Nguyen Thi Huynh Loc Nguyen Ngoc Vu Contrastive Analysis Dec 30th 2009

Comparison between English and Vietnamese phonology

Nguyen 2 Abstract This study is to help Vietnamese students pronounce English precisely and English learners of Vietnamese pronounce Vietnamese correctly. To do this, I focus on the comparison between English and Vietnamese phonology. Much vocabulary has been borrowed from Chinese, especially words that denote abstract ideas in the same way European languages borrow from Latin and Greek, and it was formerly written using the Chinese writing system, albeit in a modified format and was given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese writing system in use today is an adapted version of the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters. The speakers of each language develop their mouth muscles to adapt to their language. There are many differences in the pronunciation between English and Vietnamese, so the native speaker of Vietnamese can not speak English as exactly as they can speak Chinese or Korean. Non-native pronunciations of English result from the common linguistic phenomenon in which non-native users of any language tend to carry the intonation, phonological processes, and pronunciation rules from their mother tongue into their English speech. They may also create innovative pronunciations for English sounds not found in the speaker's first language. In addition, non-native English speakers tend to substitute their native sounds in place of difficult English sounds or they may even simply delete those difficult English sounds. This is more common when the distinction is subtle between English sounds or between a sound of English and of a speaker's primary language (wikipedia). Therefore, I want to help Vietnamese learners and English learners pay attention to those difficulties and have better pronunciation.

Nguyen 3 There are two main dialects in Vietnamese, a northern one centered around Hanoi and a southern one centered around Ho Chi Minh City. The northern dialect of Vietnamese was chosen as the main comparison because it is considered the official dialect of Vietnam (Giang M. Tang). First, we look at the difference of sounds and symbols between English and Vietnamese. There are many sounds that are similar between English and Vietnamese, such as [t, b, m, n]. However, there are also some sounds that exist in English but not in Vietnamese, and vice versa, such as /d/, //, //, //, //, // in English, and tones in Vietnamese. Now lets move to the distinction between English and Vietnamese phonemes. A comparison of Vietnamese and English may begin at the smallest unit of language: the phoneme or speech sound. A phoneme is defined as the smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000). Vietnamese has three types of phonemes: tones (sometimes referred to as tonemes), consonants, and vowels. English phonemes consist of consonants and vowels; this language does not have lexical tones. (Giang M. Tang 6) Now we will look at each issue one at a time. First, we will compare English and Vietnamese consonants. English: 24 consonants (Peter Roach) Vietnamese: 22 initial consonants & 8 ending consonants (Doan Thien Thuat) 8 ending consonants in Vietnamese 6 consonants: p, t, k, m, n, 2 semi-consonants (semi-vowels): i u ,

Nguyen 4 M, l, ch, th: no change in final phonemes timbre -> zero ending consonant Mai, tai, au, thau: change in final phonemes timbre (closing) -> ending consonants (CA of English and Vietnamese Consonants 8) Besides, Vietnamese chart is more detailed More categorizing criteria for manner of articulation in Vietnamese

Less categorizing criteria for place of articulation in Vietnamese (CA of English and Vietnamese Consonants 12) Vietnamese: more attention to tongue position Flat Retroflex Dorsal (CA of English and Vietnamese Consonants 3) Vietnamese: Manner of articulation for fricatives Voiceless Voiced Lateral English: - /l/ & /h/: same as Vietnamese - Dental, Alveolar & Palato-aveolar Fricatives: different from those in Vietnamese /w/ & /j/: not exist in Vietnamese English: more attention to other

articulators Dental Alveolar Palatal alveolar

Nguyen 5 // & //: difficult for Vietnamese to pronounce (CA of English and Vietnamese Consonants 14) Here are some mistakes that Vietnamese learners of English may have. Speakers may not produce final consonants since there are fewer final consonants in Vietnamese and those that do exist differ in their phonetic quality: The Vietnamese phonetic system contains 23 initial consonant phonemes: /b/, /f/ (ph), /v/, /m/, /t/, /d/ (), /th/ (th), /s/ (x), /z/ (d), /n/, /l/, /_/ (tr), // (s), /_/ (gi, r), /c/ (ch), /_/ (nh), /k/ (c, k, q), // (g), // (kh), /N/ (ng), /h/, /p/, /r/6 The possible Vietnamese consonants are represented in the following chart based on the place and manner of their production (articulation) (Binh N. Ngo 8).

