Vietnamese phonology

This article is a technical description of the sound system of the Vietnamese language, including phonetics and phonology. Two main varieties of Vietnamese, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), are described below.

Initial consonants

Initial consonants which exist only in the Hanoi dialect are in red, while those that exist only in the Saigon dialect are in blue.

• /w/ is the only initial consonant permitted to form consonant clusters with other consonants.
• /p/ occurs syllable-initially only in loan words, and is mostly converted into /ɓ/ (as in sâm banh, derived from French champagne).
• The glottalized stops are preglottalized and voiced: [ʔɓ, ʔɗ] (the glottis is always closed before the oral closure). This glottal closure is often not released before the release of the oral closure, resulting in the characteristic implosive pronunciation. However, sometimes the glottal closure is released prior to the oral release in which case the stops are pronounced [ʔb, ʔd]. Therefore, the primary characteristic is preglottalization with implosion being secondary.
• /ɓ, m/ are bilabial, while /f, v/ are labiodental.
• /t, tʰ/ are denti-alveolar ([t̪, t̪ʰ]), while /ɗ, n, l/ are apico-alveolar.^[1]
• /c, ɲ/ are phonetically lamino-palatoalveolar (the blade of the tongue makes contact behind the alveolar ridge).
• /ʈ, c/ are often slightly affricated [ʈ͡ʂ, t͡ɕ], but they are unaspirated.
• A glottal stop [ʔ] is inserted before words that begin with a vowel or /w/:

ăn	'to eat'	/ăn/	→	[ʔăn]
uỷ	'to delegate'	/wi/	→	[ʔwi]

Vowels

Final stops

When stops /p, t, k/ occur at the end of words, they have no audible release ([p̚, t̚, k̚]):

đáp	'to reply'	/ɗap/	→	[ɗap̚]
mát	'cool'	/mat/	→	[mat̚]
khác	'different'	/xak/	→	[xak̚]

When the velar consonants /k, ŋ/ are after /u, o, ɔ/, they are articulated with a simultaneous bilabial closure [k͡p, ŋ͡m] (i.e. doubly articulated) or are strongly labialized [kʷ, ŋʷ].

đục	'muddy'	/ɗuk/	→	[ɗuk͡p], [ɗukʷ]
độc	'poison'	/ɗok/	→	[ɗə̆wk͡p], [ɗə̆wkʷ]
đọc	'to read'	/ɗɔk/	→	[ɗăwk͡p], [ɗăwkʷ]
ung	'cancer'	/uŋ/	→	[uŋ͡m], [uŋʷ]
ông	'man'	/oŋ/	→	[ə̆wŋ͡m], [ə̆wŋʷ]
ong	'bee'	/ɔŋ/	→	[ăwŋ͡m], [ăwŋʷ]

Tone

Vietnamese vowels are all pronounced with an inherent tone. Tones differ in

• pitch
• length
• contour melody
• intensity
• phonation (with or without accompanying constricted vocal cords)

Unlike many Native American, African, and Chinese languages, Vietnamese tones do not rely solely on pitch contour. Vietnamese often uses instead a register complex (which is a combination of phonation type, pitch, length, vowel quality, etc.). So perhaps a better description would be that Vietnamese is a register language and not a "pure" tonal language.^[11]

In Vietnamese orthography, tone is indicated by diacritics written above or below the vowel.

Six-tone analysis

There is much variation among speakers concerning how tone is realized phonetically. There are differences between varieties of Vietnamese spoken in the major geographic areas (northern, central, southern) and smaller differences within the major areas (e.g. Hanoi vs. other northern varieties). In addition, there seems to be variation among individuals. More research is needed to determine the remaining details of tone realization and the variation among speakers.

