Vietnamese phonology

Template:Short description Template:IPA notice The phonology of Vietnamese features 19 consonant phonemes, with 5 additional consonant phonemes used in Vietnamese's Southern dialect, and 4 exclusive to the Northern dialect. Vietnamese also has 14 vowel nuclei, and 6 tones that are integral to the interpretation of the language. Older interpretations of Vietnamese tones differentiated between "sharp" and "heavy" entering and departing tones. 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 Saigon, which are slightly different from each other, are described below.

Initial consonants

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

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive/ Affricate	unaspirated	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)
	aspirated		Template:IPA link
	implosive	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	affricate				(Template:IPA link)Template:Efn
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Approximant			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Rhotic			Template:IPA link

• /w/ is the only consonant sound permitted to form consonant clusters with other consonants.
• In many regions of Northern Vietnam, the pair and have merged into one, they are no longer two opposing phonemes. Some native Vietnamese speakers who lack linguistic knowledge believe that pronouncing the initial consonant of a word whose orthographic form begins with the letter l as , n as is nói ngọng. The phenomenon of no longer distinguishing from in words whose orthographic form begins with the letter n or l has three manifestations:

1. The initial consonant of all words whose orthographic form begins with n or l is .
2. The initial consonant of all words is .
3. In some words, the initial consonant corresponding to the letter n at the beginning of the spelling form of the word is , with l being , in some other words the sound corresponding to n is , with l being .

• In Northern dialects, some words have the initial consonant as the voiced palatal nasal , such as nhuộm, nhức, nhỏ (nhỏ in nhỏ giọt, not nhỏ in nhỏ bé), nhổ, nhốt, have phonetic variants with the initial consonant . This sound is written with the letter d or gi or r depending on the word (at least one of those three letters, sometimes two, or even all three).
• Some words with the initial consonant being the voiced velar nasal also have phonetic variants with the initial consonant being the voiced velar fricative , which are used in some places in the North. For example, the words ngáy (ngáy in ngáy ngủ), ngẫm (ngẫm in suy ngẫm) also have phonetic variants gáy, gẫm.
• In Northern dialects, the voiceless bilabial plosive is only the initial consonant in a few loanwords from other languages, mainly from French. In writing, the sound is written with the letter p, as in sâm panh, derived from French champagne. Not every word in another language that has the initial consonant have the corresponding Vietnamese loanword with the initial consonant . In some words, the sound is replaced by the sound . For example, both syllables of the word búp bê (derived from the French word poupée /pu.pe/) have the initial consonant , not . In Southern dialects, the initial consonant of words whose spelling form begins with the letter p is in many speakers.
• The glottalized stops are preglottalized and voiced: (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 . Therefore, the primary characteristic is preglottalization with implosion being secondary.
• are bilabial, while are labiodental.
• are denti-alveolar (), while are apico-alveolar.
• are phonetically lamino-alveolar.
• are often slightly affricated , but they are unaspirated.
• A glottal stop is inserted before words that begin with a vowel or in Northern dialects:

ăn	'to eat'		→
uỷ	'to delegate'		→

Hanoi initials

• are denti-lamino-alveolar: .
• is apico-alveolar: .
• d, gi and r are all pronounced .
• ch and tr are both pronounced ,Template:Efn while x and s are both pronounced .
• The highly salient (and socially stigmatized) merger of and as mentioned above, characteristic of the speech of many lower- and working-class Vietnamese in the Red River Delta, is sometimes consciously manipulated to humorous and/or pejorative effect in colloquial Hanoi speech.
• occur in a small number of foreign (mainly French) loans, e.g. < panne 'breakdown', < garage, < billiard. For many speakers, however, is realized as and as .
• There are no retroflex consonants , , , instead there are palato-alveolar consonants: , , in spelling pronunciations taught in schools.

