An Austro-Asiatic language and the chief member of the Mon-Khmer family of languages, spoken by c. 65 million people in Vietnam, where it is the official language, as well as in Cambodia, and a number of immigrants in a few other Western countries; formerly known as Annamite.
The language was initially spelt in Chinese characters, but today Vietnamese is written in the Roman alphabet which was introduced by European missionaries in the 17th century. Diacritic marks are used to denote certain vowels and tones.
Most words are monosyllabic and there is no inflection of any kind. Vietnamese is a tonal language. There are six tones in the standard (northern) dialect.
Courses - Basic | |
Colloquial Vietnamese [multimedia] : the complete course for beginners | VIET CBEG 1(PACK) |
Elementary Vietnamese : Let's speak Vietnamese | VIET CBEG 2; VIET CBEG 2(DVD) |
Courses - Intermediate | |
Chúng ta nói... : Conversational Vietnamese, an Intermediate text | VIET CINT 2; VIET CINT 2:1-3(CD) |
Continuing Vietnamese | VIET CINT 1; VIET CINT 1(CD) |
Films | |
At the height of summer (Mua he chieu thang dung) | VIET FILM 1(DVD)* |
Cyclo | VIET FILM 4(VS) |
Mùi du du xanh = The scent of green papaya = L'odeur de la papaye verte | VIET FILM 2(DVD)* |
Three Seasons | VIET FILM 3(DVD)* |