Northern varieties

The six tones in the Hanoi and other northern varieties are:

Tone name	Tone ID	Description	Chao Tone Contour	Diacritic	Example
ngang "level"	A1	mid level	˧ (33)	(no mark)	ba ('three')
huyền "hanging"	A2	low falling (breathy)	˨˩ (21) or (31)	`	bà ('lady')
sắc "sharp"	B1	mid rising, tense	˧˥ (35)	´	bá ('governor')
nặng "heavy"	B2	mid falling, glottalized, short	˧ˀ˨ʔ (3ˀ2ʔ) or ˧ˀ˩ʔ (3ˀ1ʔ)	̣	bạ ('at random')
hỏi "asking"	C1	mid falling(-rising), harsh	˧˩˧ (313) or (323) or (31)	̉	bả ('poison')
ngã "tumbling"	C2	mid rising, glottalized	˧ˀ˥ (3ˀ5) or (4ˀ5)	˜	bã ('residue')

Northern Vietnamese (non-Hanoi) tones as uttered by a male speaker in isolation. From Nguyễn & Edmondson (1998)

Hanoi tones as uttered by a female speaker in isolation. From Nguyễn & Edmondson (1998)

Hanoi tones as uttered by a different female speaker in isolation. From Nguyễn & Edmondson (1998)

Ngang tone:

• The ngang tone is level at around the mid level (33) and is produced with modal voice phonation (i.e. with "normal" phonation). Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "level"; Nguyễn (1997) describes it as "high (or mid) level".

Huyền tone:

• The huyền tone starts low-mid and falls (21). Some Hanoi speakers start at a somewhat higher point (31). It is sometimes accompanied by breathy voice (or lax) phonation in some speakers, but this is lacking in other speakers: bà = [ɓa˨˩].^[12] Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "grave-lowering"; Nguyễn (1997) describes it as "low falling".

Hỏi tone:

• The hỏi tone starts a mid level and falls. It starts with modal voice phonation, which moves increasingly toward tense voice with accompanying harsh voice (although the harsh voice seems to vary according to speaker). In Hanoi, the tone is mid falling (31). In other northern speakers, the tone is mid falling and then rises back to the mid level (313 or 323). This characteristic gives this tone its traditional description as "dipping". However, the falling-rising contour is most obvious in citation forms or when syllable-final; in other positions and when in fast speech, the rising contour is negligible. The hỏi also is relatively short compared with the other tones, but not as short as the nặng tone. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "smooth-rising"; Nguyễn (1997) describes it as "dipping-rising".

Ngã tone:

• The ngã tone is mid rising (35). Many speakers begin the vowel with modal voice, followed by strong creaky voice starting toward the middle of the vowel, which is then lessening as the end of the syllable is approached. Some speakers with more dramatic glottalization have a glottal stop closure in the middle of the vowel (i.e. as [VʔV]). In Hanoi Vietnamese, the tone starts at a higher pitch (45) than other northern speakers. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "chesty-raised"; Nguyễn (1997) describes it as "creaking-rising".

Sắc tone:

• The sắc tone starts as mid and then rises (35) in much the same way as the ngã tone. It is accompanied by tense voice phonation throughout the duration of the vowel. In some Hanoi speakers, the ngã tone is noticeably higher than the sắc tone, for example: sắc = ˧˦ (34); ngã = ˦ˀ˥ (45). Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "acute-angry"; Nguyễn (1997) describes it as "high (or mid) rising".

Nặng tone:

• The nặng tone starts mid or low-mid and rapidly falls in pitch (32 or 21). It starts with tense voice that becomes increasingly tense until the vowel ends in a glottal stop closure. This tone is noticeably shorter than the other tones. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "chesty-heavy"; Nguyễn (1997) describes it as "constricted".

Southern varieties

The Southern variety is similar through all tones except for the nặng and ngã tones; the nặng tone is pronounced [˨˧], while the ngã tone is merged into the hỏi tone.

North-central and Central varieties

North-central and Central Vietnamese varieties are fairly similar with respect to tone although within the North-central dialect region there is considerable internal variation.

It is sometimes said (by people from other provinces) that people from Nghệ An pronounce every tone as a nặng tone.

Syllables and phonotactics

According to Hannas (1997), there are 4,500 to 4,800 possible spoken syllables (depending on dialect), and the standard national orthography (Quốc Ngữ) can represent 6,200 syllables (Quốc Ngữ orthography represents more phonemic distinctions than are made by any one dialect).^[14] A description of syllable structure and exploration of its patterning according to the Prosodic Analysis approach of J.R. Firth is given in Henderson (1966).^[15]

The Vietnamese syllable structure follows the scheme:

(C₁)(w)V(G|C₂)+T

where

C1 = initial consonant onset w = labiovelar on-glide /w/ V = vowel nucleus

G = off-glide coda (/j/ or /w/) C2 = final consonant coda T = tone.

