There are many varieties of spoken Chinese. The one that I find closest to Vietnamese in terms of pronunciation is Cantonese. In general, the Southern Chinese languages (e.g. Cantonese, Hakka, Minnan) have retained the voiced endings -m, -p, -t in the same way that Vietnamese has – which Mandarin has lost.
Contents
Is Vietnamese similar to another language?
More than half of Vietnamese vocabulary can be traced back to Chinese. Thai has also taken some loan words from the official language of China. This is why the two languages have shared vocabularies. There are plenty of words that are the same in both the languages.
What languages are like Vietnamese?
As mentioned, Vietnamese has been strongly influenced by other languages throughout history, which is why a lot of Chinese vocabulary, but also French, Thai and English loanwords and borrowings are to be found in the language today. Vietnamese was actually written with the Chinese characters in the past.
Is Vietnamese similar to Chinese?
The Vietnamese language was not originated from the Chinese language but was influenced by it. The two languages actually belong to separate language families, and their writing systems are totally different.
What is Vietnamese language mixed with?
Vietnamese was primarily influenced by Chinese, which came to predominate politically in the 2nd century BC. After Vietnam achieved independence in the 10th century, the ruling class adopted Classical Chinese as the formal medium of government, scholarship and literature.
Is Vietnamese and Khmer intelligible?
Cambodian and Vietnamese languages are not mutually intelligible at all. Even though Khmer and Vietnamese both belong to the Austroasiatic (Mon–Khmer) language family, our common ancestor dated back to 4,000 years ago.
Are French and Vietnamese similar?
French was the official language of Vietnam under French colonial rule during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Influence on Vietnamese.
| Vietnamese | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| phẹc-mơ-tuya | fermeture | zipper |
| phim | film | movie |
| pho mát, phô mai | fromage | cheese |
| (áo) sơ mi | chemise | shirt |
Is Vietnamese similar to Thai?
While Thai and Vietnamese cuisines are different, they do have some similarities. Many types of Asian food share similar ingredients. Common ingredients are rice, noodles, ginger, and chili sauce.Thai food has an Indian influence, whereas Vietnamese food has a French influence.
Are Cantonese and Vietnamese similar?
The biggest commonality between Cantonese and Vietnamese has to do with words with coda consonants in Sinitic, in which there were final -p and -t and -k as well as -m -n and -ŋ. Mandarin lost all of /p t k/ and also /m/. This makes Cantonese and Vietnamese sound more similar to each other as compared to Mandarin.
Can Chinese understand Vietnamese?
No, we cannot understand Chinese, two languages aren’t even in the same language family. Vietnamese is part of the Austroasiatic language family, while Chinese is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
What is the most difficult language to learn?
Mandarin
Mandarin
As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.
Is Vietnamese a hard language to learn?
Vietnamese. Why it’s hard: Vietnamese is a tonal language with six different tones that dictate the meaning of a word. The high number of vowel sounds also prove difficult for English speakers to nail down.
What language is closest to English?
Frisian
The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it’s only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.
Is Korean a tonal language?
Korean is not a tonal language like Chinese and Vietnamese, where tonal inflection can change the meaning of words. In Korean the form and meaning of root words remains essentially unchanged regardless of the tone of speech. There is little variation in accent and pitch.
Is Vietnam a poor country?
Vietnam is now defined as a lower middle income country by the World Bank. Of the total Vietnamese population of 88 million people (2010), 13 million people still live in poverty and many others remain near poor. Poverty reduction is slowing down and inequality increasing with persistent deep pockets of poverty.
Is Japanese a tonal language?
Unlike Vietnamese, Thai, Mandarin, and Cantonese, Japanese is not a tonal language. Japanese speakers can form different meanings with a high or low distinction in their inflections without having a certain tone for each syllable.
Does Thai sound similar to Vietnamese?
Both languages might sound the same but they are not. It would be very difficult for native Thai speakers to understand Vietnamese. However, it is easy to learn Vietnamese as a Thai native speaker, there is no doubt about that. There are a lot of similarities in pronunciation, speaking, and writing.
Is Thai easier to learn than Vietnamese?
The Thai language is more difficult because of its Sanskrit writing system, writing rules, and pronunciation rules. The Thai has 44 consonants and 32 vowels, which is more than the number of Vietnamese consonants and vowels.People from countries where Latin letters are used will find Vietnamese easier to learn.
Are Cambodian and Vietnamese the same?
With more than a thousand kilometres of shared border, and with centuries of overlapping history, Cambodia and Vietnam are not unlike two children from the same family.
What is the most common language in Vietnam?
Vietnamese
Are Vietnamese mixed with French?
Majority of Vietnamese have no French blood aside from a small minority. For Chinese blood, it depends on what you mean by “Chinese.” Vietnamese were dominated by Chinese for a millennium, so genetic mixture between the 2 is obvious.
