| Vietnamese alphabet | |
| Also Known As: | Vietnamese: chữ Quốc ngữ |
| Type: | Alphabet |
| Languages: | Vietnamese, other indigenous languages of Vietnam |
| Fam1: | Egyptian hieroglyphs |
| Fam2: | Proto-Sinaitic |
| Fam3: | Phoenician alphabet |
| Fam4: | Greek alphabet |
| Fam5: | Latin alphabet |
| Fam6: | Portuguese alphabet |
| Children: | Bahnar alphabet, Cham alphabet, Nùng alphabet, Tày alphabet[1] |
| Creator: | Portuguese and Italian Jesuits[2] [3] [4] and Alexandre de Rhodes |
| Note: | none |
The Vietnamese alphabet (Vietnamese: chữ Quốc ngữ|lit=Characters/script of the national language, pronounced as /vi/) is the modern writing script for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages[5] originally developed by Francisco de Pina (1585–1625), a missionary from Portugal.
The Vietnamese alphabet contains 29 letters, including seven letters using four diacritics:,,,,,, and . There are an additional five diacritics used to designate tone (as in,,,, and). The complex vowel system and the large number of letters with diacritics, which can stack twice on the same letter (e.g. Vietnamese: nhất meaning 'first'), makes it easy to distinguish the Vietnamese orthography from other writing systems that use the Latin script.[6]
The Vietnamese system's use of diacritics produces an accurate transcription for tones despite the limitations of the Roman alphabet. On the other hand, sound changes in the spoken language have led to different letters, digraphs and trigraphs now representing the same sounds.
__TOC__
pronounced as /notice/
Vietnamese uses 22 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. The four remaining letters are not considered part of the Vietnamese alphabet although they are used to write loanwords, languages of other ethnic groups in the country based on Vietnamese phonetics to differentiate the meanings or even Vietnamese dialects, for example: or for southerner pronunciation of in standard Vietnamese.
In total, there are 12 vowels (Vietnamese: nguyên âm) and 17 consonants (Vietnamese: phụ âm, literally 'extra sound').
| Input keys | Name (when pronounced) | IPA | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TELEX | VNI | Hanoi | Nghệ An | Sài Gòn | |||
| A, a | Vietnamese: a | pronounced as /ʔaː˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔaː˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔaː˧˧/ | |||
| Ă, ă | AW | A8 | Vietnamese: á | pronounced as /ʔaː˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔaː˩˩/ | pronounced as /ʔaː˧˥/ | |
| Â, â | AA | A6 | Vietnamese: ớ | pronounced as /ʔəː˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔəː˩˩/ | pronounced as /ʔəː˧˥/ | |
| B, b | Vietnamese: bê | pronounced as /ʔɓe˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɓe˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔɓe˧˧/ | |||
| C, c | Vietnamese: xê | pronounced as /se˧˧/ | pronounced as /se˧˥/ | pronounced as /se˧˧/ | |||
| D, d | Vietnamese: dê | pronounced as /ze˧˧/ | pronounced as /ze˧˥/ | pronounced as /je˧˧/ | |||
| Đ, đ | DD | D9 | Vietnamese: đê | pronounced as /ʔɗe˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɗe˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔɗe˧˧/ | |
| E, e | Vietnamese: e | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˧/ | |||
| Ê, ê | EE | E6 | Vietnamese: ê | pronounced as /ʔe˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔe˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔe˧˧/ | |
| G, g | Vietnamese: giê | pronounced as /zə˧˧/ | pronounced as /zə˧˥/ | pronounced as /jə˧˧/ | |||
| H, h | Vietnamese: hát | pronounced as /haːt˧˥/ | pronounced as /haːt˩˩/ | pronounced as /haːk˧˥/ | |||
| I, i | Vietnamese: i | pronounced as /ʔi˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔi˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔi˧˧/ | |||
| K, k | Vietnamese: ka | pronounced as /kaː˧˧/ | pronounced as /kaː˧˥/ | pronounced as /kaː˧˧/ | |||
| L, l | Vietnamese: e-lờ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˧ lə̤ː˨˩/ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˥ ləː˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˧ ləː˨˩/ | |||
| M, m | Vietnamese: em-mờ | pronounced as /ʔɛm˧˧ mə̤ː˨˩/ | pronounced as /ʔɛm˧˥ məː˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɛm˧˧ məː˨˩/ | |||