Giang M. Tang compares Vietnamese and English consonant sounds that occur at the beginning (syllable-initial) and end (syllable-final) of words or syllables. At the beginning of words (syllable-initial), Vietnamese and English share the following consonant sounds: /p, b, d, k, m, n, f, v, s , z, h, l/, the r-flap in utter and y in yard. It should be noted that /p, k/ in Vietnamese are unaspirated (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998) and may sound like b and g to an English speaker. In English, /p, k/ may be aspirated depending on context (Harris, 1994). At the end of words (syllable-final), Vietnamese and English share the following consonant sounds: /p, t, k, m, n/ and ng. In Vietnamese, syllable-final /p, t, k/ are unreleased or held in, whereas these sounds may be released in English. Although Vietnamese and English share certain sounds, there are multiple consonants specific to each language. In the initial position, Vietnamese-specific consonants include the dental t as in to big (much like a Spanish t) and the dental aspirated t as in tho rabbit, which is similar to the English t but produced between the teeth. The Vietnamese g in ga chicken and kh in khong no are produced with continuous air flow (fricatives) much like a Spanish g in lago lake and j in jaula cage. Other fricatives include the r in ran snake (in southern dialects and certain northern dialects), and its voiceless counterpart s as in sang morning (in the southern dialect), which is similar to the English sh. Table 1 Comparison of Vietnamese and English Consonant Sounds in Syllable-Initial and Final Position

Vietnamese Only SyllableInitial

Shared Sounds t (to), th (th) 1 (tri), c (chi), , (rn), (sng)1 (g), x (khng) (ng), (nh) p (pin or pie), b (b or bear), d (en or doll), k (ko or kite), m (m or me) n (nm or note), f (ph or fire), v (v2 or very) s (xin or send), z (ri2 or zebra), h (ht or hair), l (lm or love) j (d1 or yard)

English Only t (time), g (go), (thing), (then), (shoe), (measure), (chain), (june), (rope), w (water), s-clusters (sk, scr, sm, sn, str) r-clusters (br, cr, scr, dr, gr), l-clusters (bl, cl, fl, gl), w-clusters (dw, sw, tw, qu)

SyllableFinal

p (lp or hop) t (t or bat), k (gc or luck), (lm or lamb), n (sn or sun), (sng or song) m

(rn3 or utter)

b (lab), d (sod), g (bag), (bath), (bathe), f (laugh), v (love), s (kiss), z (buzz), (ash), (rouge), (itch), (bridge), l (ball) -pt (slept), -ps (oops), -kt (walked), -ks (licks) , -ft (laughed), -sp (lisp), -st (list), -sk (brisk) lp (help), -lb (bulb), -lt (wilt), -ld (wild), -lk (bulk), -lf (elf),

Vietnamese has many consonant sounds that are produced with the tongue tip curved upward and towards the back of the mouth (retroflex) such as the tr in tri sky, and ch in chi to play (similar to the English ch). In addition, Vietnamese has a glottal stop before words that are written with an initial vowel as in ng in ngu to sleep found in final position of English words such as song as well as the Vietnamese nh in nho small found in the middle of English words such as ny in Kenya (similar to a Spanish ). It should be noted that some Vietnamese-specific consonants are produced with the tongue tip retroflexed (3 of 11) as in ga chicken two articulatory places that are considered relatively complex (or marked, following Jakobson, 1968). English also has consonant sounds not found in Vietnamese. In the initial position, English-specific sounds include /w/ in water, /t/ in toy (generally aspirated; Harris, 1994), /g/ in girl, ch in chair, dg in judge, sh in shoe and its rare voiced counterpart in measure. Possibly the most well known consonant sounds specific to English which are very difficult for second language learners include the English r, soft th as in thing, and hard th as in this. In addition to single consonants, English has numerous consonant clusters (two or more consonant combinations) that involve /s, r, l, w/ (Harris, 1994; see Table 1). Since Vietnamese only has six consonant sounds at the end of words (syllable-final position including /b, d, g, f, v, s, z, l/, soft th, hard th sh, its voiced counterpart in measure, ch dg in judge, and consonant clusters that involve /p, f, t, d, k, l, m, n/. English appears to have a wider variety of more complex consonant sounds and sound sequences across syllable positions (see Table 1 for examples).

According to Binh N. Ngo, in English the unaspirated /t/ and the aspirated /th/ are the allophones of the phoneme /t/. The aspirated /th/ occurs at the beginning of a stressed syllable, the unaspirated /t/ in the other positions. In other words, they are in complementary distribution. For example, in the word taskmaster, the first consonant t is aspirated /th/, the second one is unaspirated /t/. The unaspirated /t/ and aspirated /th/ are different phonemes in Vietnamese that distinguish the meanings of words: ta (we) tha (to forgive), t (silk) th (poetry), t (private) th (letter). On the other hand, the Vietnamese aspirated consonant /th/, which is indicated by the combination of the two characters th, should not be confused with the English consonants // and //. The voiceless consonant /t/ should not be mixed up with its voiced counterpart /d/: ta (we) a (banyan tree), t (evil) (momentum), t (dozen) (to kick). In American English some words with the voiceless /t/ tend to be pronounced with the voiced /d/, for instance: better, water. Learners should not confuse the three nasal consonants /n/, /_/ and //. The Vietnamese alveolar consonant /n/ is similar to the English /n/. The English consonant // occurs only at the end of a syllable, for example: sang, long, thing, single. The Vietnamese // functions both as an initial consonant, e.g. ng, nghe, ng, and as a final consonant, e.g. ngang. The consonant /_/ rarely occurs in English. Learners may have trouble producing the initial consonants /_/ and //. Their attention should be focused on the distinctive features of the consonants in terms of the place of articulation: /n/ is an alveolar consonant made with the contact of the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge, /_/ is a palatal consonant produced with the back of the

