Vietnamese Americans comprise one of the United States’ largest Asian populations. In fact, the Vietnamese language is one of the most frequently sought after languages for education translations across school districts. Knowing more about the language can be very beneficial for K-12 educators with sizable Vietnamese populations in their districts.

Vietnamese, Vietnam’s official language, is a tonal language that can be compared to Cambodia’s official language, Khmer. With each syllable, there are six different tones that can be used that change the definition and often make it difficult for non-native speakers to pick up the language. There are other languages spoken in Vietnam as well, such as Chinese, Khmer, Cham and several languages spoken by indigenous peoples inhabiting the mountainous regions. Although there are some similarities to Southeast Asian languages, such as Chinese, Vietnamese is thought to be a separate language group, although still a member of the Austro-Asiatic language family.

In written form, Vietnamese uses the Roman alphabet and accent marks to show tones. This system of writing called “quoc ngu”, was created by Catholic missionaries in the 17th century to translate the scriptures. Eventually this system, particularly after World War I, replaced one using Chinese characters (chu nom), which had been the unofficial written form used for centuries.

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Maggie

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