| N, n | Vietnamese: en-nờ | pronounced as /ʔɛn˧˧ nə̤ː˨˩/ | pronounced as /ʔɛn˧˥ nəː˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɛŋ˧˧ nəː˨˩/ | |||
| O, o | Vietnamese: o | pronounced as /ʔɔ˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɔ˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔɔ˧˧/ | |||
| Ô, ô | OO | O6 | Vietnamese: ô | pronounced as /ʔo˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔo˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔo˧˧/ | |
| Ơ, ơ | OW | O7 | Vietnamese: ơ | pronounced as /ʔəː˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔəː˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔəː˧˧/ | |
| P, p | Vietnamese: pê | pronounced as /pe˧˧/ | pronounced as /pe˧˥/ | pronounced as /pe˧˧/ | |||
| Q, q | Vietnamese: quy | pronounced as /kwi˧˧/ | pronounced as /kwi˧˥/ | pronounced as /wi˧˧/ | |||
| R, r | Vietnamese: e-rờ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˧ zə̤ː˨˩/ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˥ ɹəː˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɛ˧˧ ɹəː˨˩/ | |||
| S, s | Vietnamese: ét-sì | pronounced as /ʔɛt˧˥ si̤˨˩/ | pronounced as /ʔɛt˩˩ si˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɛk˧˥ ʂi˨˩/ | |||
| T, t | Vietnamese: tê | pronounced as /te˧˧/ | pronounced as /te˧˥/ | pronounced as /te˧˧/ | |||
| U, u | Vietnamese: u | pronounced as /ʔu˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔu˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔu˧˧/ | |||
| Ư, ư | UW/W | U7 | Vietnamese: ư | pronounced as /ʔɨ˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɨ˧˥/ | pronounced as /ʔɨ˧˧/ | |
| V, v | Vietnamese: vê | pronounced as /ve˧˧/ | pronounced as /ve˧˥/ | pronounced as /je˧˧/ | |||
| X, x | Vietnamese: ích-xì | pronounced as /ʔik˧˥ si̤˨˩/ | pronounced as /ʔik˩˩ si˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔɨt˧˥ si˨˩/ | |||
| Y, y | Vietnamese: i dài | pronounced as /ʔi˧˧ za̤ːj˨˩/ | pronounced as /ʔi˧˥ zaːj˧˧/ | pronounced as /ʔi˧˧ jaːj˨˩/ | |||
| Letter | Name (when pronounced) | Hà Nội | Nghệ An | Sài Gòn | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Phoneme | IPA | Phoneme | IPA | Phoneme | |||
| F, f | Vietnamese: ép | pronounced as /ʔɛp˧˥/ | pronounced as //f// | pronounced as /ʔɛp˩˩/ | pronounced as //f// | pronounced as /ʔɛp˧˥/ | pronounced as //f// | |
| J, j | Vietnamese: gi | pronounced as /zi̤˧˧/ | pronounced as //z// | pronounced as /ji˧˥/ | pronounced as //z// | pronounced as /ji˧˧/ | pronounced as //j// | |
| W, w | Vietnamese: vê kép | pronounced as /ve˧˧ kɛp˧˥/ | pronounced as //w// | pronounced as /ve˧˥ kɛp˩˩/ | pronounced as //w// | pronounced as /je˧˧ kɛp˧˥/ | pronounced as //w// | |
| Z, z | Vietnamese: giét | pronounced as /zɛt˧˥/ | pronounced as //z// | pronounced as /zɛt˩˩/ | pronounced as //z// | pronounced as /jɛk˧˥/ | pronounced as //j// | |
The Vietnamese alphabet in the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum of Alexandre de Rhodes has 23 letters:
| Upper case | A | B | ꞗ | C | D | đ | E | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | V | X | Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower case | a | b | c | d | e | g | h | i | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | ſ/s | t | v/u | x | y |
In the alphabet, there is a letter, the letter b with flourish ꞗ, that has fallen out of use. It was used to represents the voiced bilabial fricative /β/.[8]
Two letters, ꞗ and đ, are neither upper nor lower case.[9] So according to that orthography, the names of the two provinces Đồng Nai and Lâm Đồng will be đồng Nai and Lâm đồng. In the modern alphabet, the lower case version of đ is đ, and upper case version of đ is Đ.
There are two variants of minuscule s: the long s, ſ, and the short s, s. In the modern alphabet, the long s, ſ, is no longer used, and the short s, s, is the only variant of s.
Normal v in the dictionary has two variants: the normal v, v, and the curving-bottom v, u.[10] In the 17th century, v and u were not different letters, v being a variant of u.[11]
The alphabet is largely derived from Portuguese with some influence from French, although the usage of and was borrowed from Italian (compare,) and that for from (Latinised) Greek and Latin (compare, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: [[wikt:κίνησις|kinesis]],), mirroring the English usage of these letters (compare,,).
