ILLUSTRATION OF THE IPA

Vietnamese (Hanoi
Vietnamese)
James P. Kirby
University of Edinburgh, UK
j.kirby@ed.ac.uk

Vietnamese, the official language of Vietnam, is spoken natively by over seventy-five million
people in Vietnam and greater Southeast Asia as well as by some two million overseas,
predominantly in France, Australia, and the United States. The genetic affiliation of
Vietnamese has been at times the subject of considerable debate (Diffloth 1992). Scholars
such as Tabard (1838) maintained a relation to Chinese, while Maspero (1912), despite noting
similarities to Mon-Khmer, argued for an affiliation with Tai. However, at least since the
work of Haudricourt (1953), most scholars now agree that Vietnamese and related Vietic 1
languages belong to the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic family.
It is important to make a distinction between ‘literary Vietnamese’, a prescriptive
construct in which several orthographic distinctions are maintained in production, and the
colloquial or standard speech of a given dialect region. This illustration describes the modern
Hanoi dialect of Northern Vietnamese; segmental and tonal inventories, as well as lexicon,
vary considerably between Vietnamese dialects, including those spoken in areas adjacent to
Hanoi.
The earliest systematic account of Vietnamese phonology was given by de Rhodes
(1651), whose analysis is reflected in the modern orthography. Other important descriptions
include those of Maspero (1912), Le Vˆ an L ˘ y (1948), Emeneau (1951), and Thompson ´
(1965). Vietnamese historical phonology has played an important role in the broader study of
Southeast Asian diachrony (Barker 1966; Barker & Barker 1970; Ferlus 1975, 1982, 1992,
1996, 1997; Gregerson & Thomas 1976; Thompson 1976; Diffloth 1992), and has proven
central to our understanding of the process of tonogenesis (Haudricourt 1954; Matisoff 1973;
Gage 1985; Diffloth 1989; Alves 1995; Ferlus 1998, 2004; Thurgood 2002, 2007; Stebbins
2010). Indeed, much of the synchronic phonetic and phonological research on Northern
Vietnamese has similarly focused on its tonal system. The work of Vũ Thanh Phương
(1981, 1982) provides a comprehensive overview, but experimental studies have
also been undertaken by Andreev & Gordina (1957), Earle (1975), Han & Kim (1974),
Hoàng Cao Cương (1986), Seitz (1986), Nguyễn Văn Lợi & Edmondson (1998),
Brunelle (2003, 2009ab), Phạm (2001, 2003), Michaud (2004), Michaud, Vũ Ngọc
Tuấn, Amelot & Roubeau (2006), Brunelle & Jannedy (2007), Brunelle, Nguyễn Duy
Dương & Nguyễn Khắc Hùng (2010), and Kirby (2010). Other aspects of Vietnamese
phonetics and phonology have been addressed by Nguyễn Bạt Tụy (1949, 1959),
Gordina (1960a, b, 1961, 1964), Han (1966), Đoàn Thiện Thuật (1977), Gordina &
Bystrov (1984), Ngô Thanh Nhàn (1984), and Nguyễn

1
The Vietic branch is sometimes referred to as Việt-Mường, although this latter term is also used to refer
exclusively to a sub-branch of Vietic containing Vietnamese and Mường. See Diffloth (1992) and
Hayes (1992) for further discussion.

Journal of the International Phonetic Association (2011) 41/3 !C International Phonetic

Association doi:10.1017/S0025100311000181
382 Journal of the International Phonetic Association
Đình Hoà (1997). Studies of Vietnamese dialectology include Cadière (1902),
Thompson (1959, 1965), Gordina (1963), Cao Xuân Hạo (1978, 1986, 1988), Hoàng
Thị Châu (1989), Ferlus (1991, 1995, 1997), Alves & Nguyễn Duy Hương (1998
[2007]), Alves (2002 [2007]), Phạm (2005), and Honda (2006).
The recordings accompanying this illustration are of a 32-year-old male native
of Hanoi.