Saigon initials

• is apico-alveolar .
• is palatalized lamino-alveolar: .
• Some people pronounce d as , and gi as in situations where the distinction is necessary, most people pronounce both as .
• Historically, is pronounced in common speech, merging with d and gi. However, it is becoming distinct and pronounced as , especially in careful speech or when reading a text. In traditional performance including Cải lương, Đờn ca tài tử, Hát bội (Tuồng) and some old speakers of Overseas Vietnamese, it is pronounced as consonant cluster or . In loanwords, it is pronounced , or , for example, va li is pronounced , or .
• Historically, a distinction is made between ch and tr , as well as between x and s . However, in many speakers, these two pairs are becoming merged as and respectively.
• In southern speech, the phoneme , generally represented in Vietnamese linguistics by the letter Template:Angbr, has a number of variant pronunciations depending on the speaker. A person can also have many pronunciations. It may occur as a retroflex fricative , an alveolar approximant , an alveolar flap , a trill , or a tapped fricative/fricative trill . In the border area between Ho Chi Minh City and Long An province (Bình Chánh, Cần Giuộc, Cần Đước), the letter Template:Angbr is pronounced as a palatal approximant . In many areas in the Mekong Delta, the letter Template:Angbr is pronounced as a velar fricative .

Simplification of consonant clusters in southern dialects

As mentioned above, the only cluster in Vietnamese is in which is a consonant. Although this cluster tends to be retained by many young urban people in southern Vietnam, especially in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding areas, it is generally reduced to one element in southern dialects. Depending on which consonant forms the cluster , there are two patterns in this simplification process. In one pattern the consonant is deleted and remains. In the other, is deleted while the consonant remains:

• In southern speech, , , and are usually pronounced , including among educated urban speakers. The cluster go is very rare, seen only in goá ‘widowed’. The cluster ngw shows greater loss in rural varieties than in urban ones.

u-/o-	/ʔw/	→	u/o
hu-/ho-		→	u/o
qu-		→	u/o
go-		→	o	/w/
ngu-/ngo-		→	u/o

However, they are becoming distinct and pronounced as or , , , , and respectively, especially in formal speech or when reading a text.

• In informal speech, the voiceless velar fricative (represented by the letter kh) is often transformed into the corresponding voiceless bilabial and labiodental consonants , and the prevocalic is deleted, for example: cá khoai is pronounced as cá phai, khóa máy is pronounced as phá máy, khỏe không? is pronounced as phẻ không?. This pronunciation is observed only in rural southern dialects, and it does not occur in the speech of educated speakers.
• There are only a few words where the bilabial and labiodental consonants are followed by the prevocalic . Most of them are French loanwords, for example: tiền boa (Template:Wikt-lang), đậu pơ-ti-poa (Template:Wikt-lang), xe buýt (Template:Wikt-lang), vải voan (Template:Wikt-lang). The initial consonant is kept and the prevocalic is lost and pronounced as: tiền bo, đậu bo, xe bít, vải von.
• After the consonant clusters of the remaining articulators (alveolar, postalveolar, palatal consonants) followed by the prevocalic , the initial consonant is kept and the prevocalic is lost as above, for example: vô duyên is pronounced as vô diên, cái loa (hát) is pronounced as cái la.

Comparison of initials

The table below summarizes these sound correspondences:

Diaphoneme	Hanoi	Saigon	Example
			word	Hanoi	Saigon
		or	vợ   'wife'		or
			da   'skin'
			gia   'to add'
			ra   'to go out'
			chẻ   'split'
		or	trẻ   'young'		or
			xinh   'beautiful'
		or	sinh   'born'		or

Vowels

Vowel nuclei

File:Hanoi Vietnamese vowel chart.svg

Vowel chart of Hanoi monophthongs according to Template:Harvcoltxt

File:Hanoi Vietnamese diphthong chart.svg

Vowel chart of Hanoi diphthongs according to Template:Harvcoltxt

Vietnamese vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Centering	iə Template:Angbr	ɯə Template:Angbr	uə Template:Angbr
Close	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr
Close-mid/ Mid	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr
		Template:IPAslink (Template:IPAslink) Template:Angbr
Open-mid/ Open	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr
		Template:IPAslink (Template:IPAslink) Template:Angbr

The IPA chart of vowel nuclei above is based on the sounds in Hanoi Vietnamese; other regions may have slightly different inventories. Vowel nuclei consist of monophthongs (simple vowels) and three centering diphthongs. The Standard Vietnamese vowel inventory comprises 9 monophthong qualities and three falling diphthongs /iə ɯə uə/, although other acoustic analysis suggests eleven monophthongs and three diphthongs , and .

