Vietnamese belong to the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family. As a language that was heavily influenced by Chinese, before the introduction of the Latin alphabet, Vietnamese had a writing system similar to Chinese. The former writing system, known as Chữ nôm, is no longer used in today’s society outside of the private and religious sector. However, there are still words today that are still rooted in Chinese, that is Sino-Vietnamese: for example, the Vietnamese word for ready is chuẩn bị [t͡ɕʷə̌ˀbi], while the Japanese word for ready is 準備, and the Korean word for ready is 준비, all sounds similar to the derived Chinese word for ready 准备. From what I know, there is common, everyday Vietnamese, and then there is also ‘old-vietnamese’ -- that is, sino-vietnamese, that are still occasionally used even today. These words are quite removed from the daily Vietnamese that I’m used to using and learning and has strong ties with the Chinese background of the language. For example, the everyday Vietnamese word ‘true love’ is tình yêu chân thật, but in Sino-Vietnamese it is Chân Ái - with the word Chân having Chinese roots meaning ‘true’ and Ái meaning ‘love’. Usage changes words as people find more effective ways to communicate such as slang, memes, and shortcuts or text talks. They also sometimes import words from other languages. This explains why Sino-Vietnamese is no longer serves a way of communication. Linguists track and predict changes in language by observing how certain events can affect the way people communicate. For example, Latin was widely used in the 3rd century because of the Roman Empire, however, after its collapse, each region developed a unique form of Latin that while retains some characteristics of old Latin, is distinguished from one another.
You need to be a member of The SDLAP Ning to add comments!
Replies