Vietnamese Phonology
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The phonology of Vietnamese features 19 consonant phonemes, with 5 additional consonant phonemes used in Vietnamese's Southern dialect, and 4 exclusive to the Northern dialect. Vietnamese also has 14 vowel nuclei, and 6 tones that are integral to the interpretation of the language. Older interpretations of Vietnamese tones differentiated between "sharp" and "heavy" entering and departing tones. This article is a technical description of the sound system of the
Vietnamese language Vietnamese ( vi, tiếng Việt, links=no) is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national language, national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, ...
, including
phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
and
phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
. Two main varieties of Vietnamese,
Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
and
Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...
, which are slightly different to each other, are described below.


Initial consonants

Initial consonants which exist only in the Northern dialect are in red, while those that exist only in the Southern dialect are in blue. * /w/ is the only initial consonant permitted to form
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s with other consonants. * occurs syllable-initially only in
loan word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
s, but some speakers pronounce as (as in ''sâm banh'', derived from French ''champagne''). * The glottalized stops are preglottalized and voiced: (the
glottis The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds (the rima glottidis). The glottis is crucial in producing vowels and voiced consonants. Etymology From Ancient Greek ''γλωττίς'' (glōttís), derived from ''γλῶττα'' (glôtta), va ...
is always closed before the oral closure). This glottal closure is often not released before the release of the oral closure, resulting in the characteristic
implosive Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. R ...
pronunciation. However, sometimes the glottal closure is released prior to the oral release in which case the stops are pronounced . Therefore, the primary characteristic is preglottalization with implosion being secondary. * are
bilabial In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips. Frequency Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tli ...
, while are
labiodental In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants Place of articulation, articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth. Labiodental consonants in the IPA The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are: The IPA c ...
. * are
denti-alveolar In linguistics, a denti-alveolar consonant or dento-alveolar consonant is a consonant that is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and the upper teeth, such as and in languages such as French, Italian and Spanish. That is, ...
(), while are apico-
alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * ...
. * are phonetically lamino- palatoalveolar (the blade of the tongue makes contact behind the
alveolar ridge The alveolar process () or alveolar bone is the thickened ridge of bone that contains the tooth sockets on the jaw bones (in humans, the maxilla and the mandible). The structures are covered by gums as part of the oral cavity. The synonymous ter ...
). * are often slightly
affricate An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
d , but they are
unaspirated In linguistics, a tenuis consonant ( or ) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized. In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish ''p, t, ch ...
. * A
glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
is inserted before words that begin with a vowel or : :


Hanoi initials

* ''d'', ''gi'' and ''r'' are all pronounced . * ''ch'' and ''tr'' are both pronounced , while ''x'' and ''s'' are both pronounced . * Some rural speakers merge and into , although this is not considered standard.


Ho Chi Minh City initials

* ''d'' and ''gi'' are both pronounced . * Historically, is pronounced in common speech, merging with ''d'' and ''gi''. However, it is becoming distinct and pronounced as , especially in careful speech or when reading a text. In traditional performance including Cải lương, Đờn ca tài tử, Hát bội and some old speakers of Overseas Vietnamese, it is pronounced as consonant cluster or . In loanwords, it is always pronounced : ''va li'' . * Historically, a distinction is made between ''ch'' and ''tr'' , as well as between ''x'' and ''s'' . However, in many speakers, these two pairs are becoming merged as and respectively. * In informal speech, , , , and sometimes are pronounced . However, it is becoming distinct and pronounced as , , , respectively, especially in formal speech or when reading a text. * In southern speech, the phoneme , generally represented in Vietnamese linguistics by the letter , has a number of variant pronunciations that depend on the speaker. More than one pronunciation may even be found within a single speaker. It may occur as a
retroflex fricative A retroflex fricative is a fricative consonant produced in the retroflex place of articulation. The International Phonetic Alphabet has dedicated symbols for the following retroflex fricatives: *Voiceless retroflex fricative, *Voiced retroflex fric ...
, an
alveolar approximant The voiced alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is , a lowercase letter ''r'' rotated 18 ...
, a
flap Flap may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Flap'' (film), a 1970 American film * Flap, a boss character in the arcade game ''Gaiapolis'' * Flap, a minor character in the film '' Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland'' Biology and he ...
or a
trill TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware cus ...
, especially in loanwords. Some rural speakers from
Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( vi, Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit=Nine Dragon River Delta or simply vi, Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, lit=Mekong River Delta, label=none), also known as the Western Region ( vi, Miền Tây, links=no) or South-weste ...
pronounced as or , but this is not considered formal.


