Linguistic differences between Northern and Southern Vietnamese

Taken from Wikipedia...

Think it will be interesting to discuss the differences in language, especially grammar.

Perhaps our friends from VN could help us out here.

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Linguistic differences
There are an abundance of different dialects of the Vietnamese language, with major differences in phonology.

Despite the countless different accents one can find in each province, the three main accents are those of the North, Center, and South. Of these, the Northern and Southern accents are usually intelligible to speakers from either region (unless it is a particularly heavy accent) but, strangely, the Central accent is often unintelligible to both Northern and Southern speakers.

Differences in these accents lay in several different factors, including but not limited to the following:

Pronunciation of certain letters, an example would be: Hanoi "d" is pronounced like the English "z" while Ho Chi Minh City "d" is pronounced like the English "y"
Northern Vietnamese has the full 6 tones, whereas Southern Vietnamese has only 5 (merging two of the tones into one)
Words ending in "nh" are pronounced differently between North and South (See Vietnamese phonology for details)
Merging of the "tr" and "ch" sounds in Northern Vietnamese
Subtle differences in vocabulary between different regions
Because the accents of Central Vietnam (particularly that of the ancient capital of Huế) make extensive use of local vocabulary and, to the unaccustomed ear, reduce the number of tones to only 4, Central Vietnamese speech can be relatively difficult to understand for Vietnamese speakers from the Northern and Southern regions.

While these differences may seem superficial to non-Vietnamese speakers, even the difference in sound between Northern and Southern Vietnamese is quite striking.

The vocabularies of the different regions also differ, as certain words mean different things in different regions. For example, the word mận refers to two different fruits: it is used for Prunus salicina (a type of plum) in the North, while in the South it refers to Syzygium samarangense (the rose apple). Kinship terms are especially affected, as each term has a subtly different meaning in each region. In the South, the eldest child in a family is referred by the ordinal number 2, while in the North the number 2 refers to the second-eldest child.

Simple...........North is teochew, South is hokkien.

botarbolampar wrote:

Simple...........North is teochew, South is hokkien.

Met a girl who stays in the central parts yesterday.

Doesnt sound like either North of South.

Then she says she has a bit of Cambodian blood.

Kaoz. Nhuc dau (head pain) wa

Adguy wrote:

botarbolampar wrote:

Simple...........North is teochew, South is hokkien.

Met a girl who stays in the central parts yesterday.
Doesnt sound like either North of South.
Then she says she has a bit of Cambodian blood.
Kaoz. Nhuc dau (head pain) wa

Central viet accent hard to understand.
Even for the Saigonese, they catch no balls.

Our Hanoi citizen could hardly hear saigonese, too! he he

long_dep_zai wrote:

Our Hanoi citizen could hardly hear saigonese, too! he he

Is that true?

According to my friends, North and South can understand each other quite well.

long_dep_zai wrote:

Our Hanoi citizen could hardly hear saigonese, too! he he

VIETNAM is VIETNAM. Be it North, Central or South. Be united, try to understand and learn from each other.

botarbolampar wrote:

long_dep_zai wrote:

Our Hanoi citizen could hardly hear saigonese, too! he he

VIETNAM is VIETNAM. Be it North, Central or South. Be united, try to understand and learn from each other.

You beginning to sound like Chairman Mao

Adguy wrote:

botarbolampar wrote:

long_dep_zai wrote:

Our Hanoi citizen could hardly hear saigonese, too! he he

VIETNAM is VIETNAM. Be it North, Central or South. Be united, try to understand and learn from each other.

You beginning to sound like Chairman Mao

Or Uncle Ho for this instance!!!

cunt_ranger wrote:

Adguy wrote:

botarbolampar wrote:

long_dep_zai wrote:

Our Hanoi citizen could hardly hear saigonese, too! he he

VIETNAM is VIETNAM. Be it North, Central or South. Be united, try to understand and learn from each other.

You beginning to sound like Chairman Mao

Or Uncle Ho for this instance!!!

Be it North Central or South. All the girls I also take kekekekekekekeke.

botarbolampar wrote:

Simple...........North is teochew, South is hokkien.

Vietnamese peoples have Vietnamese accents, include Northern accent, Central accent and Southern accent. Not Teochew accent and not Hokkien accent.

Actually, the difference is much more than Hokkien and Teochew as we can still comprehen in both. Hanoi and HCMC Tieng Viet are largely the same expect phat am and use of some clauses.... e.g. phai vs vang..... I can still communicate with Vietnamese from HCM and Hanoi.

The central Tieng Viet, hmmm I do not know but my Vietnamese friends told even Vietnamese themselves may not understand.....

khangvoi wrote:

botarbolampar wrote:

Simple...........North is teochew, South is hokkien.

Vietnamese peoples have Vietnamese accents, include Northern accent, Central accent and Southern accent. Not Teochew accent and not Hokkien accent.

I have Northern voice and I can understand South accent, no idea for the Central accent, it is a little bit hard to hear

I'm from the North and I understand Saigon (south), Hue (Central), Da Nang (central) Vietnamese just fine

the city people speak standard Vietnamese that is fairly easy to understand
it's only when I meet someone from a remote rural place with thick accent that I think my Vietnamese just malfunctions

I think Vietnamese accent is similar to English accent
I speak American English so East Coast (New York, Boston), West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego), and Southern (New Orleans) accents I can understand

British English is somewhat more difficult, but I can get used to it
now give me Singlish and I run for my money... it was the weirdest English I heard in a long time (weirder than Australian English)

seahorseviet wrote:

I think Vietnamese accent is similar to English accent
I speak American English so East Coast (New York, Boston), West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego), and Southern (New Orleans) accents I can understand

British English is somewhat more difficult, but I can get used to it
now give me Singlish and I run for my money... it was the weirdest English I heard in a long time (weirder than Australian English)

Hehe Singlish is very special:)
I was in trouble in studying at school before. But now after nearly 7months i am familar with Singlish. Anyway i like listening American English. i usually listen to VOA channel.
I thik Australian English is more difficult than British English n American English. am i rite?

Candynguyen wrote:

seahorseviet wrote:

I think Vietnamese accent is similar to English accent
I speak American English so East Coast (New York, Boston), West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego), and Southern (New Orleans) accents I can understand

British English is somewhat more difficult, but I can get used to it
now give me Singlish and I run for my money... it was the weirdest English I heard in a long time (weirder than Australian English)

Hehe Singlish is very special:)
I was in trouble in studying at school before. But now after nearly 7months i am familar with Singlish. Anyway i like listening American English. i usually listen to VOA channel.
I thik Australian English is more difficult than British English n American English. am i rite?

I agree with you Candy. I have difficulty understanding Australian English too. I am ok with both American and British English though.

seahorseviet wrote:

British English is somewhat more difficult, but I can get used to it
now give me Singlish and I run for my money... it was the weirdest English I heard in a long time (weirder than Australian English)

This is hilarious.

So I gather you are in Singapore right now.

no, I visited Singapore before
I ended up having a friend translating Chinese into English for me ha ha

the Singaporean had a hard time understanding my American English

Yah actually i agree Australian English is harder to understand than the accent of British or American English.

hehee
many ppl agree with me. lol