The Vietnamese Vietnamese (: Tiếng Việt ) is the official language of the Vietnam. It belongs to the branch my-Khmer of the austroasiatic Langues. It is the austroasiatic language which has the most speakers (approximately ten times more than the second, the Khmer ). It is a insulating Langue and monosyllabic, with system of let us tons vocalic.

It is the Native tongue from approximately 70% of the population of Vietnam, as well as approximately two million emigrants.

Grammar can seem simple because of the character insulator (it does not have there a conjugation nor of variation of the words, not of irregular plurals, etc), but the marks of Conjugaison and variation are carried by the tonal modulations, which can be difficult to control for a person accustomed so that it either carried by inflections. In the Latinized writing used currently, the Quốc ngữ , the words appear like a succession of monosyllabic.

Some 1.000 years of Chinese occupation resulted in the adoption of a great number of words Chinese and writing into Sinogramme S.

History

The creation of the Vietnamese alphabet is officially allotted to the Jésuite Alexandre of Rhodos in 1623.

Classification

Vietnamese belongs to the group of the Langues Vietnamese soldier-muong of the branch my-Khmer of the family of the austroasiatic Langues.

Vietnamese was identified as a language my-Khmer there is more than 150 years. Today, there exists a great number of solid work showing this relationship. Vietnamese emerged like language of a nation under foreign domination, when into 208 before J. - C., the China makes of a kingdom located in the Delta of the Red Fleuve vassal. In 111 before J. - C., China occupies this kingdom and makes a commandery of it. The Chinese occupation will last until 939 after J. - C., resulting in a deep sinicization from the culture and languages Vietnameses. Vietnamese was also influenced by the populations of Langues tai which migrate of the south of China in Indochinese Péninsule. Minorities called Tày in Vietnamese live in the mountainous regions of the north of Vietnam.

Under these two influences, Vietnamese with advanced in a language mono tonal Syllabique and , which gives him a surface resemblance, on the one hand with the Chinese, on the other hand with the Thai .

However, this phonological evolution is explained primarily by internal transformations. Indeed, one notes a similar evolution in others Langues Vietnamese soldier-muong which however were not subject to the same external influences. From the point of view of the comparative rebuilding, Vietnamese poses problem, being, on the plans phonological and lexical, less preserving than the other languages Vietnamese soldier-muong.

On the other hand, the loans of Vietnamese to Chinese are very important for the rebuilding of antiquated and old Chinese.

Lastly, it is essential to distinguish the linguistic importance from Vietnamese of its political office, even ideological.

Politically, Vietnamese is the national language of a country of more than 80 million inhabitants.

Linguistically, he is simply a member of a family very diverse whose majority is, during the history, found marginalized from the point of view of the number of speakers.

Geographical distribution

According to the publication Ethnologist , one finds speakers of Vietnamese of significant number in the following countries: Australia, Kampuchea, Canada, China, Ivory Coast, Finland, metropolitan France and New Caledonia, Germany, Laos, Martinique, Netherlands, Norway, Filipino, Senegal, Thailand, the United Kingdom, E. - U., and Vanuatu.

Official statute

Vietnamese is the official language of the Vietnam.

Dialects

There are several distinct dialects whose the three principal ones are:

These dialects differ by their pronunciation from the consonants and the Tonème S, the difference being marked between the dialect of Hooted and the two others, in particular with regard to the hỏi , one of the tonèmes of the language. The official pronunciation is that of the dialect of Hanoï.

See the detailed article Languages of Việt Nam .

Some characteristics

It is not a question to make a Vietnamese course but to show some specificities of the language compared with French.

Classifying articles

It with properly did not speak there about definite articles (like the , the or ) or about indefinite articles ( a , a , of the ), but of the classifying articles comparable with the quantifiers Chinese, which indicate to which semantic Classe belongs the object which they accompany. These classifying articles are:
  • cái : concrete inanimate objects;
  • idiot : usually for the animals, but they can be used for inanimate objects which have an animal characteristic (for example idiot CAD for “the knife”);
  • bài : used for works like the songs, drawings, poems, tests…
  • bánh : prefixes indicating mainly the sweetened or salted cakes (cakes, crepes…) but also wheels or tires (banh Xe);
  • bộ : collection or series
  • cây : used for the longilignes objects (plants, rifles, canes…) ;
  • chiếc : object expressing the unit of an object (chairs, cars, boats, shirts…) ;
  • tòa : word which does not have a direction that if it is preceded or followed of another word (quan toà = the judge, toà nhà = real)
  • quả or trái : indicate mainly a fruit/object but specifies the nature of the fruit or the object when it is followed un/plusieurs words. “Quả” is used by “the Trái” and North Vietnameses by the Vietnameses of the Center and the South (“Quả đất” or “trái đất” means the Earth, “Quả camwood” or “trái camwood” means orange);
  • quyển or cuốn : objects of the book type connected (books, re-examined…) or rolled;
  • tờ : sheets and end objects out of paper (daily, leaflet, calendar…) ;
  • việc : event or process in progress.
Thus, quả đất or trái đất means the planet Ground, mặt đất means the surface of the ground (the ground) and đất very short means the ground (matter). In the spoken language, one frequently uses cái like indefinite article in the place of the classifying articles.

Pronouns

French makes a great use of the Pronom S, in particular of the personal pronouns: I , you , it … Vietnamese, contrary, does not use any. When one addresses to somebody, one uses a word reflecting the relations with this person: familiarity, respect, precedence of the age, family ties… The distinction between use of the vous and the use of the tu thus does not function as in French.

Let us take a dialog between a grandfather and his grandson

  • small son : you are well?
  • grandfather : yes, thank you, I am well.
A literal translation of Vietnamese would give:
  • small son : grandfather be well?
  • grandfather : yes, thank you, grandfather is well.

Some estimate that one can see there there a mark of the thought confucéenne. However, insofar as one observes the same phenomenon in other languages of the Southeast Asia, which in addition belong to other linguistic families, the such for example Indonésien (language austronésienne) and the Thai (language tai-kadai), spoken by populations whose culture did not undergo no confucéenne influence but largely adopted Indian models , one can reasonably deduce from it that this aspect is not especially due to the Confucianism.

It would have besides to be checked if Chinese shows this characteristic.

When one wants to use “you” or “you” neutral, neither too formal, nor too familiar (case for example of a general text, since one addresses to the reader without knowing his social position), one in general uses the word bạn which also means “friendly”. One can also use the term quý vị , but this one is very rigid and very formal. When one speaks with somebody about very near (familiar), or with a subordinate, one can use mày , but this term can be perceived like coarse.

Foreign place names

The place names (or Toponym S) foreign, such as the names of country or cities, are sometimes transcriptions of Chinese, sometimes of the phonetic transcriptions, the two coexistent one in certain case.

Morphology

Writing

The current writing is the Quôc ngu.

Pronunciation

Here a sound example of pronunciation of Vietnamese (dialect of Hanoï).

Lexicon

Vocabulary

Cardinals

The table below gives the cardinal numbers in my, Khmer and Vietnamese, and their translation in French:

One notices the greatest proximity between my and Vietnamese who enters it my and Khmer.

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