Comparison of initials

The table below summarizes these sound correspondences: :


Vowels


Vowel nuclei

: : The
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
chart of vowel nuclei above is based on the sounds in Hanoi Vietnamese; other regions may have slightly different inventories. Vowel nuclei consist of
monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
s (simple
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s) and three
centering diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s. * All vowels are
unrounded In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. It is labialization of a vowel. When a ''rounded'' vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and ''unrounded'' vowels are pro ...
except for the four back rounded vowels: . * In the South, the high vowels are all diphthongized in open syllables: , ''Ba Vì'' (). * and are pronounced shorter than the other vowels. These short vowels only occur in closed syllables. * There are small but consistent qualitative differences between and which show up in spectral analysis. However, it has not been established that they are perceptually significant, and the difference between the two vowels may be regarded as purely quantitative. * The vowels and are marginal. As with the other short/long vowel pairs, short and long and are only distinguished in closed syllables. For some speakers the distinction may be one of vowel quality or of the articulation of the syllable coda in addition to or instead of vowel quantity. * : Many descriptions, such as Thompson, , , consider this vowel to be close back unrounded: . However, Han's instrumental analysis indicates that it is more central than back. , and also transcribe this vowel as central.


Closing sequences

In Vietnamese, vowel nuclei are able to combine with offglides or to form closing
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s and
triphthong In phonetics, a triphthong (, ) (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos", literally "with three sounds," or "with three tones") is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel qu ...
s. Below is a chart listing the closing sequences of general northern speech. : says that in Hanoi, words spelled with ''ưu'' and ''ươu'' are pronounced , respectively, whereas other dialects in the Tonkin delta pronounce them as and . This observation is also made by and .


Finals

When stops occur at the end of words, they have
no audible release A stop with no audible release, also known as an unreleased stop or an applosive, is a stop consonant with no release burst: no audible indication of the end of its occlusion (hold). In the International Phonetic Alphabet, lack of an audible relea ...
(): : When the velar consonants are after , they are articulated with a simultaneous bilabial closure (i.e.
doubly articulated Doubly articulated consonants are consonants with two simultaneous primary places of articulation of the same manner (both plosive, or both nasal, etc.). They are a subset of co-articulated consonants. They are to be distinguished from co-articul ...
) or are strongly
labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...
. :


Hanoi finals


Analysis of final ''ch'', ''nh''

The pronunciation of syllable-final ''ch'' and ''nh'' in Hanoi Vietnamese has had different analyses. One analysis, that of has them as being phonemes , where contrasts with both syllable-final ''t'' and ''c'' and contrasts with syllable-final ''n'' and ''ng'' . Final is, then, identified with syllable-initial . Another analysis has final and as representing different spellings of the velar phonemes and that occur after upper front vowels (orthographic ) and (orthographic ). This analysis interprets orthographic ⟨ach⟩ and ⟨anh⟩ as an underlying , which becomes phonetically open and diphthongized: → , → . This diphthongization also affects ⟨êch⟩ and ⟨ênh⟩: → , → . Arguments for the second analysis include the limited distribution of final and , the gap in the distribution of and which do not occur after and , the pronunciation of ⟨ach⟩ and ⟨anh⟩ as and in certain conservative central dialects, and the patterning of ~ and ~ in certain reduplicated words. Additionally, final is not articulated as far forward as the initial : and are pre-velar with no alveolar contact. The first analysis closely follows the surface pronunciation of a slightly different Hanoi dialect than the second. In this dialect, the in and is not diphthongized but is actually articulated more forward, approaching a front vowel . This results in a three-way contrast between the rimes ''ăn'' vs. ''anh'' vs. ''ăng'' . For this reason, a separate phonemic is posited.


