About the Vietnamese Language

The Vietnamese language as it's spoken and written today have been used in Vietnam for thousands of years. But it was only recently in the mid-nineteenth century that a new Latin-based alphabet and writing system was developed in Vietnam through the cooperative efforts of Western and native scholars. This new writing system (chữ Quốc Ngữ), replaced the existing Sino-Chinese writing system (chữ Nôm), and make the spoken language very easy to put into writing since the new system can visually represent all the sounds of the spoken language.

Vietnamese is tonal and monosyllabic. Each word consists of only one syllable. There are also compound words, usually made up of two words, with optional hyphenation. Vietnamese alphabet has these primary vowels:"a, e, i, o, u, y", and eight accent marks. The accent marks belong to one of two groups, one group is used to change the vowel sound, the other, to change the tone. Vietnamese has six tones, only five tone marks have symbols. The lack of a tone mark on a vowel indicates a normal flat tone.

The six tones in Vietnamese language are:

1. The “sharp” accent mark (dấu sắc) on a vowel indicates a high rising tone. Examples: á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, ấ, ắ, ế, ố, ớ, ứ

2. The “falling” accent mark (dấu huyền) on a vowel indicates a low falling tone. Examples: à, è, ì, ò, ù, ỳ, ằ, ầ, ề, ồ, ờ, ừ

3. The “question” accent mark (dấu hỏi) on a vowel indicates a mid dipping rising tone. Examples: ả, ẻ, ỏ, ủ, ỷ, ẩ, ổ, ở, ử

4. The “tumbling” accent mark (dấu ngã) on a vowel indicates a high breaking rising tone. Examples: ã, õ, ũ, ỹ, ẫ, ễ, ỗ, õ, ỡ, ữ

5. The “heavy” accent mark (dấu nặng) on a vowel indicates a low heavy, constricted tone. Examples: ạ, ẹ, ị, ọ, ụ, ỵ, ậ, ặ, ộ, ợ, 

6. No tone mark on a vowel indicates a normal flat tone (non-rising, non-falling). Examples: a, e, I, o, u, y, ă, â, ê, ư, ô, ơ, ư 

Of the eight accent marks, the five tone marks were covered. The remaining three non-tone marks are listed below:

1. The "hat" accent mark (dấu mũ) as in:  â, ê, ô

2. The "crescent moon" accent mark (dấu á) as in:  ă

3. The "hook" accent mark (dấu móc) as in:  o -> ơ, u -> ư 

Words that look the same but have different accent marks on a vowel have different meanings and sound differently. A vowel may have zero to two accent marks associated with it. If a vowel has a tone mark, it will be placed on top of the non-tone accent mark, if any. The "heavy" tone mark is always placed under the vowel. 

The six Vietnamese tones produce different tone or pitch on a vowel or combination of vowels. They are divided into two  tonal groups. The neutral-falling tone group (vần bằng) includes two tones: the normal flat tone and the falling accent mark tone. The rising-heavy tone group (vần trắc) includes the four other tones, namely, the sharp, question, tumbling, and heavy tones. 

In several Vietnamese poetry forms, selecting a word with the correct tonal group at a particular word order in a verse line is essential to make the line sounds melodious. For example, in the 6-8 poetry form, all the lines end with words that belong to the neutral-falling tone (vần bằng) group. The second word of each line almost always belongs to the neutral-falling tone group, and the fourth word of the line in the rising-heavy (vần trắc) tone group. Due to the innate melody of the six-eight poetry form, folk verse has been an integral part of Vietnamese life. Many poetry lovers can easily memorize and recall several hundred lines of 6-8 verses.

Vuong Thanh, 2019  (taken from "A Garden of Vietnamese Lyrics & Verse, Volume 1")