tongue rising toward the hard palate and touching it, // is a velar consonant, which is created with the blade of the tongue moving backwards and the back of the tongue contacting the velum (Binh N. Ngo 15) The palatal consonant /c/ is another specific consonant in Vietnamese. In the production of this consonant the tongue tip is down near the back of the lower teeth and contact is made by the tongue blade against the hard palate. The combination of the characters ch represents the Vietnamese consonant /c/. The sound that represents /c/ should not be mixed up with the English consonant /t/, e.g. Vietnamese cha, ch, cho versus English char, choose, chop. English Vowel Chart (CA of English and Vietnamese Vowels 13)

Diphthong distribution

Vietnamese 1Mostly centering: 0 1 2 /ie/ -i, y, ia, ya (hin, min, tin) // -, a(hu, tha, thng) /uo/ -u, ua(ungthuc, laa)

English 1Centering: i, e, 2Closing 0 1 ei, ai, i , a (10)

Vowel contrasts 1Vietnamese has prevocalic /u/ while English does not. 0 1 C vs. qu Other examples: noa, non, ga, ha, khoa, qu (CA of English and

Vietnamese Vowels 12) Vowel contrasts 1English has triphthongs while Vietnamese does not 0 1 2 3 4 /ei/ -player, layer /ai/ -fire, liar /i/ -royal, loyal // -lower, mower /a/ -power, hour (CA of English_and_Vietnamese_Vowels 13)

Phonological processes (khoaanh)

A glottal stop [] is inserted before words that begin with a vowel or the glide /w/:

'to eat'

/an/

[an]

[wij] u 'to delegate' /wi/ When stops /p, t, k/ occur at the end of words, they are unreleased and with

accompanying glottal closure [p, t, k]: [a p] / mt 'cool' mat/ / [xak] xak/ When the velar consonants /k, / follow /u, w/, they are articulated with a khc 'different' [mat]

/ p 'to reply' ap/

simultaneous bilabial closure [kp, m] (i.e. doubly-articulated) or are strongly labialized [k, ]. [ukp] [wkp] [um] [awm]

c c ung ong

'muddy' 'poison' 'cancer' 'bee'

/uk/ /wk/ /u/ /aw/

These words are really difficult for an American to pronounce easily. They have to practise a lot.

Here are some difficulties that Vietnamese learners of English may have (wikipedia): Final /b/ is likely to be confused with /p/ Final /d/ is likely to be confused with /t/ Final /f/ is likely to be confused with /p/ Final /v/ is likely to be confused with /b/ or /p/ Final /s/ is likely to be confused with // or simply omitted Final // is likely to be omitted Final /z/ is likely to be confused with // or /s/ Final /t/ is likely to be confused with // Final /l/ is likely to be confused with /n/ Speakers also have difficulty with English consonant clusters, with

o o o o o o o o o

segments being omitted or epinthetic vowels being inserted.

Speakers may not aspirate initial /t/ and /k/, making (American) listeners

perceive them as /d/ and // respectively.

o o o o o o

Speakers often have difficulty with the following phonemes: //, which is confused with /t/ or /s/ //, which is confused with /d/ or /z/ /p/, which is confused with /b/ //, which is confused with /k/ /d/, which is confused with /z/ //, which is confused with /z/ or /d/

o o o o o o o

/s/, which is confused with // /t/, which is confused with /d/, /t/ or /t/ /v/, which is confused with /j/ //, which is confused with /i/ //, which is confused with /u/ or // //, which is confused with // //, which is confused with // or //

Now we come to the comparison between English and Vietnamese vowels (April McMahon 86).

Binh

N.

Ngo explains that when the vowel and final systems are introduced, the attention of learners should be directed to two essential characteristics of the Vietnamese vowels. The difference between a rounded vowel and an unrounded vowel, and, accordingly, between a rounded syllable and an unrounded syllable, is critical. In

