Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
Running head: VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH CONSONANTS
Contrastive analysis of
Vietnamese and English
consonants
Phạm Thị Kim Phượng
Class: EnglishBT05
University of Pedagogy
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
Introduction
With the development and integration of economy and politics, English has had a
big influence on Vietnamese. In many companies in Vietnam, to get a good job, you are
required to have an English certificate or at least you must prove your fluency in English
skills in interviews for job. Therefore, English has become an important and necessary
language that any Vietnamese also want to learn. As we know, English has been taught
for children from six years old or children in the first year of some kindergartens.
Furthermore, more and more English centers are established to meet the demands of
Vietnamese learners. However, the quality of teaching and learning is not quite good.
Many Vietnamese students, although have learned English in many years, they cannot
pronounce it correctly in some extent. When I work as a tutor for some high school
students, I can see that they normally have difficulties and make the same kinds of
mistake in pronouncing English such as final sounds, consonant clusters, sounds that
do not exist in Vietnamese. Therefore, as a future teacher, my own intention in
contrasting English and Vietnamese consonants is first of all to help me have a good
foundation in Vietnamese and English phonetics and second to help my students
reduce problems in pronouncing English consonants.
In order to have a deep focus on problems of Vietnamese learners on separate
consonants, I will not discuss consonant clusters which are a large aspect and also
challenging for Vietnamese learners.
In this paper, firstly I will give a short definition of consonant before I discuss
phonetic description of Vietnamese and English consonant systems. Then I will contrast
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
these two consonant systems to withdraw problems that obstruct Vietnamese learners
and prevent them from speaking English correctly and beautifully.
Consonant
Definition
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with
complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are /p/, pronounced with the lips;
/t/, pronounced with the front of the tongue;/ k/ pronounced with the back of the tongue;
/h/ pronounced in the throat; /f/ and /s/, which are noisy (fricatives); and /m/and /n/,
which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Consonants are described in terms of
three dimensions: whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating—voicing; where the
sound is being made—the place of articulation; and how the sound is being made—the
manner of articulation.
Diagram of the vocal tract
showing the places of articulation
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
Description of Vietnamese consonants
According to Vietnamese phonetician Đoàn Thiện Thuật, there are 30
consonants in Vietnamese, including 22 initial consonants and 8 final consonants.
Unlike English, Vietnamese do not have any medial consonants. They are described in
terms of place of articulation and manner of articulation. The following table presents
these phonemes:
Table 1
Vietnamese consonants
Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal
voiceless
Stop
p [p]
t [t]
tr [tʂ~ʈ]
ch [c~tɕ]
Velar
Glottal
c/k [k]
[ʔ]
h [h]
th [tʰ]
aspirated
b [ɓ]
đ [ɗ]
voiceless ph [f]
x [s]
s [ʂ]
kh [x]
v [v]
gi [z]
r [ʐ~ɹ]
g/gh [ɣ]
voiced
d [ɟ]
Fricative
voiced
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
Nasal
m [m]
n [n]
nh [ɲ]
Approximant
u/o [w]
l [l]
y/i [j]
ng/ngh [ŋ]
To have a deeper understanding, we will describe the above consonants
phonetically.
The initial consonants
All the consonant phonemes can occur initially, followed either by a simple vowel
or a diphthong:
The stops: /*p, t, tʂ, c, k, tʰ, ɗ, ɟ, ɓ/
*/p/ is final consonant; however it can also occur at the beginning of some
loanwords, such as: pin “battery”, pianô “piano” , patin “roller-skating”.
/t/ is the voiceless unaspirated alveolar stop. E.g: té : ‘to fall down’ ; tiền:
‘money’; tàu : ‘train’
/tʂ/ is the retroflex alveolar stop, articulated with the retroflex tip of the tongue
at the back of the alveolar ridge. E.g: tre : ‘bamboo’; trời : ‘sky’; tranh :
‘picture’
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/c/ is the voiceless unaspirated palatal stop, articulated with the front of the
tongue against the hard palate. E.g: cho : ‘to give’; chết : ‘to die’; chiếu : ‘to
show’
/k/ is the voiceless unaspirated velar. E.g: kí : ‘to sign’; kem : ‘ice-cream’; cây :
‘tree’
/tʰ/ is the voiceless aspirated alveolar; it is produced with a strong aspiration.
