I want to know what northern Vietnamese accent sound like to a non-Asian speaker.

Is it unique to you or does it sound like Thai, Khmer, or Cantonese?

Please exam the hosts whose have heavy Hanaion accent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1x8jLNUf3o...ted&search=

Please listen and provide constructive feedback.

luu bao anh looks like zhang ziyi lol

northern accent is annoying sometimes. when i watch the vietnamese channel i always laugh.

i have a mixed accent btw. i have a slight mixed accent of northern and southern, and i pretty much use both vocabulary. north has some weird vocabs

my friend didn't understand when i said "rubberband" the way the north says it, so i had to say the other one

sounds like a korean/canto hybrid

cho lon accent. no jungle accent.

Please illiterate in greater detail.

The northern accent only annoys me when bac 54 people try so hard to accentuate the northern accent.

I've seen this 45 year old lady speak with a northern accent, which means her parent's must have been bac 54. So she was most likely raised in Saigon and then came over after the war. Through that, she must have lost alot of her accent which I'm sure she did, but she tries so hard to keep it which is annoying and makes her sound really pretentious.

My parent's are both bac 54. My mom speaks mostly using northern words and her accent sounds more closely related to the southern accent. I'm sure she had a much stronger northern accent when she was younger.

Funny thing is, I just recently found out that the word: to fall (Nga) is actually a northern word. I always thought it was southern and I've been using that word since I was a boy.

I used to use the word: bat (bowl) when I was younger, but I use it less frequently now.

I like both accents, I think a mix of both is the best. To me, a really strong southern accent sounds kinda like cantonese with all the "Y"'s they use. Sorta like yietnam and di yay. (I know it's not spelled like that). lol

don't you mean elaborate?

Haha yeah
Lack of caffeine

take a nap. then type.

bac accent has the most accurate pronunciation.

Northern accent is by far the prettiest accent of all vietnamese accents. I get complimented by white and hispanics chicks all the time when i speak vietnamese at home. They're always shocked when they hear me speak. When they think of asian languages, they either think it sounds weird like chinese or people screaming at each other (southern vietnamese who have a tendency to scream DUUUU MAAAAA every 2 seconds).

Yes, a mix of both N and S accents is the best. I speak like that It sounds softer than the full N accent but not so nasel as the full S accent. So it's the best combo

I agree! I already *hear* you sound soft

i dont know why i like northern viet accent better, especially hanoi accent.
northern viet accent and dialect are also the standard for vietnamese even though the letter r in north accent is z.

i love bac accent.

it's funny because when we sing, we all sing with bac accent , we only sing with nam accent when we hát cải lương

HAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

for those of u who don't notice,

when we sing,
we tend to pronounce letter r/gi/d like z ,
we say letter tr/ch very light, like northern vietnamese,
we also pronounce the letter v...southern vietnamese accent has no v
we say huy/quy/uy in 3 different ways...southern vietnamese say huy/quy/uy the same
etc...

all those characteristics r of northern vietnamese

Southern Vietnamese accent tends to pronounce the "v" sound as "d" like "đi dề" instead of "đi về"

Not to mention in some South Western part of the South the letter "r" is pronounced as "g" like "xong gồi"

I know when I speak, i say "Yiệt Nam", but when I sing, I sing "Việt Nam" that is we follow the northern viet accent



In HCM city (Saigon), may people pronounce the "r" like the "g" too . I've also heard people from rural areas pronounce it like the "y"... "đổ yác" instead of "đổ rác"

It's a co-incidence that Chinese language does not have the "v" sound. The southern Chinese province of Yun Nan is Van Nam in Vietnamese, Yue Nan (Viet Nam). Some Chinese/Chinese immigrants are well known for their wrong pronunciation of other languages. Some scholars agree that cantonese language spoken by Chinese in QuangDong is actually the official mandarin mispronounced and wrongly spoken by some Yue tribes living in Quangxi.

