VIETNAMESE: a language of Viet Nam

The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.

SIL code: VIE

ISO 639-1: vi

ISO 639-2: vie

Population	65,051,000 in Viet Nam, 86.7% of the population (1993). Population total all countries 68,000,000 (1999 WA).
Region	The entire country. Also spoken in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Finland, France, Germany, Laos, Martinique, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Norway, Philippines, Senegal, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA, Vanuatu.
Alternate names	KINH, GIN, JING, CHING, VIET, ANNAMESE
Dialects	NORTHERN VIETNAMESE (TONKINESE, HANOI), CENTRAL VIETNAMESE (HUE), SOUTHERN VIETNAMESE.
Classification	Austro-Asiatic, Mon-Khmer, Viet-Muong, Vietnamese.
Comments	Numerous dialects, including the principal ones listed above. People are called 'Kinh.' National language. Grammar. SVO; prepositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals, relatives before noun heads; question word initial. Literacy rate in first language: 65%. Literacy rate in second language: 80%. Roman script used. Buddhist, Christian. Bible 1916-1994.

Also spoken in:

China

Language name	VIETNAMESE
Population	6,000 speakers out of 18,915 in the official nationality in China (1990 census).
Alternate names	JING, GIN, KINH, CHING, ANNAMESE
Comments	Intelligibility with Viet Nam Vietnamese is high. Use Chinese as a written language. Bilingualism in Yue Chinese of Guanxi is reported to be high. An official nationality in China, called 'Jing.' Do not use Vietnamese alphabet in China. Not written in China. Fishermen, agriculturalists. Christian, Daoist. Bible 1916-1994. See main entry under Viet Nam.