English a rounded syllable may occasionally be pronounced as unrounded without changing the meaning of the word, e.g. the rounded syllable on in the sentence The computer is on. may have an element of the unrounded sound [n]. This is impossible in Vietnamese. Some characters denoting the rounded vowels (u, , o) and unrounded vowels (, ) seem to be confusing, since the characters and may be perceived as characters representing rounded vowels. Learners should be introduced to the sounds before seeing the characters. Minimal pairs containing the oppositions /u, / and a()/ua(u) are very helpful, e.g. th (letter)/thu (autumn), c (reason)/c (make efforts), ma (rain)/mua (buy), mn (borrow)/mun (late). The final consonant following a vowel in some cases significantly changes the quality of the vowel. As a result, there are several specific types of syllables in Vietnamese. When one of three rounded monophthong vowels /u/, /o/ and / /is followed by one of two final consonants /N/ or /k/, the rounding of the vowel does not start until the middle of the articulation, and the lips come together at the end of the articulation, e.g. cung, cng, cong, cc, cc, cc. When one of the three front vowels occurs before the same final consonants /N/ and /k/, they are produced shorter than when they precede the other finals or when they are not followed by any final. The vowel // is denoted by the character a, the final /N/ is represented by nh, and ch indicates the final /k/, e.g. kinh,

knh, canh, kch, kch, cch. The production of canh as \ka_] and cch as \kc] should be avoided. The "long" and "short" features of vowels are phonologically relevant in both English and Vietnamese. In Vietnamese there are only two pairs of vowels which differ from one another as long and short vowels: /a:/ /a/ and /:/ //. The spelling rules should be introduced so that learners can recognize the short vowels in written texts and distinguish the short and long vowels when producing them. In addition, some exceptions should be highlighted in order to distinguish the short vowels from their long counterparts. For instance, the short vowel /a/ is represented by :/ in tai, cao. A picture of the organs of speech would be of great use, especially for those students who rely on visual information. The vowel triangle is very helpful in explaining many spelling rules, e.g. when labialization is denoted by the character u and when by the character o, or when the consonant /k/ is represented by the character c and when by the character k. (These rules are certainly inconsistencies of the Vietnamese alphabet which should be removed in the future). It is crucial for an instructor to be patient and consistent with the accuracy of learners' pronunciation, even if it means slow progress at the beginning. Attention must continue to be focused on accuracy of pronunciation at more advanced levels of Vietnamese when a learner has acquired more knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, otherwise a learner may lose the phonetic skills she/he learned at the beginning (Binh N. Ngo 16, 17).

Like other Southeast Asian languages, Vietnamese has a comparatively large number of vowels. Below is a vowel diagram of Hanoi Vietnamese (wikipedia).

Front

Central

Back

High Upper Mid Lower Mid

i [i] [e] e [] []

[]

u [u] [o] o []

[] /

1Low

[a] / a [a]

Front, central, and low vowels (i, , e, , , , , a) are unrounded, whereas the back vowels (u, , o) are rounded. The vowels [] and [a] are pronounced very short, much shorter than the other vowels. Thus, and are basically pronounced the same except that [] is long while [] is short the same applies to the low vowels long a [a] and short [a]. In addition to single vowels (or monophthongs), Vietnamese has diphthongs[8] and triphthongs. The diphthongs consist of a main vowel component followed by a shorter semivowel offglide to a high front position [], a high back position [], or a central position [].

Diphthong Diphthong Diphthong Vowel with nucleus offglide offglide offglide front with

Triphthong

Triphthong back

back with centering with offglide

front with offglide iu [i ]

Iu~yu [i ]

ia~i~y~ya [i ]

u [e ]

eo [ ]

i []

u [ ]

i []

u []

a~ [ ]

y [ ]

u [ ]

i [ ]

au [a ]

ay [a ]

ai [a ]

ao [a ]

ui [u]

ui [u ]

ua~u [u ]

i [o ]

oi [ ]

The centering diphthongs are formed with only the three high vowels (i, , u) as the main vowel. They are generally spelled as ia, a, ua when they end a word and are

spelled i, , u, respectively, when they are followed by a consonant. There are also restrictions on the high offglides: the high front offglide cannot occur after a front vowel (i, , e) nucleus and the high back offglide cannot occur after a back vowel (u, , o) nucleus. The correspondence between the orthography and pronunciation is complicated. For example, the offglide [ is usually written as i however, it may also be represented ] with y. In addition, in the diphthongs [a and [a the letters y and i also indicate the ] ] pronunciation of the main vowel: ay = + [ ai = a + [ Thus, tay "hand" is [ta while ], ]. ] tai "ear" is [ta Similarly, u and o indicate different pronunciations of the main vowel: ]. au = + [ ao = a + [ Thus, thau "brass" is [ta while thao "raw silk" is [ta ], ]. ] ]. The four triphthongs are formed by adding front and back offglides to the centering diphthongs. Similarly to the restrictions involving diphthongs, a triphthong with front nucleus cannot have a front offglide (after the centering glide) and a triphthong with a back nucleus cannot have a back offglide. With regards to the front and back offglides [ many phonological , ], descriptions analyze these as consonant glides /j, w/. Thus, a word such as u "where", phonetically [ would be phonemicized as /w/. ], Tang M. Giang also compares the vowel systems of Vietnamese (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998; D.H. Nguyen 2001) and English (erickson, 2001; Harris, 1994). As with table 1, orthographic letters that correspond to speech sounds are underlined in the words in parentheses. Vietnamese and English share even single vowels: /i/ as in see,

