The site's Vietnamese is Hanoi's: six tones, the glottal catch on ngã and nặng, and the three consonant mergers the spelling refuses to make — d, gi and r all /z/, s and x both /s/, ch and tr both /c/. It is the accent of the news and the dictionary, and southerners find it clipped and a little cold.
Where: the Red River delta; the broadcast standard
Anything the spelling engine can transcribe, the accent can move. Slow it down to hear the shape.
Even, syllable-timed and precise, with the six tones held cleanly apart. It sounds staccato to European ears because half the syllables end in an unreleased stop or a glottal cut.
In the order the mouth applies them. Every before-and-after is playable — click the IPA. The pattern is the rule as the engine runs it, for the curious.
a(?=[ɲc](?:[˥˦˧˨˩ˀ]|$| )) → ăWhen: before a final nh or ch
How: Cut the a short and let the tongue rise towards the palate as it ends.
The palatal codas pull the vowel forward and clip it: anh comes out close to 'ănh', sách close to 'săch'. The spelling writes a; the mouth says ă.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| anh | older brother; you | ||
| sách | book | ||
| bánh mì | bread | ||
| làm | unchanged — the coda is not palatal |
Other accents of Vietnamese: Saigon · all accents