Vietnamese Phonetics by Professor Doan Thien Thuat

Vietnamese Phonetics Book (University and Vocational High School Publishing House, Hanoi, 1977) is 373 pages thick, divided into 8 chapters. In addition to chapter 1: Introduction, chapter 8: Writing, the remaining 6 chapters are devoted to describing the phonological structure of Vietnamese: Syllables (chapter 2); Tones (chapter 3); Initial sounds (chapter 4); Medial sounds (chapter 5); Main sounds (chapter 6); Final sounds (chapter 7).

InPrefaceauthor read bookVietnamese PhoneticsTo be“The textbook is for students majoring in linguistics at the University of General Sciences and is also a useful reference for students of the Literature Department of Pedagogical Universities, students of Foreign Language Universities and those who want to deeply understand a certain issue of Vietnamese phonetics.We realize that the didactic and pedagogical nature of the book is expressed in the logical and tight argument, in the detailed and "neat" presentation and persuasion in the book. In essence,Vietnamese Phoneticsis a scientific research work with new contributions in theory and practical application of Vietnamese phonetics.

1.Scientific value ofVietnamese Phonetics

1.1.ProjectVietnamese Phoneticsscientifically applied the theoretical foundations and methods of phonetic-phonological description of traditional phonology (NS Trubeskoj, R. Jakovson, A. Martinet, J Vachek...) to describe phonetic-phonological phenomena of Vietnamese, which is a language that is still unfamiliar to the European phonological research tradition. At the same time,Vietnamese Phoneticsabsorbed the achievements in theory and research methods of phonetics of Oriental languages ​​of authors of the Russian-Soviet Orientalist school into the study of Vietnamese phonetics.

1.2. ProjectVietnamese Phoneticshave new contributions:

1.2.1.Based on the characteristics of Vietnamese (syllable boundaries coincide with morpheme boundaries), the author considers syllables as the starting point of phonological analysis.

1.2.2.To solve the phonological problems of Vietnamese, the author attaches importance to the attitude of native speakers, not just relying on phonetic data. Looking at the structure of reduplicated words, the phenomenon of word repetition, and word reversal as morphophonological rules (which are applied in the study of phonology of inflected languages), to divide syllables into components.

1.2.3.Establishing a 2-level, 5-element division model of Vietnamese syllables:

Level 1: Syllable = initial sound + rhyme + tone;

Level 2: Rhyme = connecting sound + main sound + final sound

1.2.4.Each of the five components above forms a contrast system. In a contrast system there is a zero phoneme/other phoneme opposition (For example, the zero phoneme is opposed to the phoneme /w / in the linked contrast system). Due to the difference between the initial and final contrast systems, the initial and final consonants are two separate phonemes (for example, the initial consonant phoneme /t/inIand and final consonant phoneme /t/inAce).

1.3.Vietnamese Phoneticssummarized the results of Vietnamese phonetic research at home and abroad.(until the 80s of the 20th century). Those are the knowledge, the results of analysis, and description of Vietnamese phonetics in:

• Traditional poetics (rhyme, even and odd rhythm in poetry)
• The creation of the Vietnamese script by Western missionaries in the 17th century
• Works on Vietnamese phonetics by French scholars in the first half of the 20th century (such as MB Grammont, L. Cadiere, A. Cheon, AG Haudricourdt...), Soviet Vietnamese linguists (N.D Anddreev, MV Gordina, TT Mkhitaryan...), American Vietnamese experts (MB Emeneau, LC Thompson, RB Jones)
• Works related to Vietnamese phonetics by Vietnamese authors (Phan Khoi, Le Van Ly, Dao Duy Anh, Nguyen Dinh Hoa, Hoang Tue, Nguyen Phan Canh, Nguyen Ham Duong, Nguyen Quang Hong, Cao Xuan Hao...).

In this field, the projectVietnamese Phoneticshas achieved the following achievements:

1.3.1.For the first time, a relatively complete description of the Vietnamese phonetic structure system: syllable structure, tone system, initial sound system, rhyme system, and writing system.

1.3.2.Presenting the author's own views on some Vietnamese phonetic-phonological issues, which have not yet had a unified view among researchers: syllable structure, phonetic and phonological characteristics of tones, phonological theory of rhymes with short vowels... At the same time, the author ofVietnamese Phoneticshas systematized and provided comments and evaluations of previous authors' opinions on related issues. This approach makes the workVietnamese Phoneticsboth scientific and specialized as a monograph and pedagogical and instructional as a textbook.

1.4.Vietnamese Phoneticsis a work of high scientific value. Can be viewedVietnamese Phoneticsis the first fundamental work on Vietnamese phonetics. After this work, in recent decades, thanks to the increased application of experimental phonetic methods and computer speech analysis, research on Vietnamese phonetics in the country and abroad has achieved new results and achievements in both theory and application (for example, research results on the aspects of acoustics, perception, prosodic phenomena, phonetic history, etc.). However, up to now,Vietnamese Phoneticsis still a basic and necessary work for research (theoretical and applied) and teaching (university and post-graduate) on Vietnamese phonetics. Due to the naturebasicandpedagogy, up to now, this work is still the main textbook on Vietnamese phonetics taught in majors related to phonetics at universities. At the same time,Vietnamese PhoneticsIt is also a guide and reference for those who study the phonetics of languages ​​of the same type as Vietnamese, especially the languages ​​of ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Therefore, after the first edition (1977),Vietnamese Phoneticswas reprinted in 1999, 2003, 2007, with large print runs (1,000 copies).