// as in had, // as in egg, // as in caught, // as in cot, //as in could and /u/ as in blue. Apart from these shared sounds, Vietnamese contains five additional single vowels, /e/ as in le pear, // as in t private, / / as in m dream, / / as in am warm and // as in nam, year; and three true diphthongs (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998): /ie/ as in bien sea, /uo/ as in cuon roll and // as in t wet. In addition, there are 20 possible two-vowel combinations in which the principal vowel is combined with either a medial vowel /-u-/, or a syllable-final semi-vowel -y or -w and seven 3vowel combinations that include all three vowel slots: medial, principal, and final (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998; see Table 2 for examples). These two- and three-vowel combinations maintain the overall syllable structure (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998) and are produced in one beat. The vowel sounds specific to Standard American English include three single vowels: // in kid, // in cut, and unstressed // in attack. In addition, English has two rhotacized (r-rounding) vowels //in bird and its unstressed counterpart // in thunder. There are five English-specific diphthongs: /o/as in oh, /a/ as in cow, /ai/ as in eye, /o/ as in boy, and /e/ as in bake; as well as four vowel combinations: /a/ as in Diana, /ie/ as in pronunciation, /io/ as in stereo, and /oe/ as in oasis (Harris, 1994). Table 2 Comparison of Vietnamese and English vowels Vietnamese only Shared sounds English only

Singletons

e (l), (t), (m) (m), (nm)

i (xin or see) (lm or had), (cho or ought1) (mt2 or cot1) (t or wood) u (tu or blue) (cht2 or egg)

(kid) (cut),

(attack) (thunder)

(urgent)

Diphthongs

ie (bin, ma, yn) uo (cun) (t, tra)

o (how) a

(oh),

(eye),

(boy), e (bake) 2-Vowel Combinations (medial vowel -u- and principal vowel) 2-Vowel Combinations (principal vowel with final semi-vowel) ui (suy), oe (Hu) o (th), o (lut) e (khoe), a (hoa) j (chi), j (chi) oj (ni), uj (li), aj (chai) j (voi), j (cy), j (cay) iw (xu), ew (ku) w (leo), w (lu) :w(o, rau), (lu) u

3+ vowel combinations (medial vowel -u- and principal vowel

iew (nhiu, yu) w (hu), aj

a (Diana) ie, (pronounciation) io uej (stereo),

and (khoai) uj (nui), j (mi) uia (uy) (khuya),

final semi-vowel)

oe (oasis)

The IPA vowel chart of monophthongs (i.e., simple vowels) below is a composite of the phonetic descriptions of Nguyn (1997), Thompson (1965), and Han (1966).[2] This is a vowel description of Hanoi Vietnamese (i.e., other regions of Vietnam may have different inventories) (khoaanh). Fro nt Close Close-mid Open-mid Open

Centr al a a ck

Ba u o

i e

All vowels are unrounded except for the three back rounded vowels: /u, o,

/.
o

// and /a/ are pronounced short shorter than the other vowels. /a/ vs. /a/: Short /a/ (orthographic ) and long /a/ (orthographic a) are

different phonemic vowels, differing in length only (and not quality). (The [] symbol indicates a long vowel.)
o

// vs. //: Han (1966) suggests that short // and long // differ in both

height and length, but that the difference in length is probably the primary distinction.

Thompson (1965) seems to suggest that the distinction is due to height (as he does for all Vietnamese vowels), although he also notes the length difference.

// is close central unrounded and backed and lowered: []. Many

descriptions, such as Thompson, Nguyn (1970), Nguyn (1997), consider this vowel to be close back unrounded: []. However, Han's[4] instrumental analysis indicates that it is more central than back. Brunelle (2003) and Pham (2003) also transcribe this vowel as central.

The high and upper-mid vowels /i, , u, e, , o/ have phonetic offglides:

[j, , w, ej, , ow], particularly in open syllables: c'elder /ci/ h t 'fourth' t 'autumn' /tu/ hu Diphthongs and triphthongs In addition to monophthongs, Vietnamese has many diphthongs and triphthongs. Most of these consist of a vowel followed by /j/ or /w/. Below is a chart listing the diphthongs & triphthongs of general northern speech. /j/ // Diphthongs Diphthongs/ /i/ Triphthongs /j/ /w/ Diphthongs/ Triphthongs /iw/ [t w] /t/ [t] c'paternal /ko/ aunt' [kow] sister' [cj] u e' m 'to dream' /m/ [m] q'countrysid /kwe/ [kwej]