10 digraphs consist:,,,,,,,,,, and only one trigraph .
| Grapheme | Word-initial (IPA) | Word-final | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern | Southern | Northern | Southern | ||
| B b | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| C c | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | is used instead when preceding . is used instead of if a pronounced as //w// on-glide exists. Realized as pronounced as /link/ word-finally following rounded vowels . | ||
| Ch ch | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as //ʲk// | pronounced as /link/ | Multiple phonemic analyses of final have been proposed (main article). |
| D d | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | In Middle Vietnamese, represented pronounced as /link/. The distinction between and is now purely etymological in most modern dialects. | ||
| Đ đ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| G g | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Gh gh | Used instead of before, seemingly to follow the Italian convention. is not allowed in these environments. | ||||
| Gi gi | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | In Middle Vietnamese, represented pronounced as /link/. The distinction between and is now purely etymological in most modern dialects. Realized as pronounced as /[ʑ]/ in Northern spelling pronunciation. Spelled before another . | ||
| H h | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| K k | pronounced as /link/ | Used instead of before to follow the European tradition. is not allowed in these environments. | |||
| Kh kh | pronounced as /link/ | In Middle Vietnamese, represented pronounced as /link/ | |||
| L l | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| M m | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| N n | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | In Southern Vietnamese, word-final is realized as pronounced as /link/ if not following . | |
| Ng ng | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | Realized as pronounced as /link/ word finally after rounded vowels . | ||
| Ngh ngh | Spelling used instead of before in accordance with . | ||||
| Nh nh | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as //ʲŋ// | pronounced as /link/ | Multiple phonemic analyses of final have been proposed (main article). | |
| P p | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | Only occurs initially in loanwords. Some Vietnamese pronounce it as a "b" sound instead (as in Arabic). | ||
| Ph ph | pronounced as /link/ | In Middle Vietnamese, represented pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Qu qu | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | Used in place of if a pronounced as //w// on-glide exists. | ||
| R r | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | Variably pronounced as a fricative pronounced as /link/, approximant pronounced as /link/, flap pronounced as /link/ or trill pronounced as /link/ in Southern speech. | ||
| S s | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | Realized as pronounced as /link/ in Northern spelling pronunciation. | ||
| T t | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | In Southern Vietnamese, word-final is realized as pronounced as /link/ if not following . | |
| Th th | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Tr tr | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | Realized as pronounced as /link/ in Northern spelling pronunciation. | ||
| V v | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | In Middle Vietnamese, it was spelled with the now-obsolete letter to represent pronounced as /link/. Can be realized as pronounced as /link/ in Southern speech through spelling pronunciation and in loanwords. | ||
| X x | pronounced as /link/ | In Middle Vietnamese, was pronounced pronounced as /link/. | |||
The correspondence between the orthography and pronunciation is somewhat complicated. In some cases, the same letter may represent several different sounds, and different letters may represent the same sound. This is because the orthography was designed centuries ago and the spoken language has changed, as shown in the chart directly above that contrasts the difference between Middle and Modern Vietnamese.
and are mostly equivalent, and there is no concrete rule that says when to use one or the other, except in sequences like and (i.e. Vietnamese: tay 'arm, hand' is read as pronounced as //tă̄j// while Vietnamese: tai 'ear' is read as pronounced as //tāj//). There have been attempts since the late 20th century to standardize the orthography by replacing with when it represents a vowel, the latest being a decision from the Vietnamese Ministry of Education in 1984. These efforts seem to have had limited effect. In textbooks published by Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục ('Publishing House of Education'), is used to represent pronounced as //i// only in Sino-Vietnamese words that are written with one letter alone (diacritics can still be added, as in,), at the beginning of a syllable when followed by (as in Vietnamese: yếm, Vietnamese: yết), after and in the sequence ; therefore such forms as *Vietnamese: lý and *Vietnamese: kỹ are not "standard", though they are much preferred elsewhere. Most people and the popular media continue to use the spelling that they are most accustomed to.