Consonants
Initials
Labial Labio- Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
dental
Plosive á t th â tC k P Nasal m n ñ N Fricative f v s z x G h Approximant w
Lateral approximant l

Ă Ă Ă Ă Ă
áa £ ba ‘three’ âa £ đa ‘banyan tree’ ka £ ca ‘mug’ ma £ ma ‘ghost’ na £ na
Ă Ă h Ă Ą
‘custard apple’ Na £ Nga ‘Russia’ ta £ ta ‘we, our’ t a £ tha ‘to forgive’ la £ là
Ă Ą Ă Ă
(existential copula) fa £ pha ‘to brew’ va £ và ‘and’ wan £ oan ‘unjustly’ sa £ xa
Ă Ą Ă Ą Ă
‘far’ za £ da ‘skin’ ha £ hà ‘river’ tCa £ cha ‘father’ ña £ nhà ‘house’ hwa £ hoa
Ę Ą Ą
‘flower’ xa £ khá ‘rather’ Ga £ gà ‘chicken’ Pa £ à (question particle)

The voiced plosives are canonically, but not consistently, realized as implosives.
Initial /t th/ are apico-dental [” t t ” h], lamino-alveolar [«t t « h], or contiguous apico-
dental lamino-alveolar (‘denti-alveolar’, Harris 2006), while /ânl/ are apico-alveolar.
Some previous treatments such as that of Thompson (1965) recognize an
unaspirated, unaffricated palatal stop /c/. However, in the speech of many younger
Vietnamese native speakers from Hanoi, such as that of the present consultant, this
segment is consistently realized as an affricate [tC], a well-attested areal feature
(Harris 2006). The tongue body contacts the alveolar or post-alveolar region during
the production of both the palatal nasal [ñ] and the palatal affricate [tC] in initial
position (Henderson 1965).
While some varieties of Vietnamese maintain a distinction in the phonetic
realizations of orthographic !tr-" and !ch-", these onsets are completely merged in
modern Hanoi Vietnamese. The highly salient (and socially stigmatized) merger of /l/
and /n/ > /l/, characteristic of the speech of many lower- and working-class
Vietnamese in the Red River Delta, is sometimes consciously manipulated to
humorous and/or pejorative effect
Ă > Ę
in colloquial Hanoi speech, as in e.g. /n˘7w £/ nˆau ‘brown’ + /no Nm £/ nóng ‘hot’ =
Ă > Ę
‘hot coffee with milk’ > [l˘7w £ lo Nm £].
In syllable-initial position /p j r/ occur in a small number of foreign (mainly
Ă Ă Ă Ă Ă
French) loans, e.g. [pan £] < panne ‘breakdown’, [Ga £ ra £] < garage, [bi £ ja £] <
billiard. For many speakers, however, /p/ is realized as [b/á] and /r/ as [z].
James P. Kirby: Vietnamese (Hanoi Vietnamese) 383

Finals
Hanoi Vietnamese licenses eight segments in coda position: three unreleased
voiceless obstruents /p t k/ ([p^ t^ k^]), three nasals /m n N/, and two approximants /j
w/.2 In final position /t n/ are canonically alveolar, though it is not clear if they are
chiefly laminal or apical. While the EGG study of Michaud (2004) found no evidence
of glottalization accompanying unreleased final stops /p t k/, the laryngoscopic study
of Edmondson et al. (2010) suggests that glottal reinforcement (in the sense of
Esling, Fraser & Harris 2005) may not always be absent in this context.
Velar fronting
Although the phonetic realization of the stops /N k/ following /ieE/ have sometimes
described as palatal [ñ c], they are actually pre-velar [N ] and [k
been ff ff], with no point
of alveolar contact (Henderson 1965). The conditioning vowels tend to be shortened
and centralized, and may be produced with a noticeable palatal offglide.
kiN Ă
ff £ Kinh ‘Vietnamese’
keN Ă
ff £ kênh ‘channel’
kEN Ă
ff £ canh ‘broth’
sik Ě
ff £ xích ‘chain’
sek Ě
ff £ xếch ‘slanting’
sEk Ě
ff £ sách ‘book’
There do exist a few instances of true velars following /E/, e.g. [sE:NŃŐ£] xẻng
‘shovel’.
Labial-velar finals
Following back rounded vowels /uoO/, the velar stops /k N/ are produced as doubly
> >
articulated labial-velars [ kp Nm]. This articulation is sometimes accompanied by a
visible puffing of the cheeks as air becomes trapped in the oral cavity.
> Ă
u Nm £ ung ‘tumor’
> Ă
o Nm £ ông ‘grandfather’
> Ă
O Nm £ ong ‘bee’
> Ě
u kp £ Úc ‘Australia’
> Ě
o kp £ ốc ‘snail’
> Ě
O kp £ óc ‘mind, brain’
Note the differences between the doubly articulated labial-velars and plain final
> Ě
bilabials: su kp £ xuc´ ‘to scoop’
Ě
sup £ sup´ ‘soup’
> Ă
ho Nm £ hong ˆ ‘hip’
Ă
hom £ homˆ ‘day’
>kpĄ£ ho
hO . c ‘to study’
hOpĄ£ ho
. p ‘to meet’
> Ę
sO Nm £ song ´ ‘wave’
Ę
sOm £ xom´ ‘hamlet’
2 Whetherthese segments are transcribed as final approximants /j w/ or as semivowels /I U
“ “/ is largely
a matter of analytic perspective. From a phonological standpoint, these segments may be
regarded as approximants (consonants) on the grounds that they may not be followed by another
consonant. However, these segments are articulated somewhat differently from the initial
approximants, with a lesser degree of closure.
384 Journal of the International Phonetic Association

