Vietnamese Accent of Viet Kieu in the Yuan Samsen Community

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze the Vietnamese accent of Viet Kieu in the Yuan Samsen community in Bangkok. The data were collected from six Viet Kieu, consisting of three males and three females, by eliciting 248 Vietnamese words during interviews, with attention to pitch, contour, glottalization, and duration. The findings revealed that the Vietnamese tonal system of Viet Kieu has six tones: ngang/ŋaːŋ¹/, huyền/hwieːn²/, sắc/sak³/, hỏi/hɔːi⁴/, ngã/ŋaː⁵/, and nặng/naŋ⁶/, which is the same number as in Northern Vietnamese, with specific phonetic characteristics. The characteristic of ngang is a mid-tone corresponding to Northern Vietnamese. The characteristic of huyền is a mid-falling tone corresponding to Central Vietnamese. The characteristic of sắc is a mid-rising tone corresponding to Northern Vietnamese, while the mid-falling-rising tone has a contour corresponding to Central Vietnamese. The characteristics of hỏi are a mid-falling tone corresponding to Northern Vietnamese, and a mid-falling-glottal stop contour corresponding to Central Vietnamese. The characteristic of ngã is a mid-falling-upward tone with a glottal stop that has a contour corresponding to Northern Vietnamese. The characteristic of nặng is a mid-falling tone with a contour corresponding to Northern and Southern Vietnamese, but it does not occur with a glottal stop, while the mid-falling-upward tone has a contour corresponding to Southern Vietnamese with an accompanying glottal stop. The pitch of some variants of sắc, hỏi, and ngã is higher than what is typically found in the Vietnamese tone system. The Vietnamese tones of Viet Kieu in the Yuan Samsen community are considered a blend of phonetic characteristics from the three main Vietnamese dialects, consistent with the background of the Yuan Samsen community, which has experienced multiple periods of migration of Viet Kieu and people of various ethnicities.