| Spelling | Sound | |
|---|---|---|
| a | pronounced as //a// (pronounced as /[æ]/ in some dialects) except as below pronounced as //ă// in au pronounced as //ăw// and ay pronounced as //ăj// (but pronounced as //a// in ao pronounced as //aw// and ai pronounced as //aj//) pronounced as //ăj// before syllable-final nh pronounced as //ŋ// and ch pronounced as //k//, see Vietnamese phonology#Analysis of final ch, nh pronounced as //ə̯// in ưa pronounced as //ɨə̯//, ia pronounced as //iə̯// and ya pronounced as //iə̯// pronounced as //ə̯// in ua except after q[12] | |
| ă | pronounced as //ă// | |
| â | pronounced as //ə̆// | |
| e | pronounced as //ɛ// | |
| ê | pronounced as //e// except as below pronounced as //ə̆j// before syllable-final nh pronounced as //ŋ// and ch pronounced as //k//, see Vietnamese phonology#Analysis of final ch, nh pronounced as //ə̯// in iê pronounced as //iə̯// and yê pronounced as //iə̯// | |
| i | pronounced as //i// except as below pronounced as //j// after any vowel letter | |
| o | pronounced as //ɔ// except as below pronounced as //ăw// before ng and c[13] pronounced as //w// after any vowel letter (= after a or e) pronounced as //w// before any vowel letter except i (= before ă, a or e) | |
| ô | pronounced as //o// except as below pronounced as //ə̆w// before ng and c except after a u that is not preceded by a q[14] pronounced as //ə̯// in uô except after q[15] | |
| ơ | pronounced as //ə// except as below pronounced as //ə̯// in ươ pronounced as //ɨə̯// | |
| u | pronounced as //u// except as below pronounced as //w// after q or any vowel letter pronounced as //w// before any vowel letter except a, ô and i Before a, ô and i: pronounced as //w// if preceded by q, pronounced as //u// otherwise | |
| ư | pronounced as //ɨ// | |
| y | pronounced as //i// except as below pronounced as //j// after any vowel letter except u (= after â and a) |
The uses of and to represent the phoneme pronounced as //i// can be categorized as "standard" (as used in textbooks published by Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục) and "non-standard" as follows.
| Context | "Standard" | "Non-standard" | |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one-lettered non-Sino-Vietnamese syllables | i (e.g.: í ới) | ||
| In one-lettered Sino-Vietnamese syllables | y (e.g.: y học) | ||
| Syllable-initial, not followed by ê | i (e.g.: im lặng) | ||
| Syllable-initial, followed by ê | y (e.g.: yết hầu) | ||
| After u | y (e.g.: khuyết tật) | ||
| After qu, not followed by ê, nh | y (e.g.: quý giá) | i (e.g.: quí giá) | |
| After qu, followed by ê, nh | y (e.g.: xảo quyệt) | ||
| After b, d, đ, r, x | i (e.g.: địch thủ) | ||
| After g, not followed by a, ă, â, e, ê, o, ô, ơ, u, ư | i (e.g.: giữ gìn) | ||
| After h, k, l, m, t, not followed by any letter, in non-Sino-Vietnamese syllables | i (e.g.: mí mắt) | ||
| After h, k, l, m, t, not followed by any letter, in Sino-Vietnamese syllables | i (e.g.: kì thú) | y (e.g.: kỳ thú) | |
| After ch, gh, kh, nh, ph, th | i (e.g.: ý nghĩa) | ||
| After n, s, v, not followed by any letter, in non-proper-noun syllables | i (e.g.: ni cô) | ||
| After n, s, v, not followed by any letter, in proper nouns | i (e.g.: Vi) | y (e.g.: Vy) | |
| After h, k, l, m, n, s, t, v, followed by a letter | i (e.g.: ngôi miếu) | ||
| In Vietnamese personal names, after a consonant | i | either i or y, depending on personal preference | |
This "standard" set by Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục is not definite. It is unknown why the literature books use Lí while the history books use Lý.
The table below matches the vowels of Hanoi Vietnamese (written in the IPA) and their respective orthographic symbols used in the writing system.