Figure 1 Location of monophthong and diphthong centroids in a schematic F1-F2

space, based on acoustic analysis of the accompanying sound files.
As with velar fronting, there are rare exceptions to the realization of final velars as labial
> Ă
velar after back rounded vowels: compare e.g. [bO Nm £] bong ‘to come loose’ with
Ă
[bO:N £] boong ‘deck (of ship)’ (< French pont; Nguyễn Bạt Tụy 1949; Haudricourt
1952; Sampson 1969).

Vowels
Hanoi Vietnamese distinguishes nine vowel qualities /ieEaW7uoO/ and three falling
diphthongs /i@ W@ u@/. Length is normally distinctive only in closed syllables and
then only for the vowels /a/ and /7/, although there do exist a small number of lexical
pairs which provide evidence for a length distinction between the vowels /E O/ such
as [sE:NŃŐ£]
xẻng‘shovel’ and [sEN Ă Ă
ff £] xanh ‘green’ or [sO:N £] xoong ‘saucepan’ and [sO
> Ă
Nm £] xong ‘to finish’. Although these differences are phonetically robust, the fact
that such pairs are also distinguished by differences in the articulation of the coda
segment has led to some debate on the proper phonological treatment of the vowel
system (Nguyễn Bạt Tụy 1949, 1959; Haudricourt 1952; Đoàn Thiện Thuật 1977).
While acoustic analysis of the accompanying audio files reveals small but
consistent spectral differences between long and short /7/, it has not been
established that these differences are perceptually or psychoacoustically salient;
therefore, they are transcribed here as instances of the same vowel quality, i.e. [7
˘7]. /W/ is frequently realized as mid centralized [W‰ ], leading some authors to
transcribe it as [1] (Han 1966; Brunelle 2003). /Ww W@w/ neutralize to [iw] in
colloquial Hanoi speech, although speakers who control a formal register may still be
able to produce a difference based on the spelling, as can be heard by comparing the
Ă Ă
accompanying recordings of [ziw £] dịu ‘to soften’ and [zW@w £] rượu ‘liquor’.

Monophthongs
Ă Ą Ą Ă Ă
thi £ thi ‘test’ tW £ từ ‘word’ tu £ tù ‘prison’ tim £ tim ‘heart’ tum £ tum
Ě Ă Ą
(placename) zipĄ£ dịp ‘occasion’ zup £ giúp ‘to help’ tin £ tin ‘news’ lun £ lùn
 Ě Ě Ě siN Ă
‘short’ mit £ mít ‘jackfruit’ mWt £ mứt ‘jam’ áut £ bút ‘pen’ ff £ xinh ‘pretty’
Ă > Ę hik Ě Ě
sWN £ sưng ‘to swell’ su Nm £ súng ‘gun’ t ff £ thích ‘to like’ sWk £ sức
> Ě Ą
‘energy’ su kp £ xúc ‘to scoop’ NWjŃŐ£ ngửi ‘to smell’ muj £ mùi ‘smell, taste’
Ă Ę
ziw £ dịu ‘to soften’ kWw £ cứu ‘to rescue’
James P. Kirby: Vietnamese (Hanoi Vietnamese) 385

