Vietnamese alphabet

The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally developed by Portuguese missionary Francisco de Pina (1585 – 1625).

The Vietnamese alphabet contains 29 letters, including seven letters using four diacritics: ''ă'', ''â''/''ê''/''ô'', ''ơ''/''ư'', ''đ''. There are an additional five diacritics used to designate tone (as in ''à'', ''á'', ''ả'', ''ã'', and ''ạ''). The complex vowel system and the large number of letters with diacritics, which can stack twice on the same letter (e.g. ''nhất'' meaning "first"), makes it easy to distinguish the Vietnamese orthography from other writing systems that use the Latin script.

The Vietnamese system's use of diacritics produces an accurate transcription for tones despite the limitations of the Roman alphabet. On the other hand, sound changes in the spoken language have led to different letters and digraphs now representing the same sounds.

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Letter names and pronunciation

Vietnamese uses all the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet except for ''f'', ''j'', ''w'', and ''z''. These letters are only used to write loanwords, languages of other ethnic groups in the country based on Vietnamese phonetics to differentiate the meanings or even Vietnamese dialects, for example: ''dz'' or ''z'' for southerner pronunciation of ''v'' in standard Vietnamese.

In total, there are 12 vowels (''nguyên âm'') and 17 consonants (''phụ âm'', literally "extra sound").

;Notes:
* The vowels in the table are italicized.
* Pronouncing ''b'' as or and ''p'' as or is to avoid confusion in some contexts, the same for ''s'' as or ''sờ nặng'' (literally, "strong s" or "heavy s") and ''x'' as (literally, "light x"), ''i'' as (literally, "short i") and ''y'' as (literally, "long y").
* ''Q'' and ''q'' is always followed by ''u'' in every word and phrase in Vietnamese, e.g. (trousers), (to attract), etc.
* The name for ''y'' is from the French name for the letter: (Greek I), referring to the letter's origin from the Greek letter ''upsilon''. The other obsolete French pronunciations include ''e'' () and ''u'' ().
* The Vietnamese alphabet does not contain the letters F (ép, ép-phờ), J (gi), W (u kép meaning "double u", vê kép, vê đúp meaning "double v") or Z (dét). However, these letters are often used for foreign loanwords or may be kept for foreign names.
*"Y" is most commonly treated as a vowel along with "i". "i" is "short " and "y" is "long ". "Y" can have tones as well as other vowels (ý, ỳ, ỹ, ỷ, ỵ) e.g. ''Mỹ'' (America). It may also act as a consonant (when used after ''â'' and ''a''). It can sometimes be used to replace "i", e.g. "''bánh mì''" (bread) can also be written "''bánh mỳ''".
*S and X are similar to each other in sound in Vietnamese and can sometimes replace each other e.g. ''sương xáo'' or ''sương sáo'' (grass jelly).

Consonants

The alphabet is largely derived from Portuguese with major influence from French, although the usage of ''gh'' and ''gi'' was borrowed from Italian (compare , ) and that for ''c/k/qu'' from Greek and Latin (compare , , ), mirroring the English usage of these letters (compare , , ).

Vowels

Pronunciation

The correspondence between the orthography and pronunciation is somewhat complicated. In some cases, the same letter may represent several different sounds, and different letters may represent the same sound. This is because the orthography was designed centuries ago and the spoken language has changed, as shown in the chart directly above that contrasts the difference between Middle and Modern Vietnamese.

The letters ''y'' and ''i'' are mostly equivalent, and there is no concrete rule that says when to use one or the other, except in sequences like ''ay'' and ''uy'' (i.e. tay ("arm, hand") is read while tai ("ear") is read ). There have been attempts since the late 20th century to standardize the orthography by replacing all the vowel uses of ''y'' with ''i'', the latest being a decision from the Vietnamese Ministry of Education in 1984. These efforts seem to have had limited effect. In textbooks published by Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục ("Publishing House of Education"), ''y'' is used to represent only in Sino-Vietnamese words that are written with one letter ''y'' alone (diacritics can still be added, as in ''ý'', ''ỷ''), at the beginning of a syllable when followed by ''ê'' (as in ''yếm'', ''yết''), after ''u'' and in the sequence ''ay''; therefore such forms as ''*lý'' and ''*kỹ'' are not "standard", though they are much preferred elsewhere. Most people and the popular media continue to use the spelling that they are most accustomed to.

The uses of the letters ''i'' and ''y'' to represent the phoneme can be categorized as "standard" (as used in textbooks published by Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục) and "non-standard" as follows.

This "standard" set by Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục is not definite. It is unknown why the literature books use ''Lí'' while the history books use ''Lý''.

