Vietnamese
Rare Languages we provide
Here at Vandu, we pride ourselves on being able to provide interpreting for the rarer languages needed by our customers. In this blog series, we’ll have a look at these wonderful languages and the unique people that speak them.
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Vietnamese
Vietnam sits just below China on our world map, with Laos, Cambodia and the South China Sea for next-door neighbours. The country has a long and storied history and has been home to some of the earliest civilisations and societies; for a long time was an independent state, until it was eventually conquered by the Chinese Dynasties. As is the case with almost all imperial regimes there was a huge loss of native culture and national identity, but it did also birth the Vietnamese language as we know it today.
Vietnamese initially started out as something called Viet-Muong, when the two peoples of the Mon-Khmer and Tay communities came together and developed a language. As things moved along two dialects became apparent, the “City” dialect and “Highlanders” dialect; but the biggest change occurred when the Chinese turned up and took control of the Tonkin Delta – where modern day Hanoi sits. 1000 years of Chinese imperial rule has left its mark on the Vietnamese language, with around 60% of the language derived from Chinese. A lot of these “loan” words came over during the Han dynasty, though it has been so long that few would recognise them as they’ve been “Vietnamized”. Examples* include Tien (money), Hàng (goods/merchandise), cho (market), and Mùa (season).
Since the well-documented Vietnam War, where the people of this small country stood up to the worlds biggest superpower (at great cost), Vietnam is doing well. Its tourism industry is well known round the world due to the country’s rich culture, history and beautiful setting, and the industry is a major component of the healthy -and growing- Vietnamese economy.
Do you require interpreting for Vietnamese? It's one of the many rare languages we provide for here at Vandu. Call 01273 473986 or email info@vlslanguages.com for more information!
*unfortunately, our article system doesnt allow for vietnamese-specific diacritical marks!