Ę Ą !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ă
the £ thế ‘so’ t7 £ tờ ‘sheet’ !to £ tô ‘to fill’
Ă h Ă Ă Ě
âem £ đêm ‘night’ t 7m £ thơm ‘fragrant’ tom £ tôm ‘shrimp’ sep £ xếp ‘to sort’
Ě Ă Ę Ă
l7p £ lớp ‘class’ hopĄ£ hộp ‘box’ len £ lên ‘go up’ l7n £ lớn ‘big’ non £ nôn ‘to
Ě keN Ă
vomit’ metĄ£ mệt ‘tired’ á7t £ bớt ‘to reduce’ áotĄ£ bột ‘powder’ ff £ kênh
> Ă sek Ě > Ě
‘channel’ so Nm £ sông ‘river’ ff £ xếch ‘slanting’ so kp £ sốc ‘shock’
Ę Ă
m7j £ mới ‘new’ moj £ môi ‘lip’
Ę
new £ nếu ‘if’
Ă Ă Ă Ă
thEŃŐ£ thẻ ‘card’ tO £ to ‘large’ tEm £ tem ‘stamp’ t˘7m £ tâm ‘center’ tOm £ tom
Ě Ě Ă
(onmptc.) zEp £ dép ‘sandals’ l˘7p £ lấp ‘to fill in’ hOpĄ£ họp ‘to meet’ xEn £ khen
Ą Ă Ě Ě
‘to praise’ l˘7n £ lần ‘time, turn’ lOn £ lon ‘can’ mEt £ mét ‘meter’ á˘7t £ bất ‘no,
sEN Ă Ą > Ă
none’ áOtĄ£ bọt ‘foam’ ff £ xanh ‘green’ t˘7N £ tầng ‘floor, storey’ sO Nm £
sEk Ě Ě > Ě
xong ‘to finish’ ff £ sách ‘book’ ñ˘7k £ nhấc ‘take up, lift’ sO kp £ sóc ‘squirrel’
Ę Ă
m˘7j £ mấy ‘how many’ mOj £ mọi ‘every’
Ă Ă
zEw £ gieo ‘to plant’ z˘7w £ râu ‘beard’
Ă
tha £ tha ‘to forgive’
Ę Ę
tam £ tám ‘eight’ t˘am £ tắm ‘to bathe’
Ě Ě
sap £ sáp ‘wax’ s˘ap £ sắp ‘soon’
Ă Ă
lan £ lan ‘orchid’ l˘an £ lăn ‘to roll’
Ě Ě
áat £ bát ‘bowl’ á˘at £ bắt ‘to catch’
Ă Ă
saN £ sang ‘to cross’ s˘aN £ xăng ‘petrol’
Ě Ě
sak £ xác ‘corpse’ s˘ak £ sắc ‘sharp’
Ă Ă
maj £ mai ‘tomorrow’ m˘aj £ may ‘lucky’
Ă Ă
zaw £ dao ‘knife’ z˘aw £ rau ‘vegetable’

Diphthongs
Ą Ă Ă Ă
thi@ £ thìa ‘spoon’ thu@ £ thua ‘to lose’ thW@ £ thưa (polite part.) ti@m £ tiêm ‘to
Ą Ă Ě Ě
inject’ áu@m £ buồm ‘sail’ tW@m £ tươm ‘torn’ ti@p £ tiếp ‘continue’ tW@p £
 Ă Ă Ă Ě
tướp ‘rent, torn’ li@n £ liên ‘to link’ lu@n £ luôn ‘often’ lW@n £ lươn ‘eel’ ái@t £
Ě Ě Ę
biết ‘to know’ áu@t £ buốt ‘sharp pain’ W@t £ ướt ‘wet’ ti@N £ tiếng ‘sound’
Ę Ă h Ě h Ě
su@N £ xuống ‘go down’ sW@N £ xương ‘bone’ t i@k £ thiếc ‘tin’ t u@k £ thuốc
Ě
‘medicine’ thW@k £ thước ‘ruler’ áu@jŃŐ£ buổi ‘time period’ áW@jŃŐ£ bưởi
‘pomelo’
Ą Ă
ñi@w £ nhiều ‘many’ zW@w £ rượu ‘liquor’