• All vowels are unrounded except for the four back rounded vowels: .
• In the South, the high vowels are all diphthongized in open syllables: , Ba Vì (Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handler).Template:Better source needed
• and are pronounced shorter than the other vowels. These short vowels only occur in closed syllables.
• The vowels and are marginal. As with the other short/long vowel pairs, short and long and are only distinguished in closed syllables. For some speakers the distinction may be one of vowel quality or of the articulation of the syllable coda in addition to or instead of vowel quantity.
• : Many descriptions, such as Thompson, Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt, consider this vowel to be close back unrounded: . However, Han's instrumental analysis indicates that it is more central than back. Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt and Template:Harvcoltxt also transcribe this vowel as central. But according to Kirby (2011), is frequently realized as mid centralized , leading some authors to transcribe it as (Template:Harvcoltxt; Template:Harvcoltxt).

Closing sequences

In Vietnamese, vowel nuclei are able to combine with offglides or to form closing diphthongs and triphthongs. Below is a chart listing the closing sequences of general northern speech.

	offglide		offglide
	Front	Central		Back
Centering	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr
Close	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr
Close-mid/ Mid	Template:Angbr	– Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr
Open-mid/ Open	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr

Template:Harvcoltxt says that in Hanoi, words spelled with ưu and ươu are pronounced , respectively, whereas other dialects in the Tonkin delta pronounce them as and . This observation is also made by Template:Harvcoltxt.

Finals

When stops occur at the end of words, they have no audible release ():

đáp	'to reply'		→
mát	'cool'		→
khác	'different'		→

When the velar consonants are after , they are articulated with a simultaneous bilabial closure (i.e. doubly articulated) or are strongly labialized .

đục	'murky'		→	,
độc	'poison'		→	,
đọc	'to read'		→	,
ung	'cancer'		→	,
ông	'man'/'grandfather'		→	,
ong	'bee'		→	,

Hanoi finals

Analysis of final ch, nh

The pronunciation of syllable-final ch and nh in Hanoi Vietnamese has had different analyses. One analysis, that of Template:Harvcoltxt has them as being phonemes , where contrasts with both syllable-final t and c , and contrasts with syllable-final n and ng . Final is, then, identified with syllable-initial .

Another analysis has final Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr as representing different spellings of the velar phonemes and that occur after upper front vowels (orthographic Template:Angbr) and (orthographic Template:Angbr). This analysis interprets orthographic ⟨ach⟩ and ⟨anh⟩ as an underlying , which becomes phonetically open and diphthongized: → , → .Template:Efn This diphthongization also affects ⟨êch⟩ and ⟨ênh⟩: → , → .

Arguments for the second analysis include the limited distribution of final and , the gap in the distribution of and which do not occur after and , the pronunciation of ⟨ach⟩ and ⟨anh⟩ as and in certain conservative central dialects, and the patterning of ~ and ~ in certain reduplicated words. Additionally, final is not articulated as far forward as the initial : and are pre-velar with no alveolar contact.

The first analysis closely follows the surface pronunciation of a slightly different Hanoi dialect than the second. In this dialect, the in and is not diphthongized but is actually articulated more forward, approaching a front vowel . This results in a three-way contrast between the rimes ăn vs. anh vs. ăng . For this reason, a separate phonemic is posited.

Table of Hanoi finals

The following rimes ending with velar consonants have been diphthongized in the Hanoi dialect, but , and are more open:

ong, oc	,	→	,
ông, ôc	,	→	,
ung, uc	,	→	,
ưng, ưc, ưn, ưt	, , ,	→	, , ,
anh, ach	,	→	,
ênh, êch	,	→	,
inh, ich	,	→	,

With the above phonemic analyses, the following is a table of rimes ending in in the Hanoi dialect:

				,
	ăn	an	en	on	ân	ơn	ên	ôn	in	ưn	un	iên	ươn	uôn
	ăt	at	et	ot	ât	ơt	êt	ôt	it	ưt	ut	iêt	ươt	uôt
	ăng	ang	anh	ong	âng	–	ênh	ông	inh	ưng	ung	iêng	ương	uông
	ăc	ac	ach	oc	âc	–	êch	ôc	ich	ưc	uc	iêc	ươc	uôc

Saigon finals

Merger of finals

While the variety of Vietnamese spoken in Hanoi has retained finals faithfully from Middle Vietnamese, the variety spoken in Ho Chi Minh City has drastically changed its finals. Rimes ending in merged with those ending in , respectively, so they are always pronounced , respectively, after the short front vowels (only when is before "nh"). However, they are always pronounced after the other vowels . After rounded vowels , many speakers close their lips, i.e. they pronounce as . Subsequently, vowels of rimes ending in labiovelars have been diphthongized, while vowels of rimes ending in alveolar have been centralized. Otherwise, some Southern speakers distinguish and after in formal speech, but there are no Southern speakers who pronounce "ch" and "nh" at the end of syllables as .

