The Vietnamese Tones and Tone Marks

Vietnamese is a tonal language. Thus, letters in the alphabet alone are not sufficient to accurately denote the Vietnamese sounds. Additional marks are added to indicate the tones, referred to as "tone marks" in this course. 

Before we start learning more "marks" in Vietnamese, let's emphasize that the breve (˘) , the circumflex (ˆ), and the attached hook ("hats" and "whisker") in ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư are parts of the vowels.  They are not tone marks.

There are six tones in Vietnamese language, five of which require tone marks when written, the neutral tone requires no tone mark. The five symbols for the Vietnamese tones are: acute, grave, hook above, tilde, and dot "below", as shown in the table below. With the exception of the "dot below", all other tone marks are placed above the vowel of a word. 
 

Tones are listed as in the table below by their names in alphabetical order. While supposedly we are not yet able to "read" the tone names, it is helpful to know the tone names verbally to refer to them.  The tone names carry the respective tone sounds.

(Audio coming soon)

 Tone mark  Tone name*  Example word
 (no mark)  ngang   ma (ghost)
 ́ sắc   má (mother; cheek)
  ̀  huyền   mà (which, that)
  ̉ hỏi   mả (a tomb)
~ ngã   mã (horse related <chinese root>)
 .  nặng   mạ (rice seedling)

(*) Supposedly we don't know how to "read" these names yet. Memorize the tone names verbally.


The Vietnamese Tones song
 

If you find music helpful to remember tones (and their alphabetical order), below is a simple melody to memorize the Vietnamese tones sung in their alphabetical order.

Link to YouTube video clip:  https://youtu.be/Jifb6YF5kj8

 

The Alphabetical Order of the Vietnamese Tones

The alphabetical order of the Vietnamese tones is per the above table from top down (and per the song), that is:

  • neutral,  ́,   ̀,   ̉, ˜, . (that is: ngang, sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, nặng)
  • The series ma, má, mà, mả, mã, mạ are in the correct alphabetical order.

We have encountered a few web pages who claim the tone alphabetical order to be:  neutral,   ̀,   ̉, ˜,  ́, ..  This is not the correct alphabetical order of the Vietnamese tones.  This is the order from left to right of the marks on the Vietnamese keyboard.  We must not mistaken the left to right order on the keyboard for the alphabetical order, or we might unintentionally propagate the incorrect information.

We have also encountered Vietnamese words sorted in other peculiar "alphabetical order", which we believe were sorted by text processing software not designed for the Vietnamese tones.  For example:

  • MS Word 2010 would sort in the order of Ma, Mà, Mả, Mã, Má, Mạ, which happens to be the left to right order of the Vietnamese keyboard.  
  • MS Excel 2010, on the other hand, would sort in the order of Ma, Má, Mà, Mã, Mả, Mạ, which is entirely different.  

We must be careful when using text processing software to sort Vietnamese words in alphabetical order, unless the software is designed to recognize the specific diacritic marks as the Vietnamese tones and take the correct Vietnamese alphabetical order into account.

 

Tone Marks vs. Other Diacritic Marks in Vietnamese

Are all the special marks in Vietnamese tone marks?

No. As mentioned in Chapter 1.1, it is important to note that the "hats" and "whisker" on the vowels ă, â, ê, ô, ơ, ư are not tone marks. They are part of the associated vowels. 

Regarding the "hook" vs. "whisker" marks, which are visually similar : If it's attached to the vowel (a whisker), it's part of the vowel. If it's detached, it's a tone mark. 

  • This hook attached to the letter o is not a tone mark: ơ
  • This hook on top of the letter o is a tone mark: ỏ
  • Both "hooks" together, one as part of the vowel ơ, one as a tone mark: ở (meaning: To reside, to stay)

 

How many tones are there in a word?

Exactly one.  When there is no tone mark, the word carries the neutral tone (which does not mean it has no tone).  Vietnamese words are mono-syllables (containing one syllable).  There can only be one tone per syllable.

When people talk about Vietnamese words having two or multiple tone marks, it is the confusion between tone marks and diacritic marks that are parts of the vowels (ˆ  ˘  ʾ).  There can be more than 1 diacritic marks in a word, but only one can be the tone mark.

Does the word cổ (meaning "neck") contain two tone marks?  

  • No.  The vowel is ô, and the one and only tone mark is  ̉ .

Does the word cằm (meaning "chin") contain two tone marks?  

  • No.  The vowel is ă, and the one and only tone mark is  ̀.

Does the word cười ( meaning "to smile, to laugh") contain multiple tone marks?  

  • No.  The only tone mark is  ̀ .  Other marks (attached hooks and the dot for i) are parts of the vowels.
 

Tone Mark Placing

 
Where do we place the tone mark in a Vietnamese word?  
  • The absolute rule: Tone mark must be placed on a vowel, not a consonant.  

To be exact, it must be on the vowel of the rhyme, not the vowel that is a part of a consonant, such as the u in the compound consonant qu.  This is simple enough when there is only one vowel in a word.  When there are multiple vowels, certain rules have to be followed and will be introduced in later chapters when such mutiple-voweled words are introduced.  For more information, refer to the rules of tone mark placement. 

Technically, we do not need to know where the tone mark should be placed in order to read texts.  There is only one tone and one syllable per word.  Wherever the tone mark is placed, it is applied to the whole word or syllable when we read.  When we write, however, we should follow the rules to place the tone mark correctly and consistently.
 
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