Tones
Hanoi Vietnamese distinguishes eight tones: a six-tone paradigm in open or sonorant
final syllables and a two-tone paradigm in syllables ending in an unreleased oral stop. For
convenience, the traditional Vietnamese names of the tones are provided here along with an
alphanumeric code indicative of the tones’ historical origins (Michaud 2004).
386 Journal of the International Phonetic Association

(a) open syllables (b) open vs. checked syllables

)z 0 0 u 0

H
02 01
B1 C2 A2 q 51
D1 D2
e
(

y
A1 (level) r

A2 (mid falling) B1
c F
0

(rising)
52

B2
e

u
0
B2 (low glottalized) 0

q
51 C1 (low falling) C2 )z
01

r
(broken) H

B1 (rising) D1
A1
F y

(checked) B2 (low
0

B2
0
c

B1
52

n
02

glot.) D2 (checked)
C1 e

0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Time (sec) Time (sec)

Figure 2 F0 tracks of tones for a male speaker of Hanoi Vietnamese. Panel (a) shows the
six tones found in open sonorant-final syllables; panel (b) compares the pitch of
rising and low glottalized tones in open or sonorant-final syllables (black lines)
with their checked counterparts (gray lines).

Ă Ă
ngang A1 £ (level) ma £ ma ‘ghost’
Ą Ą
huyền A2 £ (mid falling) ma £ mà ‘but, yet’
Ę Ę
sắc B1 £ (rising) ma £ má ‘cheek’
Ě Ě
D1 £ (rising checked) mat £ mát ‘cool’
Ă Ă
nặng B2 £ (low glottalized) ma £ mạ ‘rice seedling’
D2 Ą£ (low checked) matĄ£ mạt ‘louse, bug’
hỏi C1 ŃŐ£ (low falling) maŃŐ£ mả ‘tomb’
ŁŘ ŁŘ
ngã C2 £ (broken) ma £ mã ‘code’
 Like many languages of mainland Southeast Asia, pitch is not the only or even
primary cue to tone in Hanoi Vietnamese. Instead, tones are realized by a complex of
pitch and voice quality features (Nguyễn Văn Lợi & Edmondson 1998; Phạm 2001,
2003), which serve as crucial perceptual cues for native speakers (Brunelle 2009b).
In particular, glottalization plays an important role in the production and perception of
the broken (C2) and glottalized (B2) tones. The falling tones (A2, C1) have been
described by some researchers as accompanied by a breathy voice quality
(Thompson 1965; Phạm 2001, 2003); the low falling tone (C1) has also been
described as accompanied by light final laryngealization (Nguyễn Văn Lợi &
Edmondson 1998; Michaud 2004; Kirby 2010). However, in a laryngoscopic and
laryngographic study of Northern Vietnamese tones, Brunelle et al. (2010) found that
tone production did not systematically involve visually detectable constrictions other
than glottal constriction.
Although duration has not been shown to be a salient perceptual cue to Vietnamese
Ă
tone, syllables bearing tones B2 [ £] and C1[ŃŐ£] are often shorter than syllables bearing
other tones due to the effects of final glottalization. Tone C1 [ŃŐ£], sometimes pronounced
with a falling–rising contour in conservative or careful speech, is colloquially realized as a
low fall.