Table of Saigon finals

The short back vowels in the rimes have been diphthongized and centralized, meanwhile, the consonants have been labialized. Similarly, the short front vowels have been centralized which are realized as central vowels and the "unspecified" consonants have been affected by coronal spreading from the preceding front vowels which are surfaced as coronals (alveolar) .

ung, uc	,	→	,
ông, ôc	,	→	,
ong, oc	,	→
anh, ach	,	→	,
ênh, êch	,	→	,
in ~ inh, it ~ ich	,	→	,
um, up	/um/, /up/	→	,
ưng ~ ưn, ưc ~ ưt	,	→	,

The other closed dialects (Huế, Quảng Nam, Bình Định) which have also been merged in codas, but some vowels are pronounced differently in some dialects:

	Huế	Quảng Nam	Bình Định	Ho Chi Minh City
ung, uc	,	,	,	,
un, ut	,	,
ênh, êch	,	,	,	,
ên, êt	,	,	,
inh, ich	,	,	,	,
in, it	,	,	,

The ông, ôc rimes are merged into ong, oc as , in many Southern speakers, but not with ôn, ôt as pronounced , . The oong, ooc and eng, ec rimes are few and are mostly loanwords or onomatopoeia. The ôông, ôôc (oong, ooc, eng, ec, êng, êc as well) rimes are the "archaic" form before becoming ông, ôc by diphthongization and still exist in the North Central dialect in many placenames. The articulation of these rimes in the North Central dialect are , without a simultaneous bilabial closure or labialization.

on, ot	,	→	,
oong, ooc	,	→
ôn, ôt	,	→	, .
ôông, ôôc	,	→
ong, oc	,	→	,
ông, ôc	,	→

With the above phonemic analyses, the following is a table of rimes ending in in the Ho Chi Minh City dialect:

	,
				– anh			ên ênh	in inh
				– ach			êt êch	it ich
	on oong			ăn ăng	an ang	ân âng	ơn –	ưn ưng	en eng			uôn uông	ươn ương	iên iêng
	ot ooc			ăt ăc	at ac	ât âc	ơt –	ưt ưc	et ec			uôt uôc	ươt ươc	iêt iêc
	– ong / ông	ôn ôông	un ung
	– oc / ôc	ôt ôôc	ut uc
Combinations that have changed their pronunciation due to merger are bolded.

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.). Thus, it may be more accurate to categorize Vietnamese as a register language rather than a "pure" tonal language.

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	VNI/Telex/VIQR	Description	Chao Tone Contour	Diacritic	Example
'flat'	A1	[default]	mid level	(33)	◌	('three')
'deep'	A2	2 / f / `	low falling (breathy)	(21) or (31)	◌̀	('grandmother')
'sharp'	B1	1 / s / '	mid rising, tense	(35)	◌́	('to embrace')
'heavy'	B2	5 / j / .	mid falling, glottalized, heavy	(3ˀ2ʔ) or (3ˀ1ʔ)	◌̣	('to strengthen')
'asking'	C1	3 / r / ?	mid falling(-rising), emphasis	(313) or (323) or (31)	◌̉	('bait')
'tumbling'	C2	4 / x / ~	mid rising, glottalized	(3ˀ5) or (4ˀ5)	◌̃	('residue')

File:VietnameseToneNorthern.png

Northern Vietnamese (non-Hanoi) tones as uttered by a male speaker in isolation. From Template:Harvcoltxt

File:VietnameseToneHanoi.png

Hanoi tones as uttered by a female speaker in isolation. From Template:Harvcoltxt

File:VietnameseToneHanoi2.png

Hanoi tones as uttered by a different female speaker in isolation. From Template:Harvcoltxt

tone

• The 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"; Template:Harvcoltxt describes it as "high (or mid) level".

tone

• The 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: = .Template:Efn Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "grave-lowering"; Template:Harvcoltxt describes it as "low falling".

tone

• The 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). Template:Harvcoltxt reports that 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 also is relatively short compared with the other tones, but not as short as the tone. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "smooth-rising"; Template:Harvcoltxt describes it as "dipping-rising".

tone

• The 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 ). In Hanoi Vietnamese, the tone starts at a higher pitch (45) than other northern speakers. Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) describes this as "chesty-raised"; Template:Harvcoltxt describes it as "creaking-rising".

tone

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

tone

• The 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"; Template:Harvcoltxt describes it as "constricted".