Table of Hanoi finals

The following
rime Rime may refer to: *Rime ice, ice that forms when water droplets in fog freeze to the outer surfaces of objects, such as trees Rime is also an alternative spelling of "rhyme" as a noun: *Syllable rime, term used in the study of phonology in ling ...
s ending with
velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive an ...
s have been
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
ized in the Hanoi dialect, but , and are more open: : With the above phonemic analyses, the following is a table of rimes ending in in the Hanoi dialect:


Ho Chi Minh City finals


Merger of finals

While the variety of Vietnamese spoken in Hanoi has retained finals faithfully from Middle Vietnamese, the variety spoken in Ho Chi Minh City has drastically changed its finals. Rimes ending in merged with those ending in , respectively, so they are always pronounced , respectively, after the short front vowels (only when is before "nh"). However, they are always pronounced after the other vowels . After rounded vowels , many speakers close their lips, i.e. they pronounce as . Subsequently, vowels of rimes ending in labiovelars have been diphthongized, while vowels of rimes ending in alveolar have been centralized. Otherwise, some Southern speakers distinguish and after in formal speech, but there are no Southern speakers who pronounce "ch" and "nh" at the end of syllables as .


Table of Ho Chi Minh City finals

The short back vowels in the rimes have been
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
ized and
centralized Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a particu ...
, meanwhile, the consonants have been labialized. Similarly, the short front vowels have been centralized which are realized as central vowels and the "unspecified" consonants have been affected by coronal spreading from the preceding front vowels which are surfaced as coronals (alveolar) . : The other closed dialects (
Hue In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called Color appearance model#Color appearance parameters, color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a Stimulus (physiology ...
, Quang Nam, Binh Dinh) which have also been merged in codas, but some vowels are pronounced differently in some dialects: The ''ông'', ''ôc'' rimes are merged into ''ong'', ''oc'' as , in many Southern speakers, but not with ''ôn'', ''ôt'' as pronounced , . The ''oong'', ''ooc'' and ''eng'', ''ec'' rimes are few and are mostly loanwords or
onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
. The ''ôông'', ''ôôc'' (''oong'', ''ooc, eng'', ''ec, êng, êc'' as well'')'' rimes are the "archaic" form before become ''ông'', ''ôc'' by diphthongization and still exist in North Central dialect in many placenames. The articulation of these rimes in North Central dialect are , without a simultaneous bilabial closure or
labialization Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...
. : With the above phonemic analyses, the following is a table of rimes ending in in the Ho Chi Minh City dialect:


Tone

Vietnamese vowels are all pronounced with an inherent tone. Tones differ in * pitch * length * contour melody * intensity *
phonation The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defini ...
(with or without accompanying constricted vocal cords) Unlike many Native American, African, and Chinese languages, Vietnamese tones do not rely solely on
pitch contour __NOTOC__ In linguistics, speech synthesis, and music, the pitch contour of a sound is a function or curve that tracks the perceived pitch of the sound over time. Pitch contour may include multiple sounds utilizing many pitches, and can relate t ...
. Vietnamese often uses instead a register complex (which is a combination of phonation type, pitch, length, vowel quality, etc.). So perhaps a better description would be that Vietnamese is a register language and not a "pure" tonal language. In Vietnamese orthography, tone is indicated by diacritics written above or below the vowel.


Six-tone analysis

There is much variation among speakers concerning how tone is realized phonetically. There are differences between varieties of Vietnamese spoken in the major geographic areas (northern, central, southern) and smaller differences within the major areas (e.g. Hanoi vs. other northern varieties). In addition, there seems to be variation among individuals. More research is needed to determine the remaining details of tone realization and the variation among speakers.