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound | Spelling | Sound | Spelling | Sound | Spelling | ||||
| Centering | align=center | pronounced as //iə̯// | iê/ia* | align=center | pronounced as //ɨə̯// | ươ/ưa* | align=center | pronounced as //uə̯// | uô/ua* |
| Close | align=center | pronounced as //i// | i, y | align=center | pronounced as //ɨ// | ư | align=center | pronounced as //u// | u |
| Close-mid/ Mid | align=center rowspan="2" | pronounced as //e// | ê | align=center | pronounced as //ə// | ơ | align=center rowspan="2" | pronounced as //o// | ô |
| align=center | pronounced as //ə̆// | â | |||||||
| Open-mid/ Open | align=center rowspan="2" | pronounced as //ɛ// | e | align=center | pronounced as //a// | a | align=center rowspan="2" | pronounced as //ɔ// | o |
| align=center | pronounced as //ă// | ă | |||||||
Notes:
| Rising Vowels | Rising-Falling Vowels | Falling Vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nucleus (V) | pronounced as //w// on-glides | pronounced as //w// + V + off-glide | pronounced as //j// off-glides | pronounced as //w// off-glides | |
| front | e | pronounced as //wɛ// oe/(q)ue* | pronounced as //wɛw// oeo/(q)ueo* | pronounced as //ɛw// eo | |
| ê | pronounced as //we// uê | pronounced as //ew// êu | |||
| i | pronounced as //wi// uy | pronounced as //wiw// uyu | pronounced as //iw// iu | ||
| ia/iê/yê* | pronounced as //wiə̯// uyê/uya* | pronounced as //iə̯w// iêu/yêu* | |||
| central | a | pronounced as //wa// oa/(q)ua* | pronounced as //waj// oai/(q)uai, pronounced as //waw// oao/(q)uao* | pronounced as //aj// ai | pronounced as //aw// ao |
| ă | pronounced as //wă// oă/(q)uă* | pronounced as //wăj// oay/(q)uay* | pronounced as //ăj// ay | pronounced as //ăw// au | |
| â | pronounced as //wə̆// uâ | pronounced as //wə̆j// uây | pronounced as //ə̆j// ây | pronounced as //ə̆w// âu | |
| ơ | pronounced as //wə// uơ | pronounced as //əj// ơi | pronounced as //əw// ơu | ||
| ư | pronounced as //ɨj// ưi | pronounced as //ɨw// ưu | |||
| ưa/ươ* | pronounced as //ɨə̯j// ươi | pronounced as //ɨə̯w// ươu | |||
| back | o | pronounced as //ɔj// oi | |||
| ô | pronounced as //oj// ôi | ||||
| u | pronounced as //uj// ui | ||||
| ua/uô* | pronounced as //uə̯j// uôi | ||||
Notes:
The glide pronounced as //w// is written:
The off-glide pronounced as //j// is written as except after and, where it is written as ; pronounced as //ăj// is written as instead of * (cf. Vietnamese: ai pronounced as //aj//).
The diphthong pronounced as //iə̯// is written:
The of the diphthong changes to after :
pronounced as //xwīə̯// = Vietnamese: khuya 'late at night'
pronounced as //xwīə̯n// = Vietnamese: khuyên 'to advise'
changes to at the beginning of a syllable (does not change):
The diphthong pronounced as //uə̯// is written:
The diphthong pronounced as //ɨə̯// is written:
Vietnamese is a tonal language, so the meaning of each word depends on the pitch in which it is pronounced. Tones are marked in the IPA as suprasegmentals following the phonemic value. Some tones are also associated with a glottalization pattern.
There are six distinct tones in the standard northern dialect. The first one ("level tone") is not marked and the other five are indicated by diacritics applied to the vowel part of the syllable. The tone names are chosen such that the name of each tone is spoken in the tone it identifies.
In the south, there is a merging of the Vietnamese: hỏi and Vietnamese: ngã tones, in effect leaving five tones.
| Order | Diacritic | Symbol | Input keys | Name | IPA diacritic | Vowels with diacritic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TELEX | VNI | |||||||
| 1 | unmarked | N/A | Z | 0 | Vietnamese: ngang | mid level, pronounced as /˧/ | A/a, Ă/ă, Â/â, E/e, Ê/ê, I/i, O/o, Ô/ô, Ơ/ơ, U/u, Ư/ư, Y/y | |
| 2 | acute accent | á | S | 1 | Vietnamese: sắc | high rising, pronounced as /˧˥/ | Á/á, Ắ/ắ, Ấ/ấ, É/é, Ế/ế, Í/í, Ó/ó, Ố/ố, Ớ/ớ, Ú/ú, Ứ/ứ, Ý/ý | |
| 3 | grave accent | à | F | 2 | Vietnamese: huyền | low falling, pronounced as /˨˩/ | À/à, Ằ/ằ, Ầ/ầ, È/è, Ề/ề, Ì/ì, Ò/ò, Ồ/ồ, Ờ/ờ, Ù/ù, Ừ/ừ, Ỳ/ỳ | |
| 4 | hook above | ả | R | 3 | Vietnamese: hỏi | mid falling, pronounced as /˧˩/ (Northern); dipping, pronounced as /˨˩˥/ (Southern) | Ả/ả, Ẳ/ẳ, Ẩ/ẩ, Ẻ/ẻ, Ể/ể, Ỉ/ỉ, Ỏ/ỏ, Ổ/ổ, Ở/ở, Ủ/ủ, Ử/ử, Ỷ/ỷ | |
| 5 | tilde[16] | ã | X | 4 | Vietnamese: ngã | glottalized rising, pronounced as /˧˥ˀ/ (Northern); slightly lengthened Vietnamese: dấu hỏi tone (Southern) | Ã/ã, Ẵ/ẵ, Ẫ/ẫ, Ẽ/ẽ, Ễ/ễ, Ĩ/ĩ, Õ/õ, Ỗ/ỗ, Ỡ/ỡ, Ũ/ũ, Ữ/ữ, Ỹ/ỹ | |
| 6 | dot below | ạ | J | 5 | Vietnamese: nặng | glottalized falling, pronounced as /˧˨ˀ/ (Northern); low rising, pronounced as /˩˧/ (Southern) | Ạ/ạ, Ặ/ặ, Ậ/ậ, Ẹ/ẹ, Ệ/ệ, Ị/ị, Ọ/ọ, Ộ/ộ, Ợ/ợ, Ụ/ụ, Ự/ự, Ỵ/ỵ | |