In other words, a syllable has an obligatory nucleus and tone, and can have an optional consonant onset, an optional on-glide /w/, and an optional coda or off-glide.

More explicitly, the syllable types are as follows:

Syllable	Example	Syllable	Example
V	ê "eh"	wV	uể "sluggish"
VC	ám "possess (by ghosts,.etc)"	wVC	oán "bear a grudge"
VC	ớt "capsicum"	wVC	oắt "little imp"
CV	nữ "female"	CwV	huỷ "cancel"
CVC	cơm "rice"	CwVC	toán "math"
CVC	tức "angry"	CwVC	hoặc "or"

C₁: Any consonant may occur in as an onset with the following exceptions:

• /p/ does not occur in native Vietnamese words

w: the onglide /w/ (sometimes transcribed instead as labialization [ʷ] on a preceding consonant):

• does not occur after labial consonants /ɓ, f, v, m/
• does not occur after /n/ in native Vietnamese words (it occurs in uncommon Sino-Vietnamese borrowings)

V: The vowel nucleus V may be any of the following 14 monophthongs or diphthongs: /i, ɨ, u, e, ə, o, ɛ, ə̆, ɔ, ă, a, iə̯, ɨə̯, uə̯/.

G: The offglide may be /j/ or /w/. Together, V and G must form one of the diphthongs or triphthongs listed in the section on Vowels.

• offglide /j/ does not follow the front vowels /i, e, ɛ, iə̯/
• offglide /w/ does not follow the rounded vowels /u, o, ɔ, uə̯/
• with some exceptions (such as khuỷu tay "elbow"), the offglide /w/ cannot occur if the syllable contains a /w/ onglide

C₂: The optional coda C₂ is restricted to labial, coronal, and velar stops and nasals /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ/, which cannot cooccur with the offglides /j, w/.

T: Syllables are spoken with an inherent tone contour:

• Six tone contours are possible for syllables with offglides /j, w/, closed syllables with nasal codas /m, n, ŋ/, and open syllables—i.e., those without consonant codas /p, t, k/.
• If the syllable is closed with one of the oral stops /p, t, k/, only two contours are possible: the sắc and the nặng tones.

Notes

²

Below is a table comparing four linguists' different transcriptions of Vietnamese vowels as well as the orthographic representation. Notice that this article mostly follows Han (1966), with the exception of marking short vowels short.

comparison of orthography & vowel descriptions

Orthography	Wikipedia	Thompson[2]	Han[5]	Nguyễn[16]	Đoàn[17]
i/y	i	iː	i	i	i
ê	e	eː	e	e	e
e	ɛ	ɛː	ɛ	a	ɛ
ư	ɨ	ɯː	ɨ	ɯ	ɯ
u	u	uː	u	u	u
ô	o	oː	o	o	o
o	ɔ	ɔː	ɔ	ɔ	ɔ
ơ	ə	ɤː	ɜː	əː	ɤː
â	ə̆	ʌ	ɜ	ə	ɤ
a	a	æː	ɐː	ɐː	aː
ă	ă	ɐ	ɐ	ɐ	a

Thompson (1965) says that the vowels [ʌ] (orthographic â) and [ɐ] (orthographic ă) are shorter than all of the other vowels, which is shown here with the length mark [ː] added to the other vowels. His vowels above are only the basic vowel phonemes. Thompson gives a very detailed description of each vowel's various allophonic realizations.

Han (1966) uses acoustic analysis, including spectrograms and formant measuring and plotting, to describe the vowels. She states that the primary difference between orthographic ơ & â and a & ă is a difference of length (a ratio of 2:1). ơ = /ɜː/, â = /ɜ/; a = /ɐː/, ă = /ɐ/. Her formant plots also seem to show that /ɜː/ may be slightly higher than /ɜ/ in some contexts (but this would be secondary to the main difference of length).

Another thing to mention about Han's studies is that she uses a rather small number of participants and, additionally, although her participants are native speakers of the Hanoi variety, they all have lived outside of Hanoi for a significant period of their lives (e.g. in France or Ho Chi Minh City).

Nguyễn (1997) has a simpler, more symmetrical description. He says that his work is not a "complete grammar" but rather a "descriptive introduction." So, his chart above is more a phonological vowel chart rather than a phonetic one.

References

Bibliography

External links

• Ngữ âm học