials: /ph/ bilabial (before)
labiodental (today)
Orthographic: /p/ final position
/b/ initial position
-Other set of consonants:
a.The sound represented by /d/ (without a bar) as a sound outside the modern system

+ Old writing system: the missionaries used speaking form rather than the written form of /d/
+ Modern system: The descriptions indicate a stop formed by the tongue tip against the back
of the upper teeth with perhaps also the blade of the tongue against the ridge behind the teeth
It was extended over the northern dialect area and the northern part of central Vietnam
b. Gi: borrowed from orthography of Italian such as Giovanni, giorno
/gi/ /z/
3.DISTRIBUTION OF CONSONANTS
-In the earlier language, consonants were apparently distributed in syllables in much the same
way as they are in modern Hanoi speech.
-In the Rhodes time, three additional initial clusters which have been disappeared in modern
dialects are /bl/, /tl/, /ml/. These clusters are replaced with other initials in modern dialects (see
Maspero, 1912)
Example: In the dictionary of Alexandre de Rhodes (Ng Nh Bnh)
tri (heaven) bli
trm (hundred) tlm
ti (word)
mli
4.NUCLEI
There are three types of nuclei including:
+ Simple nuclei: includes one of the vowels e, o, a.
Example: nghe (listen), nh (small), c (fish)
+Two element nuclei: includes a vowel+a consonant or a semivowel [j, , w, , p, m, t, n, ch, nh,
k, ng]
Ex: mu [miw] (scheme), ngi [ngj] (to sniff), sch [sch] (book), hnh [hnh] (onion)

+ Three element nuclei: includes a cluster of two vowels or a dipthong + a final consonant or
semivowel [j, w, p, m, t, n, k, ng]
Example: hiu [hiw] (understand), tui [tuj] years old), ng [wng] (grandfather), hc [hwk]

5.TONES
-Like othe tonal languages, Vietnamese uses tone to distinguish the meaning for words. Without
the changing of pitch, many words would have become hymonymous. The change of pitch is
important in the tonal language that some linguists call it a phoneme
-There are six distinctions including sc, ng, ngang, huyn hi, nng composed of contours of
musical pitch, combined with certain other features of voice production

-One sound can have six different meaning if it is pronounced with either different level features
or different modulation features.
Example: l (a leaf), l (cold, water), la (shout), l (tobe, to iron), l (tired out), l (strange), (p.
26, Hong Th Qunh Hoa thesis)
6.TONE MARKS
Tone marks are written with the vocalic portion of the syllable.
1.One vowel
-Appear over only a single vowel letter (or in the case of du nng, under)
Example: ph (noodle soup), nng (heavy), n (arrive)
2.Two or more vowels: applying 4 following principles:
-If they include a letter with one of the other diacritics (denoting vowel quality differences), the
tone mark accompanies that letter.
Example: tun (week), xu (bad)
-In the case of (where there are two letters with diarcritics), the tone mark accompanies
Example: ng (sugar), ru (alcoholic beverage)
-The tone mark accompanies the letter which denotes the prominent vowel of the syllable,
unless this is word final.
Example: ngha (meaning), ma (season), mu (blood)
-Where the prominent vowel is represented by a word final vowel letter without diacritic,
there is a strong tendency to place the tone symbol with the preceding vowel letter.
Example: khe (healthy), gi (old), gi (wind)
3.With proper name: omit tone marks in print form of ordinary French
Example: Hanoi, Saigon, Soc-trang, Sa-ec, alat

References:
inh, L Th & Nguyn, Vn Hu. (1998). C cu ng m ting Vit. Vietnam: Education
Publishing House
Hong, Th Qunh Hoa. (1965). A phonological contrastive study of Vietnamese and English.
The Graduate Faculty of Texas Technological College. Texas. The USA
Ng, Nh Bnh. The Vietnamese language framework. Part 1: Linguistics. Harvard University.
Retrieved July 24th, 2014 from www.seasite.niu.edu
Thompson, L. C. (1965). A Vietnamese Grammar. Washington: University of Washington Press