|
Introduction: Background on the Vietnamese Language: Consonants, Vowels, and Tones This brief description of the consonants, vowels, and tones of Vietnamese will be very simple. For a full profile of the language, the serious student can read A Vietnamese Grammar by Laurence C. Thompson (1965, University of Washington Press), the source of our summary. Interactive practice in listening discrimination for these three major systems of the sounds of the language is found in the series of lessons in this web page. Standard Pronunciation The pronunciation of educated speakers from the Hanoi area of Vietnam is the most widely accepted standard. While there is considerable variation in actual speech, it will be useful here to present a rather idealized pronunciation as the "standard." Later, we shall draw up a picture of contrasting features of the Saigon dialect. Because the traditional orthography provides a solid basis for discussing standard pronunciation, our description will treat speech sounds as renditions of written symbols. Such an approach will also be useful for students already familiar with the orthography. The tabular form of the presentation will provide a rapid introduction to pronunciation and reading. To see the tables and examples, click on one of the choices in the panel to the left. When one of the panels appears, click on the "sound icon" to hear the sound.
|