// /u/

/j/ /aj/ /aj/ /j/ /uj/ /oj/

/ew/ /w/ /w/ /w/ /aw/

Given information about the phonemes or speech-sounds of each language, it is also important to understand how these sounds combine together to form a syllable. Syllable structures in Indo-European languages may be described as sequences of consonants (C) and vowels (V). For instance, in English, there are numerous syllable structures that are plausible such as CV, CVC, CCVC, CCCVC, (Erickson, 2001) as in the words me, bat, stop, and scratch, respectively. In contrast, linguists in Vietnam have poisted that representing the Vietnamese syllable using consonant and vowel sequences inaccurately portrays its structure since CV sequences would not account for tones, a compulsory element that contributes to lexical meaning, nor the adjustments in vowel length that contribute to the preservation of the syllable structure and length (H. T. Nguyen, personal communication, November 15, 2005) (Giang M. Tang). Table 3 displays the syllable structure of Vietnamese (Doan, 1999; see also Dinh & Nguyen, 1998). Double lines delineate the three main syllable components: tone, syllable-initial sound, and the rime. Tone is present throughout the syllable and carries lexical meaning (see the lexical-semantic position consists of a medial vowel, principal vowel, and final sound, of which the principal vowel is the only required vowel in the syllable (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998). Table 3 displays four word examples that illustrate

possible syllable structures: toan math, toa court, tan to melt and ta we or I. Note that the smallest possible syllable, ta, is produced with an initial consonant sound, principal vowel, and a tone (level tones are not marked orthographically).

Table 3 Vietnamese Syllable Structure Tone Syllableinitial sound Medial /u/ T T T T o o Principa l vowel a a Final sound n n

Rime

Compared to English, Vietnamese has a wider variety of single vowel and vowel combinations with a total of five unshared singletons and 30 vowel combinations compared to five unshared singletons and eight vowel combinations in Standard American English (see Table 2). A complex vowel system may be related to the Vietnamese syllable structure that allows three possible slots for vowel sounds and two possible slots for consonants (see syllable structure in Table 3). Correspondingly, the relatively limited number of consonants may be related to their limited role in a syllable. A relatively larger vowel inventory may counterbalance a more limited number of consonants in Vietnamese.

Based on this comparison of Vietnamese and English phonology, we find that while certain speech sounds are common to both languages, there are many differences to be noted. First, tones in Vietnamese carry lexical meaning and are obligatory in the syllable structure. Second, Vietnamese has a more complicated vowel system, while English has a larger consonant inventory with greater distribution across syllable positions. Lastly, in regards to complexity, Vietnamese contains multiple relatively marked retroflex and velar consonant sounds, while English contains complex structures such as affricates and consonant clusters. Here is the comparison between the English stress and Vietnamese stress. Native speakers of English are intuitively aware that certain syllables in each word, and one syllable in particular, will be more phonetically prominent than others. In father, the first syllable seems stronger than the second; in about, it is the other way around; and in syllable, the first syllable stands out from the rest. These more prominent syllables are stressed (April McMahon 129). April McMahon also states that English is a stressed-timed language, allowing approximately the same amount of time to produce each foot (as opposed to syllabletimed languages, like French, which devote about the same amount of time to each syllable regardless of stress), cat in a hat and cat flap will have much the same phonetic duration. Binh N. Ngo finds that one of the phonetic typological differences between Vietnamese and English is that Vietnamese is a syllable-timed language in which the rhythm appears to be fairly even, with each syllable giving the impression of having about the same duration and force as any other; English is a stress-timed language in

which stressed syllables recur at intervals. Another key difference is that Vietnamese is a tone language in which the pitch levels are used to distinguish words; English is a non-tonal language. Stress does not create interference for English-speaking learners studying Vietnamese if at the very beginning they are introduced to Vietnamese as a language in which words in a phrase or in a sentence are in most cases pronounced with the same duration and force. However, they should be careful with pauses in a sentence or in a phrase that should be placed properly, otherwise a misunderstanding may occur, for instance: Nhiu ngi ni / ting hay lm. (Many people say Italian sounds very beautiful.) versus Nhiu ngi / ni ting hay lm. (There are many people who speak Italian very well.) That is, the two syllables of a two-syllable compound should be spoken together. At a higher level of the language structure, words in a phrase should be pronounced together with one another. It is a good idea to split a long sentence into phrases between which short pauses are made, whereas there should not be any pause between the syllables of a two-syllable word (a compound, a reduplicative etc.). Tones: Vietnamese uses tones as phonemes since a change in tone indicates a change in meaning. For example, ma ghost and ma cheek are two distinct words that only differ in tone, the level (khong dau) tone and rising (sac) tone, respectively. D. H. Nguyen (2001) describes the six tones of the northern Vietnamese dialect: level

