Vietnamese pronouns
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Vietnamese pronouns are more accurately forms of address. Its concept is different from that in European languages, so its forms of address do not neatly fall into the grammatical person classifications created by European grammarians. For example, the same word can be used as a first-, second-, or third-person pronoun, depending on the speaker and the audience. Common nouns, proper nouns, and true personal pronouns are structurally equivalent: they can substitute for each other in a syntactic structure. A pronoun is not even necessary in a normal conversation: the speaker can always refer to him/herself, the audience, and others directly by name. While there are some "true" pronouns, they are used in extremely limited situations. For most cases, kinship terminology is used when referring to oneself, the audience, or a third party. These terms might differ slightly in different regions. Many of them derived from Chinese loanwords, but have acquired the additional grammatical function of being pronouns over the years.
Vietnamese pronouns can reveal the social relationship between the speaker and the person being referred to, differences in age, and even the attitude of the speaker toward that person. Thus a speaker must carefully assess these factors to decide the appropriate term. It's not unusual for strangers to ask each other about age when they first meet, in order to establish the proper terms of address to use.
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[edit] Kinship terms
Kinship terms are the most popular ways to refer to oneself and others. Anyone can be referred to using kinship terms, not just people who are related. For example, lovers referring to each other as anh (elder brother) and em (younger sibling) sounds incestuous in Western languages, but is perfectly normal (and expected) in Vietnamese. The Vietnamese kinship terms are quite complicated. While there is some flexibility as to which kinship terms should be used for people not related to the speaker, there is often only one term to use for people related by blood or marriage, for up to three generations. Some of the kinship terms are:
| Term | Literal meaning | Non-kinship usage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| cha | father | a priest | Many other terms are used, depending on the dialect: ba, bố, tía, thầy |
| mẹ | mother | mẹ is the Northern form, má is used in the South. Many other terms are used, depending on the dialect: u, bầm, mạ | |
| anh | elder brother | a slightly older man, the man in a romantic relationship | |
| chị | older sister | a slightly older woman | |
| em | younger sibling | a slightly younger person, a child, the woman in a romantic relationship | |
| con | offspring | a young child | |
| cháu | grandchild, niece, nephew | a young child | |
| ông | grandfather | a middle-aged man | paternal and maternal grandfathers are differentiated as ông nội (internal grandfather) and ông ngoại (external grandfather), respectively |
| bà | grandmother | a middle-aged (married) woman | paternal and maternal grandmothers are differentiated as bà nội (internal grandmother) and bà ngoại (external grandmother), respectively |
| cô | father's sister | a female teacher, an older woman as old as one's father, a young (usually unmarried) woman (formal) | in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to father's younger sister |
| chú | father's younger brother | an older man as old as one's father, a slightly younger man (formal) | in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to father's younger brother |
| thím | chú's wife | ||
| bác | father's elder brother, his wife | a man older than one's father | in some dialects, can also refer to father's elder brother or sister as well as mother's elder brother or sister |
| dì | mother's sister, stepmother | a woman as old as one's mother, | in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to mother's younger sister |
| cậu | mother's brother | a man as old as one's mother, a close friend (Northern variety) | in some dialects, literal meaning is restricted to mother's younger brother |
| mợ | cậu's wife | in some dialects, used by the husband to refer to his wife, children to refer to mother, or parents-in-law to refer to a daughter-in-law | |
| dượng | the husband of cô or dì, stepfather | ||
| cụ/cố | great-grandparent | a very old person | |
| sơ | great-great-grandparent | ||
| họ | clan | they | third person plural for a group of people |
Kinship terms are "inherited" from parents if it is unclear what to refer to someone. For example, two cousins whose mothers are sisters will call each other using the kinship terms appropriate for siblings: the one whose mother is younger will have a lower rank (em) than the one whose mother is older (chị, anh) regardless of their ages. Sometimes, old people assume the rank of their children in referring to others (for example, in the case of calling a slightly younger woman cô or a younger man chú) . Spouses have equal rank in each respective side. If two people are related to each other in more than one way (for example, by marriage), the rank of the closest relationship is used. This hierarchy might lead to awkward situations where an older person refers to a younger person using a term usually used for older people, such as ông. In Vietnamese there is a proverb: Bé bằng củ khoai, cứ vai mà gọi (Small as a potato, but call by rank).
