Vietnamese is a language that uses the Latin alphabet, which has been modified and created. Foreign missionaries from Portugal, Italy, Spain, France... based on the original pronunciations of the local people, formed the reading and writing of this language. The purpose was to facilitate the missionary work of foreign priests in Vietnam as well as to help Vietnamese Catholics easily access the Latin alphabet language of the Catholic Church around the early years of the 17th century.
The first records using Quoc Ngu (primitive Vietnamese) were documents about religious ceremonies of the church. After that, Quoc Ngu was used by Vietnamese linguists, writers, and journalists from around the 18th century. Quoc Ngu became the official script taught in schools, used to disseminate decrees and administrative directives of the French protectorate government in South Vietnam starting from the late 19th century.
Up to now, after more than 300 years of formation and development, Vietnamese has become the official language in Vietnam, used by more than one hundred million Vietnamese people both at home and abroad. Vietnamese has been affirming its mission as a language that carries within itself the cultural characteristics of the Vietnamese people. Selectively receiving the quintessence of human cultural values, contributing to bringing Vietnam closer to the world, for a peaceful, prosperous and happy society.
In terms of language characteristics, Vietnamese can be divided into 3 groups of words as follows:
Group 1: Pure Vietnamese words, mainly words used in spoken language:
- "Cái nhà" is a word with 2 combined words with the sole meaning of a word used to talk about a specific object.
- " xinh đẹp " beautiful
- "nóng" hot…
Group 2: These are words called Sino-Vietnamese words, meaning that these words have their origin in Chinese (Chinese), or are directly translated from Chinese characters, Nom characters and are mainly used in written documents, or in news. For example:
- “Hồi hương” is a compound word with the meaning of returning to the place where one was born and raised.
"hồi" = return, return
- “Viên mãn” is a compound word with the meaning of a state of complete satisfaction, the most wonderful result.
"Viên" = round, full
Some other examples of pure Vietnamese words and Sino-Vietnamese words, for example:
Vietnamese | Sino-Vietnamese |
Ngựa | Mã |
Rồng | Long |
Bố mẹ | Phụ mẫu |
… | … |
Group 3: These are words transliterated from French or new words that have recently appeared and originated from foreign languages that have never existed in Vietnamese. The names and capitals of countries are sometimes transliterated into Vietnamese. However, in this case, most of the proper names are kept intact.
Some examples of Vietnamese words in this third group are:
- "Xà phòng": (savon) - Soap
- "Kem" (crème) - Ice Cream
-"Ban công " (balcon) - Balcony
- " Phim " (film) - Movie
Based on the Latin alphabet, the Vietnamese alphabet consists of 29 letters with the following writing and reading:
Understanding the origins and alphabet of the
Vietnamese language will help you pronounce and speak Vietnamese accurately.
But that's only the first basic step in your journey to discover this language. Practicing pronunciation, one sound per day with all
the tones (there are a total of 6 tones), will help you learn Vietnamese
thoroughly and fundamentally from the beginning.
Our YouTube channel is a tool to help you gradually
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