Read Languages In the World Online
Authors: Julie Tetel Andresen,Phillip M. Carter
Languages In the World (39 page)
Vietnamese is spoken by approximately 81 million people in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and by several million more people living outside the country. In and around Orange County California, for instance, there are more than 150,000 Vietnamese speakers. Vietnamese is in the Vietic branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family and is closely related to MÆ°á»ng, also spoken in Vietnam.
There are three traditionally recognized varieties of Vietnamese: North (home of the present-day capital, Hanoi), Central (home of the historic capital, Huê), and South (home of the economically vibrant Ho Chi Minh City, which is still often referred to as Saigon). Some differences are phonetic:
gì
âwhat' and
giá»
âhour, time' are pronounced [zì] and [zá»] in the North and [yì] and [yá»] in the South. Some differences are lexical: the word for âwallet' is
vÃ
in the North and
bóp
in the South. Although there are some Central varieties that are considered difficult to understand, it is the case that, through education and mass media, most Vietnamese are familiar with both Northern and Southern styles of speaking.
Indo-European languages are intonation languages, which means that a vocal contour extends across an entire utterance to produce, say, a
question or a statement. By way of contrast, many languages use vocal contour on individual words in order to produce different lexical meanings. These languages are called tone languages.
Vietnamese has six tones. The names for the tones name the contours:
dấu ngang
is the flat tone (
ngang
means âhorizontal');
dấu huyá»n
is the falling tone (
huyá»n
has no special meaning, except to name the tone),
dấu ngã
is the tumbling tone (
ngã
means âto tumble'),
dấu há»i
is the asking tone (
há»i
means âto ask'),
dấu sắc
is the sharp tone (
sắc
means âsharp'), and
dấu nạng
is the heavy tone (
nạng
means âheavy'). In the Vietnamese alphabet, graph
d
has the value [y], while graph
Ä
has the value [d].
Vietnamese is monosyllabic, allows no consonant clusters, and has a relatively wide range of vowels. Not all syllables have a six-way tone contrast similar to:
quân
âarmy soldier (archaic),'
quần
âtrousers,'
quẫn
âto be hard-up,'
quẩn
âto hover, to be in the way,'
quấn
âto roll (turban, bandage),' and
quáºn
âdistrict.' However, the great majority of syllables have many tonal possibilities, for example:
dứa
âpineapple,'
dÆ°a
âmelon,'
dừa
âcoconut.' (Graph Æ° represents a high middle unrounded vowel.) Because tone is phonemic, Vietnamese speakers do not feel any special relationship among words that have the same syllable structure but a different tone, for example, the three kinds of fruit just mentioned. Nor is one felt, say, in the phrase
vòi voi
âelephant trunk' where
vòi
is âtrunk, spout,' and
voi
is âelephant.' These are syllabic coincidences.
Vietnamese has some evidence of tonal
sandhi
. The words
nhiá»u
âmany' and the number
mÆ°á»i
âten' both change to flat tone when they are in common combinations such as
bao nhieu
âhow much/many' and
hai mÆ°Æ¡i, ba mÆ°Æ¡i
, etc. âtwenty, thirty, etc.' In addition, sound change involving tone can and does occur. Currently, the phrase for âthank you' is fluctuating between
cám ơn
and
cảm ơn
.
Indo-European languages distinguish between count nouns and mass nouns. Words like
shirt
and
book
are called count nouns, because they can be counted: one shirt, two shirts, one book, two books, etc. Mass nouns are words like
snow
or
golf
. They cannot be counted. There is no âone snow,' âtwo snows,' âone golf,' âtwo golfs.' However, when a perspective is taken on a way to perceive snow or golf â that is, when snow or golf is viewed with respect to other potentially similar objects â the possibility arises of: one flake of snow, two flakes of snow, one round of golf, two rounds of golf. In English, the word
flake
particularizes something small and flat with an irregular boundary. Accordingly, bits of dandruff are imagined as flakes. Now what does
round
suggest? How about: “Let's give this woman a round of applause!” “Hey, bartender, I'll spring for another round of drinks for the house!”
