Vietnamese Phonology - Syllables and Phonotactics

Syllables and Phonotactics

According to Hannas (1997), there are 4,500 to 4,800 possible spoken syllables (depending on dialect), and the standard national orthography (Quốc Ngữ) can represent 6,200 syllables (Quốc Ngữ orthography represents more phonemic distinctions than are made by any one dialect).

The Vietnamese syllable structure follows the scheme:

(C₁)(w)V(C₂)+T

where

C1 = initial consonant onset w = bilabial glide /w/ V = vowel nucleus

C2 = final consonant coda T = tone.

In other words, a syllable can optionally have one onset consisting of single consonant or a consonant and the glide /w/ and an optional coda. The vowel nucleus may have an additional glide element.

More explicitly, the syllable types are as follows:

Syllable	Example	Syllable	Example
V		wV
VC		wVC
VC		wVC
CV		CwV
CVC		CwVC
CVC		CwVC

C₁:

Any consonant may occur in as an onset with the following exceptions:

• /p/ does not occur in native Vietnamese words
• /j/ does not occur in Hanoian, but it does occur in Saigonese and other varieties (due to sound change)

w:

• /w/ does not occur after labial consonants /ɓ, f, v, m, w/
• /w/ does not occur after /n/ in native Vietnamese words (it occurs in uncommon Sino-Vietnamese borrowings)
• the sequences /hw, kw/ appears in Saigonese as, excepting spelling pronunciations

V:

The vowel nucleus V may be any of the following 14 monophthongs or diphthongs: /i, ɨ, u, e, ɘ, o, ɛ, ɜ̆, ɔ, ă, a, iə̯, ɨə̯, uə̯/.

G:

C₂:

The optional coda C₂ is restricted to labial, coronal, & velar stops /p, t, k/ and nasals /m, n, ŋ/.

T:

Syllables are spoken with an inherent tone contour. All tone contours are possible for open syllables (syllables without consonant codas). If the syllable is closed only 2 contours are possible, that is the sắc and the nặng tone.