Chinese immigrants who escaped from China after the Manchu defeated the Ming to establish the Ching dynasty in the 17th century came to southern Vietnam and were accepted and allowed by the Nguyen Lords to clear and cultivate new lands. The so called Minh Huong resettled their lives in Saigon-Cho Lon, Bien Hoa- DongNai, Ha Tien ,and other areas of southern Vietnam. It's no accident the French called southern Vietnam as Cochin China because of its overwhelming Chinese influence in culture and language.

Nguyen Cong Tru's poem1

Nguyen Cong Tru's poem2

wth? isn't that the V in Vietnamese is usually the W in Cantonese?
Van Nam (Vietnamese) ---> Wen Nam (Cantonese) ?

Southern Vietnamese Y has nothing to do with Cantonese.

Wen Hua = Van Hoa
Wo =Ngo = Toi
Wen Jia Bao = On Gia Bao (Chinese Premier)

Chinese who came to Vietnam are not limited to Cantonese. Northern accent is also influenced by Chinese. I was in Beijing sometime ago and had a chance of listening to a Chinese doctor speaking in northern Viet accent talking about Chinese traditional medicine. He spoke in a very high pitch, very sing song tone,just like some modern Hanoians would speak. Chinese immigrants also came to North Vietnam in the 17th century.Their presence greatly alarmed the Trinh Lords who tried to limit their influence in culture/language.

^ and what is your point here?

Vietnamese is Vietnamese (BOTH north and south), Chinese is Chinese. Don't mix them together!

most chinese in Vietnam are from Quảng Đông/Triều Châu/Phúc Kiến, find me a northern chinese

Also, consider this

Vietnamese (northern accent): Văn
Vietnamese (southern accent): Dăn (D = Y ---> Yăn)
Mandarin: 文 Wen

The Y is just a coincidence of southern Vietnamese words and mandarin words.

I agree. I just want to talk about the degree of Chinese influence in our Vietnamese Culture/Language.It does not mean it's good or bad. It's just some observations based on some findings written in some books. It's a fact. That's all.

shouldn't it be Ngã instead?

Tôi is more like Ta (we, us ; old Vietnamese, Ta = I)

Nga is a Han-Viet, originated from Wo.
Ngo is probably cantonese pronunciation of mandarin Wo.

it's a viet word, that's why u shouldn't compare it with chinese wo/ngo

Tôi literally in Vietnamese is tôi tớ, làm tôi, bề tôi...which means servants...it was not used to say "I" until late 18th or 19th century I believe.

Comparing tôi with wo/ngo is not a good idea because it literally means servant (bề tôi, kẻ tôi tớ, làm tôi làm tớ)

Just like "bạn" can be "you", but "bạn" literally means "friend", and it is used to say "you" only in modern vietnamese

oh, and if u notice, "Tớ", which is what viet youths sometimes use to say "I" (Tớ và Cậu ~ I and You), also means servant literally...And the word "Cậu" literally means uncle/boss (Cậu chủ và đầy tớ).

Sở dĩ chúng ta dùng "tôi", "tớ" để nói đến bản thân mình là vì tính khách sáo, khiêm tốn, tự hạ thân mình với người mình đang nói chuyện...rồi dần dần nó thành lệ, nên chúng ta cứ mãi dùng "tôi". Ông bà chúng ta đời xưa hơn thì thường dùng "ta".

^^ i don't know.. i think those ppl who said "g" instead of "r" is the ones in mien tay that settled in Saigon, because we used to laugh when ppl said with a g instead of an "r"

hm, maybe it's the thing in Quận 4

So overall you guys would agree the north sounds more choppy or intermittent?

excuse me for my ignorance. can u define each word?

i'm from Mien Tay but i pronounce the "r" sounds, not the "g". as for some people who pronounce "y" in place of the "r", they're probably Chinese or people some call "que mua".

yea i was talking about quê mùa people.