Language

Vietnamese, the official language of Vietnam, is a tonal language, similar to Khmer, the official language of Cambodia. Each syllable in Vietnamese can have 6 different tones, affecting the meaning of the word and often making it difficult for foreigners to learn. Other languages used in Vietnam include Chinese, Khmer, Cham, and languages of ethnic minorities residing in mountainous areas. Although there are some similarities to other Southeast Asian languages, such as Chinese, Vietnamese is considered a separate language group within the Austro-Asiatic language family.

In terms of writing, Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet and diacritics to indicate tones. This writing system, called Quoc Ngu, was created by Catholic missionaries in the 17th century to translate the scriptures. Eventually, this system, especially after the First World War, replaced the system of writing using Chinese characters (chu nom), which had been the unofficial form used for many centuries