(khong dau), falling (huyen), creaky (nga), dipping-rising (hoi), rising (sac), and constricted (nang). In the southern dialect, the creaky (nga) and the dippingrising (hoi) tones are both produced as the dipping-rising tone (hoi). Therefore, there are only five tones produced in the southern regions (Tang Giang 6). Vietnamese is a tonal language and speakers may try to use the Vietnamese tonal system or use a monotone with English words. They may also associate tones onto the intonational pattern of a sentence and becoming confused with such inflectional changes (wikipedia). The six tones in Vietnamese cause a variety of difficulties for learners, both in producing and maintaining the tones in speech flow. (Binh N. Ngo 12) Vietnam is a contour tone language, which is strongly syllabic in its phonological organization and morphology (Thu Nguyen and John Ingramn 1). Linguists distinguish register tones and contour tones. The pitch of register tones hardly goes up and down during the production of a particular tone. In contrast, contour tones have more than one pitch. In the Vietnamese language, the syllable is the smallest meaningful unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts (Binh N. Ngo 7) Vietnamese is a tonal language in which changes of the pitch level and/or contour signal a change in meaning (Binh N. Ngo 12) In English, as in many other European languages, the intonation may function as the only means of distinguishing various types of sentences, for example: He is coming. versus He is coming? In Vietnamese intonation is rarely used as a way to

form questions. If an assertive statement ends in a word with the high-rising tone, the voice should be raised at the end of the sentence, for example: Hm nay tri nng lm. (It is really hot today.) On the other hand, if a question ends in a word with the low-falling tone, the voice should be lowered at the end of the question, for example: Hm nay tri nng lm ? (Is it really hot today?) In many European languages the pitch of voice in an assertive statement is usually dropped at the end. In Vietnamese the meanings of the sentences ng y i tu. (He has become a Buddhist monk.) and ng y i t. (He has been sent to prison.) are completely different. Learners' attention should be drawn to the fact that the Vietnamese language uses certain grammatical patterns for assertive, negative and interrogative statements. Intonation in Vietnamese is strictly restricted by the tones. (Binh N. Ngo 14) Discussion The problem is that whereas a totally new and unfamiliar sound simply has to be learned from scratch, an old sound in a new role requires further processes of adjustment (April McMahon 31). For example, our Vietnamese learners of English have to suppress her instinctive and subconscious division of the aspirated and unaspirated sounds ([t] and [th]), and learn to produce both in the same context. There are some features that we should pay more attention in English because this feature does not exist in Vietnamese, such as the rule for aspiration sounds. For an English learning child, it is quite important that voiceless stops are aspirated at the beginning of syllables, and there are no sequences of [s] plus a voiced stop; consequently, English speakers will rank these constraints high. However, for

children learning a language without aspiration like Vietnamese, these constraints will not match the linguistic facts they hear, they will therefore be ranked low down in the list, so they have no obvious effect. Thats why we have much difficulty learning English consonant clusters. Vietnamese transfer to English (Giang M. Tang 20) Adult L2 learners often transfer L1 skills onto their L2 (McDonald, 200). Transfer from L1 to L2 is often referred to as positive transfer. The following description is meant to highlight salient linguistic features specific to English with which Vietnamese speakers may have difficulty. Obviously not all Vietnamese adult L2 learners will demonstrate all characteristics of Vietnamese-influenced English. Table 6 summarizes examples of potential interactions from Vietnamese to English across phonology, lexical semantics, and morpho-syntax. In regards to phonology, Vietnamese adult L2 learners often have difficulty pronouncing English sounds not found in Vietnamese such as consonant clusters, affricates, vowels with rrounding /,/, and lax vowel // see Tables 1 and 2). Consonant clusters may be simplified or deleted depending on the word position (D.L.Nguyen, 1970b; Riney, 1988). For instance, the initial consonant cluster /str-/ in string may be simplified and produced without the /t/ as string [sri], with a tense high vowel [i] instead of the lax vowel //, which is not present in Vietnamese. A consonant cluster in the word-final position as in walked may be deleted and produced as walk. In addition to omitting sounds, L2 learners may substitute English-specific sounds with Vietnamese sounds or sounds shared between both languages (McDonald,

2000; Riney, 1988). For instance the English hard th in the may be approximated with [d], a shared sound, as in [d]. In the final position, a hard th may be produced as the shared sound /t/ as in [smut] for /smu/ smooth. The English soft th may be approximated with the Vietnamese dental aspirated t as in [tht] for /t/ thought. The English r in run may be produced as the r-flap (an acceptable allophone for the Vietnamese r) or as /z/ (from the northern Vietnamese dialect): run or zun. English final r may be omitted as in [sta] for star. English final /l/ may be produced with the semivowel [w] such as [snew] for /sneil/ snail (D.L.Nguyen, 1970b). Since tones are obligatory in every Vietnamese word, Vietnamese speakers may add tones into English, which would affect intonation patterns. Table 6 Potential Interactions of Vietnamese (L1) with English (L2) Lang. level Phonology (Sound level) Pattern Simplify Example sring for string

initial

consonant clusters Delete or simplify final consonant clusters Substitute Vietnamese consonants Substitute Vietnamese vowels Intonation influenced by tones with

bok for box Dental aspirated t for

soft th: [tht] for thought with cheek for chick pattern Rising and falling on individual words

