The acquisition of a second language
Lingustics 200 phonology is both similar to and
Teaching Vietnamese
Sound System
Similarity: Some of the learner
learners
pronunciation of the target language
(TL) is clearly attributable to the native
language (NL), whereas some is not.
Accent.
French:
subjunctive of an irregular verb
avoir beau + infinitive
Quoiqu
Quoiquil fasse froid, nous irons faire une promenade.
(Although is it cold, we will go for a walk.)
Il a beau faire froid, nous irons faire une promenade.
different from the other linguistic
domains.
Difference: Not all of the concepts
relevant to the other domains are
applicable to phonology.
Avoidance as a strategy is commonly used
by the learner when the learner is not
familiar with a usage or a syntactic
construction.
The learner will try to find a different word
or construction to convey the same idea.
German:
passive voice
active voice
Es wird den Kindern von der Mutter geholfen.
Den Kindern wird von der Mutter geholfen.
(The children are helped by the mother.)
Die Mutter hilft den Kindern.
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 Avoidance is impossible in phonology.
The contrastive analysis points out the
The learner is unable to avoid pronouncing
phonological differences of the two
any sound of the TL.
systems, which cause difficulty to the
learner.

Similarities and differences between

Structure of a Vietnamese syllable
Vietnamese (Hanoi) and English
Tone
phonological systems
Initial Labializa- Nuclear Final
Consonant tion Vowel
(C ) (W ) (V ) (C )

1.Initial Consonants
Types of Syllable 1.1. Similarities
V + tone: y, e, , , a a. Vietnamese Enlgish
/m/ (m) /m/ (m)
WV + tone: uy, oa
oa. /b/ (b) /b/ (b)
WVC + tone: uy
uyn,n, oaoan.n. /v/ (v) /v/ (v)
/f/ (ph) /f/ (f, ph)
CV + tone: ta, la
la, ca
ca, tha
tha, a, ba
ba. /d/ (
( ) /d/ (d)
CWV + tone: toa, loa loa, qua
qua, thoa
thoa, luy
luy, thuy
thuy. /s/ (x) /s/ (s, c)
/z/ (d) /z/ (z, s, ss)
CVC + tone: tan, la n, ca n,
la n, can, than. tha
n. /l/ (l) /l/ (l)
CWVC + tone: toan, loa loan,
n, qua
quan,
n, thoa
thoang.ng. /n/ (n) /n/ (n)
/k/ (c, k, qu) /k/ (c, k, qu)
/h/ (h) /h/ (h)

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 1. Initial Consonants 1. Initial Consonants
1. 2. Differences 1. 2. Differences
1.2.1. Vietnamese does not have consonant 1.2.2. Vietnamese unaspirated /t/ (t) and
clusters. aspirated /th/ (th) vs. English /t/ (t)

English: taskmast
askmaster

Vietnamese:
ta (we) vs. tha (to forgive)
t (silk) vs. th
th (poetry)
t (private) vs. th
th (letter)

1. Initial Consonants 1. Initial Consonants

1. 2. Differences 1. 2. Differences
1.2.3. Vietnamese voiced /d/ ( () and 1.2.4. Vietnamese /
/ / (ng)
ng) vs. English /
//
voiceless /t/ vs. English /t/ in wat
water, bett
better
er (ng)

a (banyan tree) vs. ta (we) Vietnamese: nghe

nghe (to listen), nga
nga (to fall), ngu
ngu (to
a (momentum) vs. ta ta (evil) sleep), ngang
ngang (horizontal)
a (to kick) vs. ta
ta (dozen)
English (final): sang
sang,, long
long,, thing
thing,, // sing
single,
le, sing
singer,
er,
sing
sing along

1. Initial Consonants
1. Initial Consonants
1. 2. Differences 1. 2. Differences
1.2.5. Vietnamese palatal /
// (nh)
1.2.6. Vietnamese palatal /c/ (ch)
Vietnamese: English:
Vietnamese: English:
(n before j: on
on ion)
nha (dental) cha (father) different from English /t/
/t/
nha
nha (house) French: champagn
champagne,
e, chu
chu (uncle) in char,
char, choose,
choose, chop
chop
nha
nha (to chew) champign
champignon,
on, montagn
montagne
e
cho (to give)
nha
nha (to get to familiar)
nha Spanish: Espa
Espaa, se
seor Russian (dental): ,
nha (elegant)


Russian: ,
, ,
,

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 1. Initial Consonants
1. 2. Differences 2. Labialization
1.2.7. Vietnamese velar /
// (kh)
Vietnamese: English: Exists in many languages, denoted by /w/.
/k/ is aspirated in a
stressed syllable: cake, In Vietnamese, the labialization is
kha
kham
(to check,
examine) key, q uarter (different indicated by (o) or (u).
from Vietnamese / // )
khen (to praise) Spelling rules are introduced on the vowel
kh
kh (naive) Russian: ,
, ,
,
triangle.

German (final): nach

nach,,
Versuch
Versuch

3. Nuclear Vowels: 3. Nuclear vowels: differences

Eleven monophthongs and three diphthongs
Vowel Triangle
3. 1. The qualities of the vowels, which are to
i u
some degree similar in Vietnamese and English,
i/ia /a u/ua are very different in the two languages.
, 3. 2. The contrast between the long and the short
vowels are different as well. For instance,
e o English /i:/ vs. /i/ (seen vs. sin), /u:/ vs. /u/ (boot
vs. good); Vietnamese / / :/ vs. /
/ / (
(n vs. n), /a/
vs. /
/ / (an vs. n).
The Vietnamese vowels are introduced on the
a,
triangle, where the height of the triangle
represents the openess of the mouth.