Northern varieties

The six tones in the Hanoi and other northern varieties are: : Ngang tone: *The ''ngang'' tone is level at around the mid level (33) and is produced with
modal voice Modal voice is the vocal register used most frequently in speech and singing in most languages. It is also the term used in linguistics for the most common phonation of vowels. The term "modal" refers to the resonant mode of vocal folds; that is ...
phonation The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defini ...
(i.e. with "normal" phonation). Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "level"; describes it as "high (or mid) level". Huyền tone: *The ''huyền'' tone starts low-mid and falls (21). Some Hanoi speakers start at a somewhat higher point (31). It is sometimes accompanied by
breathy voice Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like ...
(or lax) phonation in some speakers, but this is lacking in other speakers: ''bà'' = . Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "grave-lowering"; describes it as "low falling". Hỏi tone: * The ''hỏi'' tone starts a mid level and falls. It starts with modal voice phonation, which moves increasingly toward
tense voice The term stiff voice describes the pronunciation of consonants or vowels with a glottal opening narrower, and the vocal folds stiffer, than occurs in modal voice. Although there is no specific International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA diacritic for stif ...
with accompanying
harsh voice Harsh voice, also called ventricular voice or (in some high-tone registers) pressed voice, is the production of speech sounds (typically vowels) with a constricted laryngeal cavity, which generally involves epiglottal co-articulation. Harsh voice ...
(although the harsh voice seems to vary according to speaker). In Hanoi, the tone is mid falling (31). In other northern speakers, the tone is mid falling and then rises back to the mid level (313 or 323). This characteristic gives this tone its traditional description as "dipping". However, the falling-rising contour is most obvious in citation forms or when syllable-final; in other positions and when in fast speech, the rising contour is negligible. The ''hỏi'' also is relatively short compared with the other tones, but not as short as the ''nặng'' tone. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "smooth-rising"; describes it as "dipping-rising". Ngã tone: * The ''ngã'' tone is mid rising (35). Many speakers begin the vowel with modal voice, followed by strong
creaky voice In linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation, vocal fry, or glottal fry) refers to a low, scratchy sound that occupies the vocal range below the common vocal register. It is a special kind of phonation in which ...
starting toward the middle of the vowel, which is then lessening as the end of the syllable is approached. Some speakers with more dramatic glottalization have a
glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
closure in the middle of the vowel (i.e. as ). In Hanoi Vietnamese, the tone starts at a higher pitch (45) than other northern speakers. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "chesty-raised"; describes it as "creaking-rising". Sắc tone: *The ''sắc'' tone starts as mid and then rises (35) in much the same way as the ''ngã'' tone. It is accompanied by
tense voice The term stiff voice describes the pronunciation of consonants or vowels with a glottal opening narrower, and the vocal folds stiffer, than occurs in modal voice. Although there is no specific International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA diacritic for stif ...
phonation throughout the duration of the vowel. In some Hanoi speakers, the ''ngã'' tone is noticeably higher than the ''sắc'' tone, for example: ''sắc'' = (34); ''ngã'' = (45). Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "acute-angry"; describes it as "high (or mid) rising". Nặng tone: * The ''nặng'' tone starts mid or low-mid and rapidly falls in pitch (32 or 21). It starts with tense voice that becomes increasingly tense until the vowel ends in a glottal stop closure. This tone is noticeably shorter than the other tones. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "chesty-heavy"; describes it as "constricted".


Southern varieties

In Southern varieties, tones ''ngang'', ''sắc'', ''huyền'' have similar contours to Northern tones; however, these tones are produced with normal voice instead of breathy voice. The ''nặng'' tone is pronounced as low rising tone (12) ˨in fast speech or low falling-rising tone (212) ˩˨in more careful utterance. The ''ngã'' and ''hỏi'' tone are merged into a mid falling-rising (214) ˩˦which is somewhat similar ''hỏi'' tone of non-Hanoi Northern accent mentioned above.


North-central and Central varieties

North-central and Central Vietnamese varieties are fairly similar with respect to tone although within the North-central dialect region there is considerable internal variation. It is sometimes said (by people from other provinces) that people from Nghệ An pronounce every tone as a nặng tone.


