a quick IPA guide to the Vietnamese alphabet

by Bi Hong Duy / Dzwee H. Bui

revised December 10, 2012

Originally,

Vietnamese was written using a Chinese-based script known as Ch Nm

(Southern script) or Nm. During the 17th century, Portuguese Jesuits introduced a Latinbased orthography for Vietnamese called Ch Quc Ng (script for the national language), which was then perfected and published by a French missionary named Alexander de Rhodes. The two systems co-existed until the early 20th century, when Ch Nm died out. Now, only Ch Quc Ng is used. The Vietnamese alphabet consists of 17 consonant letters and 12 vowel letters:

abcdeghiklmnopqrstuvxy
The alphabet suits Northern dialects better than Southern ones, due to the latter group having drifted further from 17th century Vietnamese.

Consonants / Ph m
Vietnamese has 25 consonant letters and digraphs:

b c ch d g gh h k kh l m n ng ngh p ph qu r s t th tr v x
Note: <q> never goes alone but always with <u>. <f> might be used as shorthand for <ph>, but this usage is not official.

Onsets / Ph m u
Below are the consonant letters and digraphs found in initial position:

Bb Cc Dd Gg Hh Kk Ll Mm

[ ] [k]

implosive tenuis

Ch ch [c] [z / j] /j/ in the South; /z/ in the North; evolved from // [] [ ] [h] [k] [l] [m]
shifted to <l> in NWCS also <ngh> clearest Portuguese influence tenuis implosive also <gh>

Kh kh [x]
shifted to <n> in Northern working class speech (NWCS)

Nn [n] Ng ng [] Nh nh []

Pp

[p]

only in loanwords; merged with <b> for most speakers

Ph ph [f] Rr Ss Tt Th th Tr tr Vv Xx [z /

[s / ] [t] [th] [c]

]
tenuis

// or / / in the South; /z/ in the North now only /s/ is commonly heard

aspirated also /t/ in the South (pedantry) evolved from //

[v / j] /j/ South; /v/ North [s]

Stemming from Portuguese tradition, <g> and <ng> have to be written differently before front vowels in order to preserve their phonetic value. So before <e>, <>, <i> and <y>, we write <gh> and <ngh> instead. E.g.: ga vs. ghi; ng vs. nghe Its common for Northern speakers from the countryside and the working class to mix up <l> and <n>, with <l> becoming <n> far more often then the other way around. This trend is quite stigmatised.

Codas / Ph m cui
Vietnamese, like most Austroasiatic languages, has fairly restricted syllable codas. Out of the 23 consonant letters and digraphs, only 8 can stand in a final position: c ch m n ng nh p t

c ch m n ng nh p t
Notes:

[k, kp] [k ~ t] [m] [n / ] [, m] [ ~ n] [p] [t ~ k]

/kp/ is allophonic after rounded vowels In the North, like final <c>. In the South, like final <t>. /n/ in the North; complicated in the South /m/ is allophonic after rounded vowels <ng> North; <n> South

/t/ in the North; complicated in the South

All obstruent codas - <c>, <ch>, <p>, <t> - are unreleased. English speakers and speakers of European languages in general have the habit of releasing their voiceless stops very strongly. Its not certain what consonants <ch> and <nh> truly represented at the time the alphabet was made; those sounds are lost to history. Another theory is that these digraphs were an effort on the missionaries part to compromise between the two groups of dialect. <ch> and <nh> follows <a>, <> and <i> ONLY.

<ng> NEVER follows <>, <i> or <y>. For /m/ and /kp/, simply close your lips after the // and /k/. This is one feature that learners often forget about. In Northern dialects, the anh rhyme is pronounced [], disntinct from ng [] Treatment of <n> and <t> in Southern dialects: - After <e, o, u, >: they are recognised as <ng> and <c>, and behave exactly like them. -on is a special case; see below. - After <, i>: they stay as /n/ and /t/, but have a centralising effect on the vowel they follow. - After <>: also recognised as <ng> and <c>, but /o/ is lengthened. E.g. tt [to:kp] vs. tc [tokp]; cn [ko:m] vs. cng [kom] - The on rhyme is pronounced like oong, not ong. For details, see Monophthongs.

Vowels / Nguyn m
As a member of the Austro-Asiatic family, Vietnamese has a large vowel inventory.

Monophthongs / Nguyn m n
The Vietnamese vowel system is based on 9 vowels (or 11 if we count the difference in length). They are written with 12 letters and 1 digraph:

Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu Yy

[:] [] [ ] [] [e] [i ~ ] []
See note See note

short in checked syllables and diphthongs / triphthongs*

/j/ in NWCS

Oo oo [] [o]

[ / :] [u] [ ] [i ~ ]

/ :/ in checked syllables (to contrast with )

See note

<i> and <y> are NOT interchangeable when forming diphthongs and triphthongs (e.g ui vs. uy). The Ministry of Education suggested that <y> should be used in Hn-Vit words (words borrowed from Classical Chinese), while <i> is for native words, but in reality this matter is settled by imitation and habit. [] is spelled as <oo> to signify that the following <ng> is pronounced [], with open lips, not [m]. E.g.: Close lips after cong [km], but NOT after coong [k]. Hence, its the coda that changes. The vowel itself stays the same, not drawn out or pronounced any differently. * E.g.: d + n = dn

Diphthongs / Nguyn m i
Dipthongs are formed by taking core vowels, then "gliding" them. There are two types of glides in Vietnamese:

Prevocalic Glide: The W-glide

This glide takes place before the vowel sets in. An example of this glide in English is when you

turn dell into dwell. Because the Portuguese language doesnt have the letter <w>, the Jesuits used vowel letters to write it down instead. Before <a>, <> and <e>, we use <o> to mark the glide:

oa o oe

[w:] Southern working class speech (SWCS): /:/ or /:/ [w] [w]
short <oa> in checked syllables

