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title: Vietnamese
description: Vietnamese is the national language of Vietnam, belonging to the Mon-Khmer branch of Austroasiatic. Its six tones, analytic grammar, and Latin-based Quốc ngữ script reflect a unique Southeast Asian profile.
llms_summary: "Vietnamese. (Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam). Profile. Grammatical Typology SVO, Analytic, Tonal. L1 Native Speakers 76000000 (76M). Language Family Austroasiatic / Vietic / Vietnamese. Language Vitality Index 9/10 (National) scale. Number of Countries 1 countries. Standard Script Latin (Quốc ngữ). Total Speakers 85000000 (85M). UNESCO Risk Category Safe. Web Domain Share (%) 0.1 %. Writing System Complexity Level 2 (Phonetic Latin with Diacritics) level. Linguistics & Culture. Vietnamese is the national language of Vietnam, belonging to the Mon-Khmer branch of Austroasiatic. Its six tones, analytic grammar, and Latin-based Quốc ngữ script reflect a unique Southeast Asian profile.  canonical profile on Structured Pages"
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indexed_at: "2026-08-05T14:05:49.391Z"
date_modified: 2026-08-04
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# Vietnamese

Vietnamese is the national language of Vietnam, belonging to the Mon-Khmer branch of Austroasiatic. Its six tones, analytic grammar, and Latin-based Quốc ngữ script reflect a unique Southeast Asian profile.

*Last updated: 2026-08-04*

## Record

- **Title**: [Vietnamese](https://structuredpages.com/vietnamese/?format=md)
- **Place**: Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam
- **Range**: vietnam
- **Use case**: Linguistics & Culture
- **Website**: https://vienngonngu.vass.vn/
- **Contact address**: Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam
- **Coordinates**: 21.0278, 105.8342

### Summary

Vietnamese is the national language of Vietnam, belonging to the Mon-Khmer branch of Austroasiatic. Its six tones, analytic grammar, and Latin-based Quốc ngữ script reflect a unique Southeast Asian profile.

### Description

## Historical Evolution

Vietnamese diverged from Viet-Muong, absorbing extensive Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary during millenniums of Chinese rule. French colonialism introduced romanization (Quốc ngữ), which replaced Chinese characters by the early 20th century. North–South political division left modest lexical and tonal differences still visible today.

## Phonology

Vietnamese has six tones (including ngang, huyền, sắc, hỏi, ngã, nặng) on syllables with rigid C(G)V(C) structure. Vowel quality and final consonants (/p t k m n ŋ/) interact with tone. Regional splits (Hanoi vs Saigon) affect consonant mergers and vowel height.

## Syntax

Vietnamese is SVO and analytic: no inflectional morphology for tense or number. Classifiers precede nouns in numeral phrases; serial verb constructions are common. Topic–comment organization and sentence-final particles encode aspect and stance.

### Categories

- language
- austroasiatic

### Attributes

| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Grammatical Typology | SVO, Analytic, Tonal |
| L1 Native Speakers | 76000000 (76M) |
| Language Family | Austroasiatic / Vietic / Vietnamese |
| Language Vitality Index | 9/10 (National) scale |
| Number of Countries | 1 countries |
| Standard Script | Latin (Quốc ngữ) |
| Total Speakers | 85000000 (85M) |
| UNESCO Risk Category | Safe |
| Web Domain Share (%) | 0.1 % |
| Writing System Complexity | Level 2 (Phonetic Latin with Diacritics) level |