Eight-tone analysis

An older analysis assumes eight tones rather than six. This follows the lead of
traditional Chinese phonology A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
. In
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
, syllables ending in a vowel or nasal allowed for three tonal distinctions, but syllables ending with , or had no tonal distinctions. Rather, they were consistently pronounced with a short high tone, which was called the entering tone and considered a fourth tone. Similar considerations lead to the identification of two additional tones in Vietnamese for syllables ending in , , and . These are not phonemically distinct from the ''sắc'' and ''nặng'' tones, however, and hence not considered as separate tones by modern linguists and are not distinguished in the orthography.


Syllables and phonotactics

According to , there are 4,500 to 4,800 possible spoken syllables (depending on dialect), and the standard national orthography (''
Quốc Ngữ 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 mis ...
'') can represent 6,200 syllables (''Quốc Ngữ'' orthography represents more phonemic distinctions than are made by any one dialect). A description of syllable structure and exploration of its patterning according to the Prosodic Analysis approach of J.R. Firth is given in Henderson (1966). The Vietnamese
syllable structure A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
follows the scheme: :(C1)(w)V(G, C2)+T where : In other words, a syllable has an obligatory nucleus and tone, and can have an optional consonant
onset Onset may refer to: *Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound *Onset, Massachusetts, village in the United States **Onset Island (Massachusetts), a small island located at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal *Interonset interval, ...
, an optional on-glide , and an optional
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
or off-glide. More explicitly, the syllable types are as follows: : C1: Any consonant may occur in as an onset with the following exceptions: * does not occur in native Vietnamese words w: the onglide (sometimes transcribed instead as
labialization Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...
on a preceding consonant): * does not occur after labial consonants * does not occur after in native Vietnamese words (it occurs in uncommon Sino-Vietnamese borrowings) V: The vowel nucleus V may be any of the following 14 monophthongs or diphthongs: . G: The offglide may be or . Together, V and G must form one of the diphthongs or triphthongs listed in the section on Vowels. * offglide does not follow the front vowels * offglide does not follow the rounded vowels * with some exceptions (such as '' khuỷu tay'' "elbow"), the offglide cannot occur if the syllable contains a onglide C2: The optional coda C2 is restricted to labial, coronal, and velar stops and nasals , which cannot cooccur with the offglides . T: Syllables are spoken with an inherent
tone contour A tone contour, or contour tone, is a tone in a tonal language which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. Tone contours are especially common in East, Southeast Asia, West Africa, Nilo-Saharan languages, Khois ...
: * Six tone contours are possible for syllables with offglides , closed syllables with nasal codas , and
open syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "b ...
s—i.e., those without consonant codas . * If the syllable is closed with one of the oral stops , only two contours are possible: the ''sắc'' and the ''nặng'' tones. * Less common rimes may not be represented in this table. * The ''nặng'' tone mark (dot below) has been added to all rimes in this table for illustration purposes only. It indicates which letter tone marks in general are added to, largely according to the "new style" rules of Vietnamese orthography as stated in Quy tắc đặt dấu thanh trong chữ quốc ngữ. In practice, not all these rimes have real words or syllables that have the ''nặng'' tone. * The IPA representations are based on Wikipedia's conventions. Different dialects may have different pronunciations.


Notes

Below is a table comparing four linguists' different transcriptions of Vietnamese vowels as well as the orthographic representation. Notice that this article mostly follows , with the exception of marking short vowels short. : says that the vowels (orthographic â) and (orthographic ă) are shorter than all of the other vowels, which is shown here with the length mark added to the other vowels. His vowels above are only the basic vowel phonemes. Thompson gives a very detailed description of each vowel's various allophonic realizations. uses acoustic analysis, including
spectrogram A spectrogram is a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time. When applied to an audio signal, spectrograms are sometimes called sonographs, voiceprints, or voicegrams. When the data are represen ...
s and
formant In speech science and phonetics, a formant is the broad spectral maximum that results from an acoustic resonance of the human vocal tract. In acoustics, a formant is usually defined as a broad peak, or local maximum, in the spectrum. For harmoni ...
measuring and plotting, to describe the vowels. She states that the primary difference between orthographic ''ơ'' & ''â'' and ''a'' & ''ă'' is a difference of length (a ratio of 2:1). ''ơ'' = , ''â'' = ; ''a'' = , ''ă'' = . Her formant plots also seem to show that may be slightly higher than in some contexts (but this would be secondary to the main difference of length). Another thing to mention about Han's studies is that she uses a rather small number of participants and, additionally, although her participants are native speakers of the Hanoi variety, they all have lived outside of Hanoi for a significant period of their lives (e.g. in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
or
Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...
). has a simpler, more symmetrical description. He says that his work is not a "complete grammar" but rather a "descriptive introduction." So, his chart above is more a phonological vowel chart rather than a phonetic one.