For many Southeast and East Asian languages (Burmese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai), all nouns are considered mass nouns, and therefore all nouns, even those like
shirt
and
book
require a classifier (CL) once they are particularized. In Vietnamese, âone shirt' is
má»t
âone'
cái
(CL)
áo
âshirt'; âtwo books' is
hai
âtwo'
quyá»n
(CL)
sách
âbook'. As in English, classifiers in Vietnamese tend to identify a set of objects by some criterion: their shape, what they are made of, how they are used, whether they are hard or soft, etc. Just as English âpiece' is a kind of default classifier for many mass nouns: piece of luggage, piece of furniture, juicy piece of gossip, etc., so the classifier
cái
in Vietnamese is general and is used with many objects:
nón
âhat,'
bà n
âtable,'
máy may
âsewing machine,'
thang cuá»n
âescalator,'
túi xách
âpurse,'
bảng
âbulletin board.'
Cái
can be used to make abstract nouns out of adjectives:
cái Äẹp
âbeauty,'
cái ác
âevil,'
cái tá»t
âgoodness.' When
cái
is used to classify the word for
ngÆ°á»i
âperson,' as in
cái ngÆ°á»i
, it is clear the speaker has a negative opinion of that person, because the speaker has classified that person as a thing. Children overextend the boundaries of this classifier and must be corrected.
Another high-profile classifier is
con
, and it is used primarily for animals:
vá»t
âduck,'
chó
âdog,'
mèo
âcat,'
voi
âelephant,' etc. The word
dao
âknife' has curiously slipped into this category. Categories are fairly fixed, but like everything else in language, speakers determine what is what. In current Hanoi slang, one can refer to one's
xe máy
âmotorbike' with the classifier
con
(rather than the usual classifier
chiếc
), thus putting this all-important object in the light of a pony or horse. The word
sông
âriver' takes
con
as a classifier when it is seen as something that is moving and going somewhere. However, when a river is perceived from the point of view of what it is made of, namely water, then it receives the classifier
dòng
. Classifiers frame perspectives.
Intonation languages can change the tonal pattern of a word in order to express a speaker's emotional or mental attitude toward a situation: “Really?” “Well, really! I never!” “I'm
really
hungry.” This cannot be done in a tone language. Now, it is possible to show emotion in Vietnamese by raising one's voice in a phrase such as
Lâu quá không gặp!
(âLong time, no see!'). However, the relationships among the tones have to be preserved. Emotion can also be conveyed lexically. The English sing-song version of âboring!' comes out in Vietnamese as
chán ngát!
The word
chán
âboring' alone cannot convey the extent of the emotion.
To express a speaker's attitude or emotion toward a situation, Vietnamese more often mobilizes a series of sentence enders (SE). For instance,
Tháºt Äấy!
is the Vietnamese version of “Really!” To the word
tháºt
âtrue' is added the SE
Äấy
in order to affirm definitely that the speaker believes in what is said. Consider the following exchange between a mother and child:
| Con | lại | Än | nữa | hả? | hả = expresses the mother's surprise |
| (my) child | again | eat | more, | SE | |
| âAre you eating again ?' |
Â
| Con | Äói | mà , | mẹ. | mà = emphasizes the child's reason |
| child | hungry | SE, | mother. | |
| âBut I'm really hungry, Mom.' |
One of the beauties of Vietnamese is heard in patterns that seek rhythmic balance. Many nouns, verbs, and adjectives in Vietnamese have two parts, such as the adjective
má»t má»i
âtired.' Speakers tend to use one or both parts depending on what they are qualifying. If they are speaking of their
cÆ¡ thá»
âbody,' they will say
cÆ¡ thá» má»t má»i
. If they are speaking of their
tay
âhand,' they will say
tay má»i
. It sounds good for a two-syllable noun to be balanced by a two-syllable adjective, and a one-syllable noun by a one-syllable adjective. Many nouns have two parts that can be separated, like
tiá»c tùng
âparty,' and thus it is possible to say âfun party' two ways, either
tiá»c tùng vui vẻ
or, more simply,
tiá»c vui
. The possibilities run throughout the
language. Take the word
dá»ng há»
âwatch.' Like the word
cÆ¡ thá»
âbody,' the two parts of
dá»ng há»
cannot be separated. Now, take the verb
sá»a chữa
âto repair.' You can certainly speak of watch repair as
sá»a dá»ng há»
. It is not incorrect, but
sá»a chữa dá»ng há»
sounds better.