Z (in TELEX) and 0 (in VNI) keys are used to remove the mark. For example, in VNI, U2 →, then press 0 → .In syllables where the vowel part consists of more than one vowel (such as diphthongs and triphthongs), the placement of the tone is still a matter of debate. Generally, there are two methodologies, an "old style" and a "new style". While the "old style" emphasizes aesthetics by placing the tone mark as close as possible to the center of the word (by placing the tone mark on the last vowel if an ending consonant part exists and on the next-to-last vowel if the ending consonant does not exist, as in Vietnamese: hóa, Vietnamese: hủy), the "new style" emphasizes linguistic principles and tries to apply the tone mark on the main vowel (as in Vietnamese: hoá, Vietnamese: huỷ). In both styles, when one vowel already has a quality diacritic on it, the tone mark must be applied to it as well, regardless of where it appears in the syllable (thus Vietnamese: thuế is acceptable while Vietnamese: *thúê is not). In the case of the diphthong, the mark is placed on the . The in is considered part of the consonant. Currently, the new style is usually used in textbooks published by Vietnamese: Nhà Xuất bản Giáo dục, while most people still prefer the old style in casual uses. Among Overseas Vietnamese communities, the old style is predominant for all purposes.
In lexical ordering, differences in letters are treated as primary, differences in tone markings as secondary and differences in case as tertiary differences. (Letters include for instance and but not . Older dictionaries also treated digraphs and trigraphs like and as base letters.[17]) Ordering according to primary and secondary differences proceeds syllable by syllable. According to this principle, a dictionary lists Vietnamese: tuân thủ before Vietnamese: tuần chay because the secondary difference in the first syllable takes precedence over the primary difference in the second syllable.
In the past, syllables in multisyllabic words were concatenated with hyphens, but this practice has died out and hyphenation is now reserved for word-borrowings from other languages. A written syllable consists of at most three parts, in the following order from left to right:
Since the beginning of the Chinese rule 111 BC, literature, government papers, scholarly works, and religious scripture were all written in classical Chinese (chữ Hán) while indigenous writing in started around the ninth century. Since the 12th century, several Vietnamese words started to be written in Vietnamese: [[chữ Nôm]], using variant Chinese characters, each of them representing one word. The system was based on, but was also supplemented with Vietnamese-invented characters (Vietnamese: chữ thuần nôm, proper Nôm characters) to represent native Vietnamese words.
People have called the Latinized script of Vietnamese chữ Quốc ngữ at least since 1867.[19] In 1867, scholar Trương Vĩnh Ký published two grammar books. The first book is Mẹo luật dạy học tiếng pha-lang-sa (Tips to teach and learn French), a Vietnamese book written in chữ Quốc ngữ about French grammar. In this book, the Latinized script of Vietnamese was called chữ quốc ngự (not ngữ). The second book is Abrégé de grammaire annamite (Simplification of Annamite grammar), a French book about Vietnamese grammar. In this book, the Latinized script of Vietnamese was called "l’alphabet européen" (European alphabet), les caractères latins (Latin characters). On Gia Dinh Bao April 15th issue of 1867, when mentioned the French book about Vietnamese grammar, the name chữ quốc ngữ was used to indicate the Latinized script of Vietnamese.[20]
As early as 1620, with the work of Francisco de Pina, Portuguese and Italian Jesuit missionaries in Vietnam began using Latin script to transcribe the Vietnamese language as an assistance for learning the language. The work was continued by the Avignonese Alexandre de Rhodes. Building on previous dictionaries by Gaspar do Amaral and António Barbosa, Rhodes compiled the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, a Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin dictionary, which was later printed in Rome in 1651, using their spelling system.[21] These efforts led eventually to the development of the present Vietnamese alphabet. For 200 years, was used within the Catholic community.[22] However, works written in the Vietnamese alphabet was in the minority and Catholic works in chữ Nôm were significantly more widespread. Chữ Nôm was the primary writing system used by Vietnamese Catholics.