References


Bibliography

*Alves, Mark J. 2007. "A Look At North-Central Vietnamese." In ''SEALS XII Papers from the 12th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 2002'', edited by Ratree Wayland et al.. Canberra, Australia, 1–7. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University

* * * * Đoàn, Thiện Thuật; Nguyễn, Khánh Hà, Phạm, Như Quỳnh. (2003). ''A Concise Vietnamese Grammar (For Non-Native Speakers)''. Hà Nội: Thế Giới Publishers, 2001. * Earle, M. A. (1975). ''An acoustic study of northern Vietnamese tones''. Santa Barbara: Speech Communications Research Laboratory, Inc. * * Ferlus, Michel. (1997). Problemes de la formation du systeme vocalique du vietnamien. ''Asie Orientale'', ''26'' (1), . * Gregerson, Kenneth J. (1969). A study of Middle Vietnamese phonology. ''Bulletin de la Société des Etudes Indochinoises'', ''44'', 135–193. (Published version of the author's MA thesis, University of Washington). (Reprinted 1981, Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics). * * Han, Mieko S. (1968). ''Complex syllable nuclei in Vietnamese''. Studies in the phonology of Asian languages (Vol. 6); U.S. Office of Naval Research. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. * Han, Mieko S. (1969). ''Vietnamese tones''. Studies in the phonology of Asian languages (Vol. 8). Los Angeles: Acoustic Phonetics Research Laboratory, University of Southern California. * Han, Mieko S.; & Kim, Kong-On. (1972). ''Intertonal influences in two-syllable utterances of Vietnamese''. Studies in the phonology of Asian languages (Vol. 10). Los Angeles: Acoustic Phonetics Research Laboratory, University of Southern California. * * * * * * Henderson, Eugénie J. A. 1966. Towards a prosodic statement of the Vietnamese syllable structure. In ''In Memory of J. R. Firth'', ed. by C. J. Bazell et al., (pp. 163–197). London: Longmans. * Hoàng, Thị Châu. (1989). ''Tiếng Việt trên các miền đất nước: Phương ngữ học''. Hà Nội: Khoa học xã hội. * * * * * * * Nguyễn, Đình-Hoà. (1955). ''Quốc-ngữ: The modern writing system in Vietnam''. Washington, D. C. * Nguyễn, Đình-Hoà. (1959). ''Hòa's Vietnamese-English dictionary''. Saigon. (Revised as Nguyễn 1966 & 1995). * Nguyễn, Đình-Hoà. (1966). ''Vietnamese-English dictionary''. Rutland, VT: C.E. Tuttle Co. (Revised version of Nguyễn 1959). * * Nguyễn, Đình-Hoà. (1995). ''NTC's Vietnamese-English dictionary'' (rev. ed.). Lincolnwood, IL.: NTC Pub. Group. (Revised & expanded version of Nguyễn 1966). * Nguyễn, Đình-Hoà. (1996). Vietnamese. In P. T. Daniels, & W. Bright (Eds.), ''The world's writing systems'', (pp. 691–699). New York: Oxford University Press. . * * * Phạm, Hoà. (2001). A phonetic study of Vietnamese tones: Reconsideration of the register flip-flop rule in reduplication. In C. Féry, A. D. Green, & R. van de Vijver (Eds.), ''Proceedings of HILP5'' (pp. 140–158). Linguistics in Potsdam (No. 12). Potsdam: Universität Potsdam (5th conference of the Holland Institute of Linguistics-Phonology). . * * * * * * *


External links


Ngữ âm học
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vietnamese Phonology Phonologies by language Vietnamese language