Languages
Native
Vietnamese
85%
Secondary languages
English
15%
Chinese (Cantonese/Mandarin)
11%
Language Samples
Xin chào, bạn có khỏe không?
Xin chào, bạn có khỏe không?
Hello, are you well?
Tôi khỏe, cảm ơn bạn.
Tôi khỏe, cảm ơn bạn.
I am well, thank you.
Một, hai, ba, bốn, năm, sáu, bảy, tám, chín, mười
Một, hai, ba, bốn, năm, sáu, bảy, tám, chín, mười
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Vietnamese belongs to the Austroasiatic language family, making it a distant relative of Khmer (Cambodian) — not of the surrounding Tai-Kadai or Sino-Tibetan languages as its geography might suggest. For over a millennium Vietnam was under Chinese rule, and Vietnamese absorbed an enormous Chinese vocabulary — up to 60% of its lexicon has Chinese-derived roots. Originally written in Chinese characters, then in a Vietnamese character system called Chữ Nôm, the language was romanised in the 17th century by Jesuit missionaries. Today's Quốc ngữ script is a Latin alphabet with diacritical marks to indicate the language's six tones.
Similar Languages
Khmer
35%
Mon
28%
Muong
70%
Media
Hạ Long Bay in northeastern Vietnam, whose name (Hạ Long — 'descending dragon') illustrates the tonal nature of Vietnamese: each syllable carries a tone that changes its meaning.
Photo: Taewangkorea · CC BY-SA 4.0
Did You Know
01
Vietnamese has six tones — the same syllable spoken with different pitches can have six completely different meanings, making it one of the most tonal languages in the world.
02
Vietnam is one of the few Asian countries that officially uses a Latin-based alphabet — the result of 17th-century romanisation by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries, later refined under French colonial rule.
03
Despite belonging to the Austroasiatic family (related to Khmer), up to 60% of Vietnamese vocabulary is derived from Chinese, accumulated during over a thousand years of Chinese rule and cultural influence.