Vietnamese Medical Translation

About the Vietnamese Language

Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese.

Like many languages from Asia the Vietnamese language is a tonal language. Today, it uses a Latin alphabet based on the French alphabet. The Vietnamese alphabet was once based on Chinese characters. It is called Chữ Nôm. Fewer people know Chữ Nôm today.

Vietnamese was identified more than 150 years ago as part of the Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family (a family that also includes Khmer, spoken in Cambodia, as well as various tribal and regional languages, such as the Munda and Khasi languages spoken in eastern India, and others in southern China). Later, Muong was found to be more closely related to Vietnamese than other Mon–Khmer languages, and a Viet–Muong subgrouping was established, also including Thavung, Chut, Cuoi, etc. The term "Vietic" was proposed by Hayes (1992), who proposed to redefine Viet–Muong as referring to a subbranch of Vietic containing only Vietnamese and Muong. The term "Vietic" is used, among others, by Gérard Diffloth, with a slightly different proposal on subclassification, within which the term "Viet–Muong" refers to a lower subgrouping (within an eastern Vietic branch) consisting of Vietnamese dialects, Muong dialects, and Nguồn (of Quảng Bình Province).

Vietnamese is increasingly being taught in schools and institutions outside of Vietnam. In countries with strongly established Vietnamese-speaking communities such as Australia, Canada, France, and the United States, Vietnamese language education largely serves as a cultural role to link descendants of Vietnamese immigrants to their ancestral culture. Meanwhile, in countries near Vietnam such as Cambodia, Laos, South Korea, and Thailand, the increased role of Vietnamese in foreign language education is largely due to the growth and influence of Vietnam's economy.