1.5.Vietnamese Phoneticsmarks a new development in Vietnamese phonetic researchTherefore, the research results, ideas, and arguments ofVietnamese Phoneticsoften cited in works related to Vietnamese phonetics at home and abroad. At home,Vietnamese Phoneticsis the main reference for monographs and textbooks on Vietnamese phonetics by Dinh Le Thu & Nguyen Van Hue, by Vuong Huu Le & Hoang Dung, and books on Vietnamese dialects by Hoang Thi Chau (a work that won a state award in 2005). The knowledge about Vietnamese phonetics presented in the book by author Doan Thien Thuat is often cited in chapters on phonetics in introductory textbooks on linguistics and general linguistics. The bookVietnamese Phoneticsused as the main reference material in research topics, theses, dissertations, articles, scientific reports related to Vietnamese phonetic issues by domestic authors in recent decades.

Abroad, booksVietnamese Phoneticsby Professor Doan Thien Thuat is frequently cited in books, theses, articles, and reports in scientific journals specializing in phonetics (Journal of Phonetics, Phonetica, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America…), at the International Scientific Conference (International Conference on Southeast Asian Linguistics -SEAL, International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Language –SST, International Conference on South Asian Languages ​​–AAL). Here are some typical projects:

1. Gordina MV, IS Bystrov. 1984. Fonetitsheskij stroj v'ietnamskogo jazyka. Moscow : Nauka.
2. Vu Thanh Phuong.1981. The Acoustic and perceptual nature of tone in Vietnamese. Thesis for Doctor of Philosophy, ANU, June 1981.
3. Ngo Thanh Nhan (1984). The syllabeme and pattern of word formation in Vietnamese. Ph.D thesis. New York University.
4. Earl MA 1995. An Acousticphonetic study of Northern Vietnamese tones. Sata Barbara: Speech Communications Research Laboratory, Inc.
5. Pham Andrea Hoa (2001). Vietnamese Tone: Tone is not pitch. Linguistics. Toronto, University of Toronto.
6. Pham Andrea Hoa 2003. Vietnamese Tone: A new analysis. London/New York/Oslo/Singapora: Rouledge-Taylor and Francis.
7. Honda Koichi. 2008. Tone in the Lam River speech of North-Central Vietnamese-an acoustically – based multi-speaker description and analysis. A thesis of Doctor of Philosophy, Australian National University, 2008.
8. Nguyen T. and Ingram, J.C. 2006 . Acoustic and perceptual cues for compound – phrasal contrasts in Vietnamese,Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
9. Nguyen TAT, Ingram, J., & Pensalfini, R. 2008 . Prosodic transfer in Vietnamese acquisition of English contrastive stress patterns. Journal of Phonetics< size=”3″ face=”AdvTimes”> 36 (2008) 158–190
10. Honda Koichi. 2004. F0 and phonation types in Nghe Tinh Vietnamese tones. SST. 2004.
11. Michaud, Alexis, 2004. Final consonants and glottalization: New perspectives from Hanoi Vietnamese. Phonetica 61:2-3, 119-146.
12. Tran Thi-Thuy-Hien and Nathalie Vallée –An Acoustic Study of the Segments in the Vietnamese Consonant Sequences17th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Societ August 31-September 2, 2007. University of Maryland, Maryland, USA.
13. Paanchiangwong Songgot. 2007.The Influence of Final Consonants on the Tones of Vietnamese Spoken in Udon Thani Province, Thailand. The 17 th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Societ August 31-September 2, 2007. University of Maryland, Maryland, USA

Jackie Chan/USSH

Prof. Dr. Doan Thien Thuat. Hanoi, October 2011.

2. Practical value ofVietnamese Phonetics

2.1. Practical impact of the project

The results ofVietnamese Phoneticsapplied in research on Vietnamese phonetics (applied phonetics), contributing to solving some practical problems related to Vietnamese phonetics.

2.1.1. Teaching and learning Vietnamese phonetics

BookVietnamese Phoneticsis a reference document for compiling Vietnamese language teaching books for high school students, Vietnamese language teaching documents for people learning Vietnamese as a second language (foreigners, ethnic minorities, etc.)

2.1.2. Pathological Phonetics

The knowledge of Vietnamese phonetics presented in Doan Thien Thuat's work is applied in Vietnamese phonetic pathology research (teaching deaf and mute children, children after lip and palate surgery to practice pronunciation; diagnosing, treating, evaluating treatment results of physical and functional lesions of the larynx (voice disorders), restoring voice for people who have lost their larynx...).

2.1.3. Vietnamese speech processing in information technology

BookVietnamese Phoneticsprovides basic and necessary knowledge about Vietnamese phonetics to solve problems related to Vietnamese phonetics in information technology. The book provides knowledge about syllable structure, initial sound system, rhyme, and Vietnamese tone for technology workers to solve problems of synthesis, recognition of Vietnamese speech, and checking spelling of Vietnamese text. The 2-level model of Vietnamese syllable structure proposed by Doan Thien Thuat suggested a group of authors (Faculty of Information Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology) to build a spelling checking program based on the rules of Vietnamese syllable structure.

3. Scientific impact of the project

ProjectVietnamese Phoneticsby Professor Doan Thien Thuat plays an important role in the construction and development of linguistics in general and phonetics in particular in our country. In Vietnam, linguistics was first taught as a scientific major in universities in the 1960s and 1970s. Professor Doan Thien Thuat was one of the first people to participate in the construction of the linguistics major at Hanoi University of Science (now Hanoi National University). BookVietnamese Phoneticsis one of the works that laid the foundation for teaching and researching linguistics (including phonetics) in general and Vietnamese linguistics (including Vietnamese phonetics) in particular.