Spelling

Vowel nuclei

The table below matches the vowels of Hanoi Vietnamese (written in the IPA) and their respective orthographic symbols used in the writing system.

:

Notes:

*The vowel is:
**usually written ''i'': = ''sĩ'' (A suffix indicating profession, similar to the English suffix ''-er'').
**sometimes written ''y'' after h, k, l, m, n, s, t, v, x: = ''Mỹ'' (America)
***It is always written ''y'' when:
::# preceded by an orthographic vowel: = ''khuyên'' 'to advise';
::# at the beginning of a word derived from Chinese (written as ''i'' otherwise): = ''yêu'' 'to love'.
*The vowel is written ''oo'' before ''c'' or ''ng'' (since ''o'' in that position represents ): = ''oóc'' 'organ (musical)'; = ''kính coong''. This generally only occurs in recent loanwords or when representing dialectal pronunciation.
*Similarly, the vowel is written ''ôô'' before ''c'' or ''ng'': = '' ôông'' ( Nghệ An/ Hà Tĩnh variant of ''ông'' ). But unlike ''oo'' being frequently used in onomatopoeia, transcriptions from other languages and words "borrowed" from Nghệ An/Hà Tĩnh dialects (such as '' voọc''), ''ôô'' seems to be used solely to convey the feel of the Nghệ An/Hà Tĩnh accents. In transcriptions, ''ô'' is preferred (e.g. ''các-tông'' 'cardboard', ''ắc-coóc-đê-ông'' 'accordion').

Diphthongs and triphthongs

:

Notes:

The glide is written:
*''u'' after (spelled ''q'' in this instance)
*''o'' in front of ''a'', ''ă'', or ''e'' except after ''q''
*''o'' following ''a'' and ''e''
*''u'' in all other cases; note that is written as ''au'' instead of *''ău'' (cf. ''ao'' ), and that is written as ''y'' after ''u''

The off-glide is written as ''i'' except after ''â'' and ''ă'', where it is written as ''y''; note that is written as ''ay'' instead of *''ăy'' (cf. ''ai'' ) .

The diphthong is written:
*''ia'' at the end of a syllable: = ''mía'' 'sugar cane'
*''iê'' before a consonant or off-glide: = ''miếng'' 'piece'; = ''xiêu'' 'to slope, slant'
:Note that the ''i'' of the diphthong changes to ''y'' after ''u'':
:*''ya'': = ''khuya'' 'late at night'
:*''yê'': = ''khuyên'' 'to advise'
:''iê'' changes to ''yê'' at the beginning of a syllable (''ia'' does not change):
:* = ''yên'' 'calm'; ''yếu 'weak, feeble'

The diphthong is written:
*''ua'' at the end of a syllable: = ''mua'' 'to buy'
*''uô'' before a consonant or off-glide: = ''muôn'' 'ten thousand'; = ''xuôi'' 'down'

The diphthong is written:
*''ưa'' at the end of a syllable: = ''mưa'' 'to rain'
*''ươ'' before a consonant or off-glide: = ''mương'' 'irrigation canal'; = ''tưới'' 'to water, irrigate, sprinkle'

Tone marks

Vietnamese is a tonal language, so the meaning of each word depends on the pitch in which it is pronounced. Tones are marked in the IPA as suprasegmentals following the phonemic value. Some tones are also associated with a glottalization pattern.

There are six distinct tones in the standard northern dialect. The first one ("level tone") is not marked and the other five are indicated by diacritics applied to the vowel part of the syllable. The tone names are chosen such that the name of each tone is spoken in the tone it identifies.

In the south, there is a merging of the ''hỏi'' and ''ngã'' tones, in effect leaving five tones.

*''* ='' Z (in TELEX) and 0 (in VNI) keys are used to remove the mark. For example in TELEX, AS => ''á'', then press Z => ''a''.
*Unmarked vowels are pronounced with a level voice, in the middle of the speaking range.
*The grave accent indicates that the speaker should start somewhat low and drop slightly in tone, with the voice becoming increasingly breathy.
*The hook indicates in Northern Vietnamese that the speaker should start in the middle range and fall, but in Southern Vietnamese that the speaker should start somewhat low and fall, then rise (as when asking a question in English).
*In the North, a tilde indicates that the speaker should start mid, break off (with a glottal stop), then start again and rise like a question in tone. In the South, it is realized identically to the Hỏi tone.
*The acute accent indicates that the speaker should start mid and rise sharply in tone.
*The dot or cross signifies in Northern Vietnamese that the speaker starts low and fall lower in tone, with the voice becoming increasingly creaky