Before <>, <> and <y>, we use <u>

u u u uy

[we] [w :] [w ] short <u> in checked syllables* [wi]

<y> cannot be replaced with <i> for this diphthong

* E.g.: qu + n = qun IMPORTANT: <uy> is distinct from <ui> In the North, <qu> stands for /kw/, with the w-glide being an integral part of this digraph. In the South it becomes a simple /w/. This glide doesn't go with the 3 rounded vowels /o u/. You might come across quc (e.g quc gia nation), which seemingly goes against this rule. In reality, its a homophone of cuc which falls into the -glide below; Southerners unround the core vowel and make it sound like "wc". A recent development in Southern dialects (especially among working class speakers): This glide gets deleted after a consonant. For example, ng thu to pay tax would sound the same as ng th to body-double in a movie. The digraph <oa> is commonly pronounced as /:/, in addition to the /:/ expected under this sound change, while <qu> stays as /w/.

Postvocalic Glides:
These three glide take place after the vowel has set in. Three glides belong to this type. - The

-glide:
[:] [] [ ] [] [o] [ : ] [u] [ ]

marked by writing <i> or <y> after the core vowel letter.

ai ay y oi i i ui i

SWCS: merged with <ai> SWCS: shifted to []

SWCS: merged with <oi>

<i> cannot be replaced with <y> for this diphthong

This glide doesn't apply to /e/, // and /i/. Letters that stand for short vowels - <> and <> - receive <y> instead of the regular <i>. - The -glide: Marked by writing <u> or <o> after the core vowel letter. In practice this one is closer to [w] (postvocalic labialisation i.e. rounding your lips at the end, but only slightly).

ao au u eo u iu u

[:] [] [ ] [] [e]
SWCS: merged with <iu>

SWCS: merged with <ao> SWCS: shifted to []

[i ~ ] [] SWCS: [u]

Like the w-glide, this glide doesn't go with the three rounded vowels. And also not with <>, only its short version <>.

- The

-glide:
[i] [u] []

ia, i ua, u a,

The latter in each pair is how the diphthong would be written in a checked syllable hia + n = hin lua + n = lun ha + ng = hng

Triphthongs / Nguyn m ba
Triphthongs are made by adding glides to diphthongs. It's mostly about adding the w-glide to a postvocalic diphthong; the core vowel is now "wrapped" in glides, head and tail. Words with tripthongs are not common and may be hard to spell even for native speakers. - w-glide + -diphthong:

oai oay uy

[w:] [w] [w ]

[w] + ai [w] + ay [w] + y

khoai, loi, qui tri khoy, loay hoay quy, khuy ng

- w-glide +

-diphthong:

oeo uyu

[w] [wi]

[w] + eo [w] + iu

ngon ngoo, ot oo khc khuu

- w-glide + -diphthong:

uya, uy

[wi]

[w] + ia

uy in a checked syllable. E.g. khuya + n = khuyn

- Oddballs: These are interesting. Each consists of a core vowel and then two postvocalic glides in a row.

iu / yu ui i u

[i] [] [] [u]

ia + [] ua + [] a + [] a + []

chiu, yu, yu kiu nui, rui, chui mi, ci, i i Merged with <iu> in the North and becomes [u] in the South, especially among the working class. E.g: hu N: hiu, S: hu, hu

Tones / Thanh du
Only vowel letters may receive tone marks. Tone (thanh) ngang (thanh) sc (thanh) huyn (thanh) hi (thanh) ng (thanh) nng Description Flat, unwavering High, rising Low, falling Low, falling then rising High, creaky/broken Low, creaky/broken Diacritic a (none) (acute accent) (grave accent) (small hook above) (tilde) (dot below) Name of diacritic (khng du) du sc du huyn du hi du ng du nng

Note that Southern dialects have only 5 tones. They merge hi and ng into a new tone. This tone also starts low, then also falls and rises like the original hi tone. Down South, the nng tone is also much less creaky. It fact, one can say that its simply low and breathy. Examples using "ma": ma m m m m m ghost cheek / mom but, though tomb horse (in Chinese compound words) rice seedling

Examples using "t": t t t t t large bowl to accuse before the law or the authority simple-minded, nave for ones age nest a Northern word for bowl

With diphthongs and triphthongs, there are more than one vowel letter. So where to place the tone mark then? Answer: The vowel letter that is second-to-last in the syllable. Examples with diphthongs: du, by, cun. Examples with triphthongs: oi, khuu, quyn There are exceptions to this rule: You never put the tone mark on the <u> in <qu>. Examples: qu, not qa. In <u> : <> receives the diacritic, <u> doesn't. For <oa> and <oe> in open syllables, its also acceptable to place tone marks on the last vowel letter. E.g: la and lo are both accepted (though la is more commonly seen).

Quick Quizzes
Quiz A: Suppose you have a random tone mark. Which letter would you put it on?
1) loa, loan, tuy, huynh 2) mai, quy, ing 4) ci, khuyu, chuyn

Quiz B: For each syllable, point out the letter that stands for the core vowel:
1) i, vi, lui, chy, tri 2) khe, on, qu, truy, hu 3) mu, tru, gu, eo, hu 4) chia, chin, mua, nng, cun 5) ngi, khuya, ngoo, ui, quay 6) gio vin, chic thuyn, khuy kha, lp lo

Solution
A. 1) o or a / a / u / y 2) a / / 3) / y / B. 1) / a / u / / o 2) e / a / a / y / 3) a / / / e / 4) i / i / u / / u 5) / y / e / u / a 6) a, i / i, y / , a / , e