In 1910, the French colonial administration enforced .[23] The Latin alphabet then became a means to publish Vietnamese popular literature, which was disparaged as vulgar by the Chinese-educated imperial elites.[24] Historian Pamela A. Pears asserted that by instituting the Latin alphabet in Vietnam, the French cut the Vietnamese from their traditional Hán Nôm literature.[25] An important reason why Latin script became the standard writing system in Vietnam but not in Cambodia and Laos, which were both dominated by the French for a similar amount of time under the same colonial framework, had to do with the Nguyễn Emperors of Vietnam heavily promoting its usage.[26] According to the historian Liam Kelley in his 2016 work "Emperor Thành Thái’s Educational Revolution" neither the French nor the revolutionaries had enough power to spread the usage of down to the village level.[26] It was by imperial decree in 1906 of Emperor Thành Thái, that parents could decide whether their children will follow a curriculum in or ('Southern sound', the contemporary Vietnamese name for ).[26] This decree was issued at the same time when other social changes, such as the cutting of long male hair, were occurring.[26] The main reason for the popularisation of the Latin alphabet in Vietnam/Đại Nam during the Nguyễn dynasty (the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin) was because of the pioneering efforts by intellectuals from French Cochinchina combined with the progressive and scientific policies of the French government in French Indochina, that created the momentum for the usage of to spread.[26]
Since the 1920s, the Vietnamese mostly use , and new Vietnamese terms for new items or words are often calqued from Hán Nôm. Some French had originally planned to replace Vietnamese with French, but this never was a serious project, given the small number of French settlers compared with the native population. The French had to reluctantly accept the use of to write Vietnamese since this writing system, created by Portuguese missionaries, is based on Portuguese orthography, not French.[27]
Between 1907 and 1908, the short-lived Tonkin Free School promulgated and taught French language to the general population.
In 1917, the French system suppressed Vietnam's Confucian examination system, viewed as an aristocratic system linked with the "ancient regime", thereby forcing Vietnamese elites to educate their offspring in the French language education system. Emperor Khải Định declared the traditional writing system abolished in 1918.[24] While traditional nationalists favoured the Confucian examination system and the use of chữ Hán, Vietnamese revolutionaries, progressive nationalists, and pro-French elites viewed the French education system as a means to "liberate" the Vietnamese from old Chinese domination and the unsatisfactory "outdated" Confucian examination system, to democratize education and to help bridge Vietnamese to European philosophies.
The French colonial system then set up another educational system, teaching Vietnamese as a first language using in primary school and then the French language (taught in ). Hundreds of thousands of textbooks for primary education began to be published in , with the unintentional result of turning the script into the popular medium for the expression for Vietnamese culture.[28]
Typesetting and printing Vietnamese has been challenging due to its number of accents/diacritics.[29] [30] [31] This had led to the use of accent and diacritic-less names in Overseas Vietnamese, such as Viet instead of the proper Việt. Contemporary Vietnamese texts sometimes include words which have not been adapted to modern Vietnamese orthography, especially for documents written in chữ Hán. The Vietnamese language itself has been likened to a system akin to ruby characters elsewhere in Asia. French, which left a mark on the Vietnamese language in the form of loanwords and other influences, is no longer as widespread in Vietnam, with English or International English the preferred European language for commerce.
See main article: Vietnamese language and computers. The universal character set Unicode has full support for the Latin Vietnamese writing system, although it does not have a separate segment for it. The required characters that other languages use are scattered throughout the Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended-A and Latin Extended-B blocks; those that remain (such as the letters with dau hoi) are placed in the Latin Extended Additional block. An ASCII-based writing convention, Vietnamese Quoted Readable and several byte-based encodings including VSCII (TCVN), VNI, VISCII and Windows-1258 were widely used before Unicode became popular. Most new documents now exclusively use the Unicode format UTF-8.
Unicode allows the user to choose between precomposed characters and combining characters in inputting Vietnamese. Because in the past some fonts implemented combining characters in a nonstandard way (see Verdana font), most people use precomposed characters when composing Vietnamese-language documents (except on Windows where Windows-1258 used combining characters).
Most keyboards on modern phone and computer operating systems, including iOS,[32] Android[33] and MacOS,[34] have now supported the Vietnamese language and direct input of diacritics by default. Previously, Vietnamese users had to manually install free software such as Unikey on computers or Laban Key on phones to type Vietnamese diacritics. These keyboards support input methods such as Telex.