Southern varieties

Tone name	Tone ID	Vni/telex/Viqr	Description	Chao Tone Contour			Diacritic	Example
				Quảng Nam	Bình Định	Ho Chi Minh City
"flat"	A1	[default]	mid flat level	˦˨ (42)	˧ (33)	˦ (44)	◌	('three')
"deep"	A2	2 / f / `	low falling	˧˩ (31)	˧˩ (31)	˧˩ (31)	◌̀	('lady')
"asking"	C1	3 / r / ?	mid falling-rising	˧˨˦ (324)	˧˨˦ (324)	˨˩˦ (214)	◌̉	('poison')
"tumbling"	C2	4 / x / ~					◌̃	('residue')
"sharp"	B1	1 / s / '	high rising	˦˥ (45)	˦˧˥ (435)	(35)	◌́	('governor')
"heavy"	B2	5 / j / .	low falling-rising	˧˨˧ (323)	˦˧˦ (313)	˨˩˨ (212)	◌̣	('at random')

In Southern varieties, tones , , have similar contours to Northern tones; however, these tones are produced with normal voice instead of breathy voice.

The tone is pronounced as low rising tone (12) in fast speech or low falling-rising tone (212) in more careful utterance.

The and tone are merged into a mid falling-rising (214) , which is somewhat similar to the tone of the non-Hanoi Northern accent mentioned above. This merged tone is characteristic of Southern Vietnamese accents.

File:Southern Vietnamese tone system (Speaker 10).png

Southern Vietnamese tone system from female native speaker. From Jessica Bauman et al. (2009)

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.

Eight-tone analysis

An older analysis assumes eight tones rather than six. This follows the lead of traditional Chinese phonology. In Middle Chinese, syllables ending in a vowel or nasal allowed for three tonal distinctions, but syllables ending with , or had no tonal distinctions. Rather, they were consistently pronounced with a short high tone, which was called the entering tone and considered a fourth tone. Similar considerations lead to the identification of two additional tones in Vietnamese for syllables ending in , , and . These are not phonemically distinct from the and tones, however, and hence not considered as separate tones by modern linguists and are not distinguished in the orthography.

Traditional Tone Category		Register	Tone name	Tone ID	Vni/telex/Viqr	Description	Chao Tone Contour by Location				Diacritic	Example
							Hanoi	Quảng Nam	Bình Định	Ho Chi Minh City
"even"	"level"	Template:Wikt-lang "high"	"flat"	A1	[default]	mid flat level	˧ (33)	˦˨ (42)	˧ (33)	˦ (44)	◌	('three')
		Template:Wikt-lang "low"	"deep"	A2	2 / f / `	low falling	˨˩ (21)	˧˩ (31)	˧˩ (31)	˧˩ (31)	◌̀	('lady')
"oblique"	"rising"	high	"asking"	C1	3 / r / ?	mid falling-rising	˧˩˧ (313)	˧˨˦ (324)	˧˨˦ (324)	˨˩˦ (214)	◌̉	('poison')
		low	"tumbling"	C2	4 / x / ~	mid rising, glottalized	˧ˀ˥ (3ˀ5~4ˀ5)				◌̃	('residue')
	"departing"	high	"sharp"	B1	1 / s / '	high rising	˧˥ (35)	˦˥ (45)	˦˧˥ (435)	(35)	◌́	('governor')
		low	"heavy"	B2	5 / j / .	low falling-rising	˧ˀ˩ʔ (3ˀ1ʔ)	˧˨˧ (323)	˦˧˦ (313)	˨˩˨ (212)	◌̣	('at random')
	"entering"	high	"sharp"	D1	1 / s / '	high checked rising	˧˥ (35)			˦˥ (45)	◌́	('uncle')
		low	"heavy"	D2	5 / j / .	low checked falling	˧ˀ˩ʔ (3ˀ1ʔ)			˨˩ (21)	◌̣	('silver')

Syllables and phonotactics

According to Template:Harvcoltxt, 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). 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).

