Читать книгу Vietnamese Picture Dictionary - Nguyen Thi Lien Huong - Страница 12

the t sound plus a puff of air. Please note that th is not pronounced the way it is in English (with the tongue blocking the teeth). It is pronounced as a t sound with a puff of air after it. Compare ta “we” versus tha “forgive.”

The consonant ch

English does not have a consonant similar to this Vietnamese consonant. It is halfway between the English ch and j sounds. For instance, cha “father,” and chú “uncle.” It should not be confused with the English ch as in chapter or chase.

The consonant nh

This consonant sounds like ny, similar to the Spanish ñ as in mañara. For example, nhà “house” and nhỏ “small.”

The consonant kh

This Vietnamese consonant is a rasping sound produced by narrowing the passage to the throat at the back of the mouth. The air squeezes through the passage on its way out, similar to the German ch or Arabic kh. For instance, khá “good,” khi “when.”

The consonants g and gh

These have the same pronunciation as kh, but more growly, with a vibration of the vocal chords in the throat. Compare ghi “write down” vs. khi “when.”

The consonants ng and ngh

These have the same pronunciation, like the ng in the English word hangar. In Vietnamese, this sound is often used at the beginning of a word. For example, ngủ “sleep” and nghề “occupation.”

The consonants d and đ

In Vietnamese the letter d is pronounced like English [z] whereas the English d sound is written as đ.

For example, da “skin” and đa “banyan tree”.

Labialization

This term refers to the rounding of the lips to pronounce a syllable which does not contain a rounded nuclear vowel. For instance, khá “good” is not labialized, while khoá “lock” is labialized. The character o is added to denote the labialization of the syllable. Labialization is also sometimes represented by the character u as in the labialized huệ “lily” vs. the unlabialized hệ “system.”

Vowels

Vietnamese has nine long vowels:

i, y [i] like bee, boy

ê [e] like may

e [ɛ] like set

ư [ɯ] similar to could

ơ [ə] like hurt

a [a] like father

u [u] like soot

ô [o] like boat

o [ɔ] like caught

two short vowels:

â [ə᷃] like hut

ă⁸ [ă] like cat

and three diphthongs:

iê, ia [i͜e] like vietnam

ươ, ưa [ɯ͜ə] like thương (love) ưa

(like)

uô, ua [u͜o] like mower

⁸ Note that a short nuclear vowel should always be followed by a final semi-vowel or consonant (see page 7).

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