Coda–tone restriction
Syllables with obstruent codas are subject to a tonal co-occurence restriction. Citation tones
Ě
D1 and D2 [ £ Ą£] occur only on syllables ending in a voiceless oral stop (‘checked
syllables’), and these are the only tones which occur on these syllables. While the D tones
may be

A1 ‘three’
(

)
)

0.9
0.9

e
e

a
a

d
d

P
P

u
u
 z

0
t H
t

i
i

l
l

p
p

-0.6

-0.6
m
m

A
A

400

400
)

z
t

e
e

d
d

50

u
u

t
t

50
P

i
i

l
l

James P. Kirby: Vietnamese (Hanoi p

p

-0.6

Vietnamese) 387 A2 ‘grandmother’

m
m

0 0.4 Time (s)

B1 ‘title of nobility’
A

400

)
)

0.9

a )
a )

P
P

z
z

(
(
 H t
H t

(
(

i
i

50

P
P

0 0.4 Time (s)

0 0.4 Time (s)

B2 ‘ledger’
0.9

0
-0.6
400
h
h

50
0 0.4 Time (s)

c
c

C1 ‘poison’ p

0.9
)

0.9
a
p

-0.6
m

(
-0.6
A

e
400

400
0 )

0
t

H
H t

( i

50

h 50
P

C2 ‘waste’

0 0.4 Time (s) 0 0.4 Time (s)

Figure 3 Waveforms and F0 tracks for the production of six Hanoi Vietnamese tones on
the carrier syllable /áa/ uttered by a female speaker.

Ę
analyzed as allophones of the B tones, they are phonetically quite distinct. Tone B1 [ £]
Ě
differs from D1 [ £] both in pitch onset as well as trajectory (see Figure 2b), and while tone
Ă
B2 [ £] is characterized by strong final glottalization, tone D2 [Ą£] is produced with modal
voice quality (Michaud 2004).

Voice quality
Differences in the realization of voice quality in Hanoi Vietnamese tones can be seen in
Figure 3, which shows waveforms and pitch tracks for the production of six tones on the
carrier syllable /áa/ uttered by a female native speaker. Irregular glottal pulses are clearly
visible in the waveforms of the B2 and C2 tokens, although in different locations: tone B2
Ă
[ £] is characterized by initial periodicity followed by strong glottalization, whereas tone C2
ŁŘ
[ £] is interrupted by a strong medial glottal constriction. Some aperiodicity is also visible
in the second half of the low falling token C1 [ŃŐ£].
Despite its central role in the production and perception of Vietnamese tone, voice
quality is not transcribed in the present illustration for three reasons. First, as emphasized by
Pha
.m (2001, 2003), voice quality is an intrinsic property of the TONE, not of the vocalic
nucleus, and at present the IPA transcription provides no way to reflect this important
difference. Second, the existing system of IPA diacritics cannot impart the relevant details of
the temporal alignment between voice quality and pitch. As illustrated in Figure 3, glottal
constriction can literally interrupt the realization of the vocalic nucleus during production of
the broken tone (C2), while nonmodal voicing is restricted to the final portion of the
glottalized tone (B2); conversely, syllabic rimes bearing a low falling tone (C1) may be
laryngealized or breathy throughout. This is consistent with the findings of Nguyễn Văn
388 Journal of the International Phonetic Association

Lợi & Edmondson (1998), who used airflow data to show changes of different
degrees in the glottal stricture settings over the course of production of these three
tones. Finally, as has been noted in all previous phonetic accounts, there exists
considerable variation in the realization and magnitude of voice quality features
between speakers and even within the speech of a single speaker, further
complicating the issue of how such phonetically complex tones are best represented.

Tonal coarticulation
Although Vietnamese tones are not subject to phonological tone sandhi (i.e. the
realization of a tone is not affected by the surrounding tonal environment), tonal
realization in connected speech is subject to phonetic coarticulation effects. Although
tonal height coarticulation is bidirectional, progressive tonal coarticulation is much
stronger than anticipatory coarticulation in Hanoi Vietnamese; dissimilatory
coarticulation is completely absent (Han & Kim 1974; Brunelle 2003, 2009a).

Conventions
Syllable structure
A Vietnamese syllable consists of three obligatory elements: an onset, a tone and a
vowel. The syllable may optionally contain an obstruent, nasal, or approximant coda.
The initial
Ă
consonant may be accompanied by a secondary labial articulation, as in [h wa £] hoa
Ą
‘flower’. This articulation never follows labial onsets except in loanwords, e.g. [ti@n £
Ă
áwa £] tiền boa ‘tip’ (< French pourboire). The approximant /j/ never follows the front
vowels /i i@ e E/, while /w/ never follows rounded vowels /u u@ o O/.