The single/double word contrast also carries meaning. The single word
bạn
means âfriend,' while the doubled
bạn bè
means âfriends in general.' A âclose friend' will be
bạn thân
, while âclose friends in general' will be
bạn bè than thiết
. The doubled version of the word carries the semantic coloring of the general case.
The foreigners who learn Vietnamese are often taught to use the pronoun
tôi
to refer to him or herself. This is, indeed, the easiest way to identify oneself, and
tôi
functions like the English first-person pronoun
I
. However, the Vietnamese use
tôi
only in restricted occasions, for instance, when one is giving a formal address to a large group of people. In daily life, the pronouns Vietnamese speakers use are not like those used in English that constantly shift in a conversation, where the
I
of the speaker and the
you
of the responder refer to one and the same person, only from a different point of view. Rather, Vietnamese pronoun usage reflects social roles and relationships, and the pronouns remain stable as long as one's role and the relationship with one's interlocutor(s) remain stable. When something changes in a role or a relationship, pronoun usage changes accordingly.
The sentences, above, illustrating the sentence enders
hả
and
mÃ
give a first idea of normal Vietnamese pronoun usage. The mother addresses her child as
con
âchild.' The child addresses himself to his mother as
con
âchild.' If the mother were to address herself in this situation, she would call herself
mẹ
âmother.' In a family, a younger sister or brother addresses an older sister as
chá»
âolder sister' and an older brother as
anh
âolder brother.' The older sister or older brother addresses younger sibling(s) as
em
(no gender distinction). One's aunt is addressed as
cô
and one's uncle as
bác
. Grandparents address their grandchildren as
cháu
âgrandchild.' The grandchild addresses their grandfather as
ông
and their grandmother as
bÃ
.
These basic relationships extend into all normal interactions in public life. If you are speaking with a woman you perceive to be older than yourself, you refer to her as
chá»
âolder sister.' She will respond by referring to herself as
chá»
. How she responds to you will depend on your relationship. If you are younger than she is, she will call you
em
(âyounger sibling'). She will call herself
mẹ
âmother' when speaking to her children. She will refer to her children as
nó
when speaking about them to someone else, which is a different pronoun than she would use when referring to a âthey,' namely
há»
, with whom she has no family relationship. When speaking with her husband, she will refer to him as
anh
âolder brother' and refer to herself as
em
âyounger sibling.' As she and her husband age, they might begin using
ông
âgrandfather' and
bÃ
âgrandmother' as the pronouns for one another.
The
anh
/
em
usage in love relationships is potentially tricky. Take the case of a young man and young woman. When they first meet, it is determined that she is two years older than he is, and so she is
chá»
âolder sister,' and he is
em â
younger sibling.' As time goes on, they decide they like one another. While they negotiate their new relationship,
they call each other by their first names. When they become an item, he is now
anh
âolder brother,' and she is now
em
âyounger sibling.' After a while, they part ways, and the young woman finds a new love. One day, she and her new love run into her old love. At some point during the three-way conversation, the new love turns to the young woman and wants to know, referring here to her former love, “Why are you still calling him
anh
?”
To move within the pronoun system of Vietnamese is to experience the richness and closeness of relations that govern all aspects of private and public life. It is in this context that one can appreciate the affect behind the nickname for the revered Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, who is commonly known as
Bác Há»
, âUncle Ho.'