3. Nuclear vowels: differences

3. Nuclear vowels: differences
3.4. Rounded
Rounded vowels /u/ (u), /o/ (
( ) and /O/
/O/ (o) followed by
3.3. Unrounded vowels vs. rounded vowels in Vietnamese
final consonants /// (ng) and /k/ (c)

th
th (letter) vs. thu (autumn) cung (palace) cu
cuc
(daisy)

c (reason) vs. c
c (to try)
cng (public) c
cc
(cup)

ma (to rain) vs. mua (to buy)

cong (curved) co
coc
(toad)
mn
n (to borrow) vs. mu
mun (late)

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 4. Finals 4. Finals: differences
/i/(i,y),/u/ (u, o), and six
Two semivowel finals /i/(i,y),/u/ Vietnamese has fewer final consonants than European
consonant finals /m/ (m), /n/ (n), / // (ng, nh), /p/ languages.
(p), /t/ (t), /k/ (c, ch). No stop voiced final consonants in Vietnamese;
The spelling of /i/ and /u/ are introduced on the Vietnamese learners of European languages have a
vowel triangle. difficulty distinguishing between the English pairs like
back
back and bagbag , feet
feet and feed
feed , lap
lap and lab
lab ; or pronouncing
the French words like chaud
chaud e, fatig
fatig ue.
the fricative /f/ and /v/ in leaf
leaf and leav
leave may become /p/
in Vietnamese: lilip
.
Vietnamese stop voiceless final consonants are
implosive, whereas their European counterparts are
plosive: Vietnamese ca ca c vs. English cakcake or Russian

.

Spelling of the initial c, g, ng vs. k, gh, ngh Spelling of labialized syllables

Vowel triangle
Vowel triangle

i u u i u not
i/ia /a u/ua (thu, thu, i/ia /a u/ua labialized

, khu y) ,

e o e o
o

k, gh, ngh c, g, ng (khoe, nhoa , xoay)

(ki a , gh , nghe) (ca , ga , ng)

a, a,

5. Tones 5. Tones
5
Vietnamese has six tones. Six tones: 3

Three register tones (their pitches hardly 1. Mid-level

2. Low-falling
go up or down during the production): mid- 3. High-rising
level, low-falling and high-rising. 4. Low-falling-rising
4
1
Three contour tones (their pitches 5. High-rising-
broken
fluctuate during the production): low- 6. Low-falling-
2
falling-rising, high-rising-broken and low- broken

falling-broken.
6

5
 5. Tones 5. Tones
5.1. Mid-level tone 1. Mid-level tone
It seems easiest to produce but is in fact hardest Ti i th
thm anh ti.
to maintain at the same pitch in speech flow. (I am going to visit my (older) brother.)
All the words and syllables with the mid-level
tone in a sentence should be pronounced at the
same pitch, no matter how long the sentence is vs.
and how many words with other tones are
inserted between them. Ti i va
vao C
Cn
Th
Th m
my nga
ngay th
thm anh ti.
ti.
(I am going down to Can Tho to visit my
(older) brother for a few days.)

5. Tones
5. Tones
5.3. Low-falling rising, high-rising-broken and
5.2. Mid-level, low-falling and high-rising tones
low-falling broken tones
Itis not so easy for the learners to The pitch patterns of the contour high-rising-
maintain the contrast of the mid-level, low- broken,
broken, low-falling-rising and low-falling-broken
falling and high-rising tones. tones change significantly.
Short sentences containing only these The high-rising broken and the low-falling broken
three tones could be used to practice tones are accompanied by a glottal stop at the
maintaining the constrast:
constrast: end.
Ca
Ca m n ba
ba. (Thanh you.) Although the two tones are hard to produce, they
are easily recognizable in speech and are
Nha
Nha xa llm. (The house is very far away.)
usually not mixed up with one another.
Tr
Tr i m
ma to qua
qua. (It
(Its raining really hard.)

5. Tones 5. Tones
5.4. Tones and intonation 5.4. Tones and intonation
In English, as in many other European If an assertive statement ends in a word with the high-
rising tone, the voice should be raised at the end of the
languages, the intonation may function as the sentence.
only means of distinguishing various types of On the other hand, if a question ends in a word with the
sentences, for example: He is coming. vs. He is low-falling tone, the voice should be lowered at the end
of the question.
coming?
In Vietnamese intonation is rarely used as the Hm nay tr tr i no
no ng
n g l m .
only way to form questions. Vietnamese uses (It is really hot today.)
certain grammatical patterns for assertive,
vs.
negative and interrogative statements. Intonation
is strictly restricted by the tones. Hm nay trtr i no
no ng
n g l
l m a?

(Is it really hot today?)

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 5. Tones
5.4. Tones and intonation
In many European languages the pitch of voice in an
assertive statement is usually dropped at the end.
In Vietnamese the meanings of the sentences may
completely change if the pitch is dropped.

ng y i tu.
tu.
(He has become a Buddhist monk.)

vs.

ng y i tu
tu.
(He has been sent to prison.)