Transcription of recorded passage

Ę Ě Ą Ą ŁŘ Ă Ă Ă£ mEN Ă
zO £ á˘7k £ va £ m˘atĄ£ tC7j £ kaj £ ñaw £ sEm £ aj ff £
Ă > Ă > Ě Ę
h7n £ Ş tCO Nm £ lu kp £ âO £
Ă Ě Ę w Ě Ę Ă w Ă
Š motĄ£ zu £ xEk £ m˘akĄ£ motĄ£ aw £ x ak £ 7m £ âi £ k a £ Ş
Ă Ă Ą Ę Ă Ą Ă Ą Ą Ą
hO £ zaw £ kEw £ v7j £ ñaw £ z˘aN £ Š Paj £ la £ NW@j £ â˘7w £
Ă Ą Ę h Ě Ą Ă Ě Ă
ti@n £ ma £ kO £ t eŃŐ£ á˘at £ NW@j £ zu £ xEk £ ki@ £ Š
Ę hĄ ŁŘ Ă Ą£ mEN Ă Ă
k7jŃŐ£ Paw £ Š t i £ sE £ Š âW@kĄ£ kOj £ la ff £ h7n £ Ş
Ă Ę Ę Ě Ě Ą hojŃŐ£ mEN Ă Ě
s˘aw £ âO £ zO £ á˘7k £ á˘at £ â˘7w £ t ff £ het £
Ě Ę h Ă Ą h hĄ Ą Ă
sWk £ kO £ t eŃŐ£ Š ñWN £ kaN £ t ojŃŐ£ Š t i £ NW@j £ zu £
Ě
xEk £
 Ą ŁŘ Ę w Ě Ą Ę > Ą Ę
kaN £ zW £ tC˘atĄ£ Paw £ x ak £ Š va £ kuj £ ku Nm £ Š zO £
Ě ŁŘ Ą Ă Ę Ą
á˘7k £ âa £ fajŃŐ£ tW £ áOŃŐ£ Ş s˘aw £ âO £ Š m˘atĄ£ tC7j £
Ę Ą Ą Ă Ě Ą Ę
sW@jŃŐ£ P˘7m £ Š va £ NW@j £ zu £ xEk £ li@n £ k7jŃŐ£ Paw £
Ě Ě > Ą Ę Ě Ą Ă
xwak £ Ş ket £ ku kpĄ£ la £ Š zO £ á˘7k £ fajŃŐ£ thW@ £ ñ˘7n £
Ą Ą Ą Ą£ mEN Ă Ă > Ă
z˘aN £ Š m˘atĄ£ tC7j £ la £ NW@j ff £ h7n £ tCO Nm £
Ă Ą
haj £ NW@j £

Orthographic version
Gió bấc và mặt trời cãi nhau xem ai mạnh hơn, trong lúc đó một du khách
mặc một áo khoác ấm đi qua. Họ giao kèo với nhau rằng ai là người đầu
tiên mà có thể bắt người du khách kia cởi áo thì sẽ được coi là mạnh
hơn. Sau đó gió bấc
James P. Kirby: Vietnamese (Hanoi Vietnamese) 389

bắt đầu thổi mạnh hết sức có thể, nhưng càng thổi thì người du khách
càng giữ chặt áo khoác và cuối cùng gió bấc đã phải từ bỏ. Sau đó mặt
trời sưởi ấm và người du khách liền cởi áo khoác. Kết cục là gió bấc phải
thừa nhận rằng mặt trời là người mạnh hơn trong hai người.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Multimedia, Information, Communications and Applications
Center (MICA) at the Hanoi University of Technology for graciously allowing access to their
recording facilities; to Marc Brunelle, Jerry Edmondson, Hạ Kiều Phương, and an anonymous
reviewer for many detailed comments and suggestions, which have substantially improved this
manuscript; and to Mạc Đăng Khoa and Trần Đỗ Đạt for their assistance in translating ‘The
North Wind and the Sun’. Any errors, omissions, or oversights are the sole responsibility of the
author.

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