Vietnamese: Đọc kinh (pronounced as /vi/) is the Vietnamese Catholic term for reciting a prayer or sacred text. In communal worship settings, Vietnamese: đọc kinh is characterized by cantillation, or the ritual chanting of prayers and responses.[1] [2] To Westerners, this form of prayer can be mistaken for song.
Within the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, Vietnamese liturgical practise is distinct in its extensive use of cantillation: all prayers and responses during the Mass are either sung or chanted, but never spoken. Thus, the Lord's Prayer is recited differently during the Mass than in a private setting. Gregorian chant is not used in a Vietnamese-language Mass; it is entirely omitted from Vietnamese translations of the Roman Missal and Order of Mass.[3]
It is suspected that cantillation in Lao and Hmong Catholic liturgies is due to Vietnamese influence. Cantillation is far from universal among tonal languages, but Fuzhou Catholics in Fujian have a similar practise.
Vietnamese cantillation is neither composed nor improvised; it follows a formula in which each of the Vietnamese language's six tones corresponds to a specific note or sequence.[4] Depending on the diocese, tones are organized along a scale of two or three notes (Vietnamese: dấu trụ).[5] The note for Vietnamese: sắc is at least as high as the note for Vietnamese: ngang, which in turn is higher than the note for Vietnamese: huyền and Vietnamese: nặng. The Vietnamese: hỏi and Vietnamese: ngã tones are vocalized as a melisma from a lower note to a higher note. For example:[6]
| Tone | Note(s) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vietnamese: ngang | mi (E) | |
| Vietnamese: sắc | mi (E) | |
| Vietnamese: huyền | si (B) | |
| Vietnamese: nặng | re (D) | |
| Vietnamese: hỏi | re–mi (D–E) | |
| Vietnamese: ngã | re–mi (D–E) |
Parishes in the former West Tonkin diocese use the three-note scale of fa-sol-la, so the incipit of the Hail Mary is rendered:[7]