Learn about Vietnamese words
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: Where do Vietnamese words come from? |
| Nguyet: And what happens when I translate them literally? |
| Michael: At VietnamesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Ben Lee and Nguyet Ngo are visiting an aquarium. When they see a dolphin, Ben asks his friend, |
| "What do you call this?" |
| Ben Lee: Bạn gọi đây là gì? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Bạn gọi đây là gì? |
| Nguyệt Ngô: Đó là "cá heo." |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Bạn gọi đây là gì? |
| Michael: "What do you call this?" |
| Nguyệt Ngô: Đó là "cá heo." |
| Michael: "It is a "fish pig."" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Vietnamese is one of the most interesting languages to learn, particularly because of its rich history. Today, over 70 million people speak Vietnamese. It's widely used in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, and is the sixth-most spoken language in Australia! The Czech Republic even recognizes it as an official minority language. Having been influenced by several cultures, it's not a surprise that the Vietnamese language, or |
| Nguyet: Tiếng Việt |
| Michael: has words that are quite peculiar, particularly when translated to English. In this lesson, we will take a look at some of those words and how they came about. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben Lee says "What do you call this?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nguyet as Ben Lee: Bạn gọi đây là gì? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Nguyet Ngo says "It is a "fish pig?"" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nguyet as Nguyet Ngo: Đó là "cá heo." |
| Michael: This may sound funny to some, but there are quite a number of Vietnamese words with very literal translations. "Fish pig," for instance, is the word for "dolphin," perhaps because the dolphin looks like a pig that can swim. It's the combination of two Vietnamese words, |
| Nguyet: cá, |
| Michael: which means "fish," and |
| Nguyet: heo, |
| Michael: which means "pig." Both the Chinese language and Old English have a similar version of this. In Chinese, their word for this is "sea pig," while, in Old English, the word they use is "mereswine." Again, this is not a surprise since more than half of the words in the Vietnamese lexicon have been borrowed from Chinese. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned that Vietnamese has many words with literal translations, but only because most of them are just direct translations of words borrowed from other languages. Vietnamese, in particular, has many words borrowed from classical Chinese. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: So far, we've only introduced one Vietnamese word that literally describes the thing it represents, which was |
| Nguyet: cá heo, |
| Michael: which literally means "fish pig," and refers to the sea mammal "dolphin." A similar word would be |
| Nguyet: hải cẩu, |
| Michael: which refers to the animal "seal." Like our previous word, this word has a very literal meaning. For instance, the word |
| Nguyet: hải |
| Michael: means "sea," while the word |
| Nguyet: cẩu |
| Michael: means "dog," giving us the word "sea dog." If you come to think of it, seals actually look like ocean puppies. They're very cute, and they can also bark—at least the fur seals do. This time, let's try an animal represented by three words. Let's try the word for "giraffe," which is |
| Nguyet: hươu cao cổ |
| Michael: We have three words here, and you'll be amused when you learn what each of these words and their combination mean. First, we have the word |
| Nguyet: hươu |
| Michael: This literally means "deer." Scientifically-speaking, both the giraffe and the deer may have evolved from the same ancestor, so that explains it. The second word is |
| Nguyet: cao |
| Michael: This means "high" or "tall," and we know how giraffes are very tall animals. And, finally, we have the word |
| Nguyet: cổ |
| Michael: This word means "neck" in Vietnamese. Combining the three words, we get "Deer Tall Neck," or something like "A deer with a long neck." Enough with animal names, let's try a different kind of word this time. |
| Nguyet: máy bay |
| Michael: This word is "airplane" in Vietnamese, but each of the two words has its own meaning. For instance, the word |
| Nguyet: máy |
| Michael: refers to "machine." Meanwhile, the word |
| Nguyet: bay |
| Michael: means "fly." That gives us "Machine fly" or "Flying machine." And, indeed, airplanes are machines that fly. Here's another one: |
| Nguyet: đau lòng |
| Michael: This is the Vietnamese word for "heartbroken," with the word |
| Nguyet: đau |
| Michael: meaning "pain" or "hurt," and the word |
| Nguyet: lòng |
| Michael: meaning "bowels." In Vietnamese, emotions are often associated with the stomach. Thus, "bowels" also speak of the heart. Here, we literally have "a hurting heart." |
| Michael: We can see that we'd still be able to understand what each of these words represent even when they are translated literally. However, doing so is not efficient at all. Not to mention that it may cause confusion, if not laughter, for some people. That said, it's important that these words are memorized as phrases and not as individual words. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: The Vietnamese language has overcome a difficult history. It wouldn't be what it is today if it hadn't been able to adopt and make use of a large portion of Chinese and some elements of French, as well as develop a writing system that's based on the Roman alphabet. Speaking of the writing system, did you know that the Vietnamese writing system, or |
| Nguyet: Chữ Quốc Ngữ, |
| Michael: didn't exist until the 17th century? Before that, Vietnamese made use of Chinese characters. However, Chinese characters alone were not able to do an excellent job of conveying what the Vietnamese people were actually saying. This resulted in the development of a hybrid system called |
| Nguyet: Chữ nôm |
| Michael: In the 17th century, French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes built upon the work of his missionary predecessors, developing the Vietnamese writing system that's being used today. This writing system was easier to learn and use and replaced the two previous ones by the 20th century. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Nguyet: Tạm biệt! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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