The following table provides Unicode code points for all non-ASCII Vietnamese letters.
| Unmarked | Grave | Hook | Perispomeni | Acute | Dot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ̀ (U+0300) | ̉ (U+0309) | ̃ (U+0303) | ́ (U+0301) | ̣ (U+0323) | ||
| Uppercase letters | ||||||
| A | À (U+00C0) | Ả (U+1EA2) | Ã (U+00C3) | Á (U+00C1) | Ạ (U+1EA0) | |
| Ă (U+0102) | Ằ (U+1EB0) | Ẳ (U+1EB2) | Ẵ (U+1EB4) | Ắ (U+1EAE) | Ặ (U+1EB6) | |
| Â (U+00C2) | Ầ (U+1EA6) | Ẩ (U+1EA8) | Ẫ (U+1EAA) | Ấ (U+1EA4) | Ậ (U+1EAC) | |
| Đ (U+0110) | ||||||
| E | È (U+00C8) | Ẻ (U+1EBA) | Ẽ (U+1EBC) | É (U+00C9) | Ẹ (U+1EB8) | |
| Ê (U+00CA) | Ề (U+1EC0) | Ể (U+1EC2) | Ễ (U+1EC4) | Ế (U+1EBE) | Ệ (U+1EC6) | |
| I | Ì (U+00CC) | Ỉ (U+1EC8) | Ĩ (U+0128) | Í (U+00CD) | Ị (U+1ECA) | |
| O | Ò (U+00D2) | Ỏ (U+1ECE) | Õ (U+00D5) | Ó (U+00D3) | Ọ (U+1ECC) | |
| Ô (U+00D4) | Ồ (U+1ED2) | Ổ (U+1ED4) | Ỗ (U+1ED6) | Ố (U+1ED0) | Ộ (U+1ED8) | |
| Ơ (U+01A0) | Ờ (U+1EDC) | Ở (U+1EDE) | Ỡ (U+1EE0) | Ớ (U+1EDA) | Ợ (U+1EE2) | |
| U | Ù (U+00D9) | Ủ (U+1EE6) | Ũ (U+0168) | Ú (U+00DA) | Ụ (U+1EE4) | |
| Ư (U+01AF) | Ừ (U+1EEA) | Ử (U+1EEC) | Ữ (U+1EEE) | Ứ (U+1EE8) | Ự (U+1EF0) | |
| Y | Ỳ (U+1EF2) | Ỷ (U+1EF6) | Ỹ (U+1EF8) | Ý (U+00DD) | Ỵ (U+1EF4) | |
| Lowercase letters | ||||||
| a | à (U+00E0) | ả (U+1EA3) | ã (U+00E3) | á (U+00E1) | ạ (U+1EA1) | |
| ă (U+0103) | ằ (U+1EB1) | ẳ (U+1EB3) | ẵ (U+1EB5) | ắ (U+1EAF) | ặ (U+1EB7) | |
| â (U+00E2) | ầ (U+1EA7) | ẩ (U+1EA9) | ẫ (U+1EAB) | ấ (U+1EA5) | ậ (U+1EAD) | |
| đ (U+0111) | ||||||
| e | è (U+00E8) | ẻ (U+1EBB) | ẽ (U+1EBD) | é (U+00E9) | ẹ (U+1EB9) | |
| ê (U+00EA) | ề (U+1EC1) | ể (U+1EC3) | ễ (U+1EC5) | ế (U+1EBF) | ệ (U+1EC7) | |
| i | ì (U+00EC) | ỉ (U+1EC9) | ĩ (U+0129) | í (U+00ED) | ị (U+1ECB) | |
| o | ò (U+00F2) | ỏ (U+1ECF) | õ (U+00F5) | ó (U+00F3) | ọ (U+1ECD) | |
| ô (U+00F4) | ồ (U+1ED3) | ổ (U+1ED5) | ỗ (U+1ED7) | ố (U+1ED1) | ộ (U+1ED9) | |
| ơ (U+01A1) | ờ (U+1EDD) | ở (U+1EDF) | ỡ (U+1EE1) | ớ (U+1EDB) | ợ (U+1EE3) | |
| u | ù (U+00F9) | ủ (U+1EE7) | ũ (U+0169) | ú (U+00FA) | ụ (U+1EE5) | |
| ư (U+01B0) | ừ (U+1EEB) | ử (U+1EED) | ữ (U+1EEF) | ứ (U+1EE9) | ự (U+1EF1) | |
| y | ỳ (U+1EF3) | ỷ (U+1EF7) | ỹ (U+1EF9) | ý (U+00FD) | ỵ (U+1EF5) | |