LexicalSemantic (Word level) that

Difficulty do not

using have

words

To do, to work, and

direct to make are all one word in

Vietnamese translations Vietnamese, lm Difficulty with endings so bore for so boring that indicate a hange in word Syntax (Grammar) class c Omit word endings for tense Omit word endings for two dollar walk for for two she plurality dollars Omit word endings for she verb agreement Omit auxiliary verbs Place adjectives after nouns Difficulty order in questions with word You want eat what? for What do you want to eat? walks You hungry? for Are you hungry? car big for big car walk for walked

Lang. Level Phonology (Sound level)

Pattern Simplify combinations Substitute consonants Substitute

2-3

vowel

Example Says phng

for

with with

phng English English

for for

Vietnamese kh English English o

diphthongs Vietnamese o Aspiration of /p, t, k/ in 1) mth for mt eye initial or final positions 2) English t for Vietnamese dental

aspirated t as in th Tone errors rabbit Says cu penis for affect tones

c owl Rising intonation added to May Lexical semantics meaning)

questions and meaning Difficulty using words that mang, vc, khing, (Word do not have direct English xch, bng are translated of as to carry in English ci vit for cy vit pen hai ch* for hai con

translations Overgeneralization classifiers Omission of classifiers1 Difficulty terms using

ch two dogs kinship Refer to oneself as con child when speaking

to same-aged peers Difficulty understanding eduplications Morpho-Syntax (Grammar) r Overuse of function words Use , ang, s

when not needed Difficulty with word order M xe for xe m for possession Difficulty with word order in questions Omission of classifiers1 Place adjectives before u i anh? for Anh i u? See above p bm for bm

In summary, dominant Vietnamese learners of English may have difficulty with sound, word, and grammatical aspects of English not found in Vietnamese. For instance, they may have difficulty producing consonant clusters, affricates, and syllablefinal consonant sounds as well as using English intonation patterns due to the influence of lexical tone. They may have difficulty using English vocabulary that make lexicalsemantic distinctions not found in Vietnamese and they may depend on the sentence context (rather than morphology) to express and/or interpret words as different word classes. These learners may have difficulty producing English word inflections such as the past tense -ed as well as using English subject-verb inversion and auxiliary verbs when asking questions. English Transfer to Vietnamese (Giang M. Tang 23) It is well known that a persons L1 may influence their L2 performance in adult L2 learners (e.g., McDonald, 2000; Sato, 1988). Recent studies have also shown that L2 skills may influence L1 performance (Hernandez, Bates, & Avila, 1994; Su, 2001). Table 7 presents potential interaction of English with Vietnamese in Vietnamese American students learning both languages. Table 7 Potential interactions of English (L2) with Vietnamese (L1) These are predictions of negative transfer patterns based on a cross-linguistic analysis. Future empirical evidence is needed to refute or support these patterns. At the phonological (sound) level, the tone production of these students may be affected since tones do not have lexical meaning in English. Vietnamese students in an English language environment may have difficulty perceiving and/or producing tones correctly.

Oftentimes, the older Vietnamese generation may be amused by their childrens American accent and tease them for tonal errors that change lexical meaning. For instance, a child may want to say con c an owl but may drop the rising (sc) tone and say con cu penis. A related difficulty is the influence of English intonation patterns. In English many questions are asked with a rising intonation at the end of the sentence. Students who are acquiring both languages may have a rising intonation in Vietnamese, which alters tones and may affect meaning or intelligibility. In regards to sound-substitution, the Vietnamese aspirated dental t as in th rabbit and the velar fricative kh as in khng no may be produced as an English t and k, respectively. In addition, Vietnamese final consonant sounds, which are typically unreleased (Dinh & Nguyen, 1998), may be produced with some aspiration (or at least an audible release) since English final consonants can be released (Harris, 1994). Vietnamese single vowels may become elongated or diphthongized, such as with the vowel /o/ being produced as the English diphthong /o/. Vietnamese two- or three-vowel combinations may be simplified due to the relatively few number of vowel combinations in English (see Table 2). English skills may influence Vietnamese performance in Vietnamese American students across the sound. For instance, children may have difficulty with consonant and vowel sounds not shared in English (see tables 1 and 2) as well as misuse or omit lexical tone (Giang M. Tang 23, 24, 25). Conclusion These are the differences and difficulties for Vietnamese learners of English and vice versa. As teachers, we should pay attention to these differences and try to correct

the mistakes made by our students. Anyway, because we can not achieve the perfect pronunciation of foreign speakers, we should not pay too much attention to those mistakes. Otherwise, our students will become ashamed of making mistakes and they will develop the feeling of inferiority.

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