VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION NOTES
The Vietnamese language is spoken by 59 million people in Vietnam and adjacent countries. The dialects are Northern Vietnamese (Tonkinese, Hanoi), Central Vietnamese (Hue), and Southern Vietnamese.
The script
Vietnamese script was written in modified Chinese characters from the second century BC to the tenth century AD while Vietnam was under Chinese rule. This script was known only by the ruling class. The popular form of Vietnamese, spoken by the masses, was an oral tradition and never existed in any written form. The Vietnamese language was romanized by French Missionaries in the seventeenth century in hopes of introducing and spreading the Christian faith amongst the Vietnamese people who mostly practiced Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. The Vietnamese alphabet was later romanized into the Latin script and modified by diacritical marks to aid in pronunciation. The French government encouraged its dissemination to promote literacy and the Christian faith. It is considered the official language in Vietnam and taught in schools to this day.
How do I use Vietnamese on an English system
Because Vietnamese is essentially based on the Roman alphabet it is possible to manipulate Vietnamese characters in most DTP programs running on English language systems. However, you will need Vietnamese fonts for your computer and these can be easily downloaded from the Internet.