The Vietnamese syllable structure follows the scheme:

(C₁)(w)V(G|C₂)+T

where

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

G = off-glide coda ( or ) 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 , 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, in the hands of a person 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 exception:

• does not occur in native Vietnamese words

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

• does not occur after labial consonants
• does not occur after in native Vietnamese words (it occurs in uncommon Sino-Vietnamese borrowings, such as noãn "ovule")

V: The vowel nucleus V may be any of the following 14 monophthongs or diphthongs: .

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

• offglide does not follow the front vowels
• offglide does not follow the rounded vowels
• with some exceptions (such as khuỷu tay "elbow"), the offglide cannot occur if the syllable contains a onglide

C₂: The optional coda C₂ is restricted to labial, coronal, and velar stops and nasals , which cannot cooccur with the offglides .

T: Syllables are spoken with an inherent tone contour:

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

Common Vietnamese rimes ^[Notes]

		Zero coda	Off-glide coda		Nasal consonant coda			Stop consonant coda
Vowel nucleus			ay	au	ăm	ặn	ặng	ặp	ặt	ặc
		ạ, (gi)à, (gi)ả, (gi)ã, (gi)á	ại	ạo	ạm	ạn	ạng	ạp	ạt	ạc
		ẹ		ẹo	ẹm	ẹn	ạnh	ẹp	ẹt	ạch
		ọ	ọi		ọm	ọn	ọng	ọp	ọt	ọc
			ậy	ậu	ậm	ận	ậng	ập	ật	ậc
		ợ	ợi		ợm	ợn		ợp	ợt
		ệ		ệu	ệm	ện	ệnh	ệp	ệt	ệch
		ộ	ội		ộm	ộn	ộng	ộp	ột	ộc
		ị, ỵ		ịu	ịm, ỵm	ịn	ịnh	ịp, ỵp	ịt	ịch, ỵch
		ự	ựi	ựu			ựng		ựt	ực
		ụ	ụi		ụm	ụn	ụng	ụp	ụt	ục
		ịa, (g)ịa, ỵa		iệu, yệu	iệm, yệm	iện, yện	iệng, yệng	iệp, yệp	iệt, yệt	iệc
		ựa	ượi	ượu	ượm	ượn	ượng	ượp	ượt	ược
		ụa	uội		uộm	uộn	uộng		uột	uộc
Labiovelar on-glide followed by vowel nucleus			oạy, (q)uạy		oặm, (q)uặm	oặn, (q)uặn	oặng, (q)uặng	oặp, (q)uặp	oặt, (q)uặt	oặc, (q)uặc
		oạ, (q)uạ	oại, (q)uại	oạo, (q)uạo	oạm, (q)uạm	oạn, (q)uạn	oạng, (q)uạng	oạp, (q)uạp	oạt, (q)uạt	oạc, (q)uạc
		oẹ, (q)uẹ		oẹo, (q)uẹo	oẹm, (q)uẹm	oẹn, (q)uẹn	oạnh, (q)uạnh		oẹt, (q)uẹt	oạch, (q)uạch
			uậy			uận	uậng		uật
		uợ
		uệ		uệu		uện	uệnh		uệt	uệch
		uỵ		uỵu		uỵn	uỵnh	uỵp	uỵt	uỵch
		uỵa				uyện			uyệt
Tone		a , à , á , ả , ã , ạ						á , ạ

^ Notes:

• Less common rimes may not be represented in this table.
• The nặng tone mark (dot below) has been added to all rimes in this table for illustration purposes only. It indicates which letter tone marks in general are added to, largely according to the "new style" rules of Vietnamese orthography as stated in Quy tắc đặt dấu thanh trong chữ quốc ngữ. In practice, not all these rimes have real words or syllables that have the nặng tone.
• The IPA representations are based on Wikipedia's conventions. Different dialects may have different pronunciations.

Notes

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

comparison of orthography & vowel descriptions

Orthography	Wikipedia	Thompson	Han	Nguyễn	Đoàn
i/y
ê
e
ư
u
ô
o
ơ
â
a
ă

Template:Harvcoltxt says that the vowels (orthographic â) and (orthographic ă) are shorter than all of the other vowels, which is shown here with the length mark 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.

Template:Harvcoltxt 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 = , â = ; a = , ă = . Her formant plots also seem to show that may be slightly higher than 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).

Template:Harvcoltxt 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.

Bibliography

• Template:Cite thesis
• • Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Cite thesis
• • (Revised version of Nguyễn 1959)
  • (Revised & expanded version of Nguyễn 1966)

External links

• Ngữ âm học