Vietnamese Learning Games

Vietnamese is the official language of Vietnam and the native language of the Kinh people, who make up the majority of the country’s population. It belongs to the Vietic branch of the Austroasiatic language family, although it has been heavily influenced by Chinese, and more recently by French and English. Vietnamese is spoken by over 85 million people in Vietnam and by several million in diaspora communities worldwide.

The language has three main regional dialects: Northern (centered around Hanoi), Central, and Southern (centered around Ho Chi Minh City). Vietnamese is a tonal language, meaning that pitch and tone affect the meaning of words. It is written using the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet, known as Quốc Ngữ, which was developed by Portuguese missionaries in the 17th century and later standardized by the French. Vietnamese has a rich tradition of oral literature, poetry, and modern prose, and it plays a vital role in the cultural and national identity of Vietnam.