[edit] Non-kinship terms used as pronouns
In Vietnamese, virtually any noun used for a person can be used as a pronoun. These terms usually don't serve multiple roles like kinship terms (i.e. the term has only one grammatical person meaning). Words such as "doctor", "teacher", "owner", etc. can be used as a second-person personal pronoun when necessary. When referring to themselves, Vietnamese speakers, like speakers of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, tend to deprecate their position while elevating the audience. While many of these terms are now obsolete, some remain in widespread usage. The most prominent of these words is tôi, literally meaning "servant". It is used as a fairly neutral term for "I" (not very friendly, nor very formal). Tớ, also meaning "servant", is also popular among young people to refer to themselves with close friends (used in conjunction with cậu for "you").
Pronouns that elevate the audience still in use include quý khách (valued customer), quý vị (valued higher being). Bạn (friend) is also popular among young people to call each other.
Vietnamese speakers also refer to themselves and others by name where it would be strange if used in English, eliminating the need for personal pronouns altogether. For example, consider the following conversation:
- John: Mary đang làm gì vậy?
- Mary: Mary đang gọi Joe. John có biết Joe ở đâu không?
- John: Không, John không biết Joe ở đâu hết.
Directly translated into English, the conversation would run thus:
- John: What is Mary doing?
- Mary: Mary is calling Joe. Does John know where Joe is?
- John: No, John doesn't know where Joe is.
A normal translation of the conversation into English would be:
- John: What are you doing?
- Mary: I am calling Joe. Do you know where he is?
- John: No, I don't know where he is.
While always referring to oneself or the audience by name would be considered strange in English, in Vietnamese it is considered friendly, and is the preferred way to converse among close friends (however, in a kinship context, people with a lower rank can not refer to their superiors by name).
[edit] True pronouns
While true pronouns exist in Vietnamese, they are used in extremely limited situations, typically in indicating superiority or pejorativeness.
- First person singular: tôi, tớ, tao (arrogant), tui (colloquial)
- First person plural: chúng ta (inclusive we) chúng tôi (exclusive we), bọn tôi, tụi tôi, bọn tớ, tụi tớ, chúng tao, bọn tao, tụi tao
- Second person singular: mày (pejorative), mi (pejorative)
- Second person plural: chúng mày, chúng mi, bọn mày, bọn mi, tụi mày, tụi mi, tụi bay
- Third person singular: hắn (male, pejorative), thằng (male, pejorative), con (female, pejorative), nó (he/she pejorative, it)
- Third person plural: bọn chúng (pejorative), chúng nó (pejorative)
[edit] Derived pronouns
Third-person or plural pronouns can be derived from the first- and second- terms of reference described above. Words used to indicate third-person reference or plural reference include:
- chúng: indicates that there are more than one person being referenced, as in chúng tôi (exclusive we), chúng anh (you all), chúng mày (you all [pejorative]), chúng tao (exclusive we [superior]), etc.
- bọn and tụi: indicates that there is more than one person being referenced, but usually pejoratively: bọn họ (they), bọn nó (they), tụi nó (they), bọn anh (you/we), tụi anh, bọn ông, bọn em, tụi em, etc.
- ta, ấy, and kia: to specifically make a first- or second-person reference into a third-person reference: anh ta, anh ấy, anh kia, ông ta, ông ấy, ông kia, bà ta, bà ấy, bà kia, chị ta, chị ấy, chị kia, cô ta, cô ấy, cô kia, etc.
Sometimes, a pronoun is created using a combination of the words above: bọn chúng (they [pejorative]), chúng ta (inclusive we), bọn ấy (they [pejorative]).
In colloquial speech, a term of reference can change its tone to indicate a third-person reference. Examples include: ảnh (from anh), chỉ (from chị), bả (from bà), ổng (from ông), cổ (from cô).
[edit] Obsolete pronouns
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Please help improve this article by expanding this section. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
Some pronouns are no longer commonly used, such as the royal we trẫm. Many of them are no longer applicable because they refer to royalties, and Vietnam is no longer a monarchy. Some archaic pronouns include:
- trẫm - used by the king to refer to himself
- khanh - used by the king to address a favored subject
- bệ hạ - used by people when addressing the king
- thị - she
- y - he
[edit] Pairs
Some pronouns go hand-in-hand with another: when one is used to refer to the speaker, the other must be used to refer to the audience.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Alves, Mark J. "Grammatical Sino-Vietnamese Vocabulary" (unpublished). PDF
- Alves, Mark J (1997). "Problems in the European Linguistic Analyses of Southeast Asian Languages". Exploratios in Southeast Asian Studies. PDF
- Ngo, Thanh. "Translation of Vietnamese Terms of Address and Reference". Translation Journal, 2006.