E.g: thi : ‘to take an exam’; thua : ‘to lose’; thắng : ‘to win’
/ɗ/ is the voiced unaspirated alveolar stop. E.g: đi : ‘to go’; đầu : ‘head’; điếc :
‘dead’
/ɟ/ is the voiced palatal stop. E.g: da: ‘skin’; dao : ‘knife’; diêm : ‘match’
/ɓ/ is the voiced unaspirated bilabial stop; it is produced with full phonation
and with strong energy (fortis). E.g: ba : ‘father’; bạn : ‘friend’; biết : ‘to know’
The fricatives: /f, v, s, z, ʂ, ʐ, x, ɣ, h/
/f/ is the voiceless labiodental; it is produced with a weak friction. E.g: phủ: ‘to
cover’; phao : ‘float’; phấn : ‘ chalk’
/v/ is the voiced counterpart of /f/. E.g: vé : ‘ticket’ ; vai: ‘shoulder’ ; vi ện :
‘institute’
/s/ is the voiceless postdental sibilant. E.g: xé : ‘to tear’; xấu : ‘ugly’; xin : ‘ to
ask for’
/z/ is the voiced alveolar fricative. E.g: giỏ : ‘basket’; giao : ‘to diliver’; gieo : ‘to
seed’
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/ ʂ / is a fricative articulated like the English /s/ with retroflexion of the top of
the tongue back farther behind the alveolar ridge with weak friction; it is
voiceless. E.g: số : ‘number’; sai : ‘wrong’; sướng: ‘happy’
/ʐ/ is is the voiced retroflex alveopalatal fricative; its articulation is like that of
/ʂ/ but with a vibration of the vocal cords. E.g: ra : ‘out’; rèm : ‘curtain’; riêng :
‘private’
/x/ is the voiceless palatovelar aspirant. E.g: khó : ‘difficult’; khỏe : ‘healthy’;
khùng : ‘crazy’
/ɣ/ is the voiced velar fricative. E.g: gạo : ‘rice’; gắng : ‘to try’; ghế : ‘chair’
/h/ is the voiceless aspirated glottal fricative. E.g: ho : ‘to cough’; heo : ‘pig’;
hàng : ‘line’
The nasal: /m, n, ɲ, ŋ /
/m/ is the voiced bilabial nasal; it is like the French or English /m/.E.g: m ẹ :
‘mother’; mua : ‘buy’; mi ệng : ‘mouth’
/n/ is the voiced apico-alveolar. E.g: nó : ‘it’; ném : ‘throw’; nấu : ‘cook’
/ ɲ / is the voiced hard palatal nasal. E.g: nhớ : ‘miss’; nhiều : ‘a lot’; nhảy :
‘jump’
/ŋ /is the voiced velar nasal; it is articulated like the English / ŋ / as in
sing.E.g: ngủ : ‘to sleep’; nghỉ : ‘to rest’; ngựa : ‘horse’
The approximant (the lateral): /l/
/l/is the voiced frictionless lateral in postdental position; there is only one
lateral in Vietnamese. E.g:lá : ‘leaf’ ; leo : ‘clim’ ; lạnh : ‘cold’
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
The final consonants
There are 8 final consonants, including 6 consonants /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ/ which can
also occur at the beginning of the words with the exception of /p/ and two semiconsonants /w, j/
Table 2
Vietnamese final consonants
Place
Tongue
Lips
Manner
Noise
Nasal
Tip of the tongue
Back of the
tongue
p
t
k
m
n
ŋ
Sonance
Semi-consonants
-w
-j
In Vietnamese system, we do not find any voiced phoneme in the final position.
They differ from their initial allophones in not being released and in being less fortis.
Examples:
/p/ đ ẹp : ‘beautiful’
/t/ t ốt : ‘good’
/k/ h ọc : ‘to study’
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/m/ m ềm : ‘soft’
/n/ ch ín : ‘nine’
/ ŋ/ b ảng : ‘board’ , b ệnh : ‘sickness’
/w/ is a voiced bilabial continuant when it precedes a vowel forming an
utterance. E.g: oải : ‘tired’; uống : ‘to drink’; tao : ‘I’ ; đau : ‘painful’
/j/ is a voiced palatal continuant preceding a simple vowel or a complex vocal
nucleus to form a syllable. This phoneme in the initial position is characteristic
of the central and southern dialects. E.g: lấy : ‘take’; tay : ‘hand’
Description of English consonants
English has 24 consonants classified according to place of articulation and
manner of articulation. The following chart presents these phonemes:
Table 3
English consonants
English consonants are patterned interestingly in pairs (voiceless and voiced)
which helps English learners remember them easily such as /p/ - /b/ , /t/ - /d/ , /k/ -
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/g/….We will describe the phonetics of consonant phonemes and their allophones to
understand them better.
English consonants occur not only in the initial and final position but also in the
medial position.
The stops: / p, b, t, d, k, g, ʔ /
All six plosives can occur at the initial, medial and final position of words.
/p/is a voiceless, bilabial, fortis plosive. It has respective allophones, the
aspirated /p/when it occurs medially before stressed vowels and in initial
position. E.g: appear /ə'piə/ ; peel
The allophones unaspirated /p/ take place in the medial position before weak
vowels or /r, 1, m, n/ or after /s/. E.g: paper, pneumatic, spit
Other kinds of allophones, the unreleased /p/, are found before another stop
and often finally. E.g: napkin; leap
/b/is the voiced, lenis counterpart of /p/. It has respective allophones,
including partially devoiced allophones in initial position: big, blow, bring and
laterally or nasally released allophones when /b/ is followed by the lateral l:
bless or by a nasal consonant: ribbon. It is unreleased in final position: rib. /b/
is silent in final position after m: limb, crumb, dumb and in front of t: debt,
doubt, subtle.
/t/ is voiceless alveolar fortis plosive. Like /p/, it has respective allophones.
E.g: tube. If preceded by however, /t/ is unaspirated: stain. It is laterally or
nasally released if followed by /l/or by a nasal consonant, repectively: little,
written, utmost.
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/d/ is the voiced, lenis counterpart of /t/. It is partially devoiced in initial
position: duke and devoiced in final position: road. It is laterally released if
followed by /l/: riddle and nasally released if followed by /m/ or /n/: admit,
sudden.
/k/ is a voiceless, velar, fortis, plosive sound. It also has respective allophones
like /p/ and /t/. E.g: cat. It can be followed by a nasal consonant and be
consequently nasally released: thicken or by the lateral liquid and be laterally
released: fickle.
/g/ is the voiced, lenis pair of /k/. Its allophones include partially devoiced
variants in initial position: gain, devoiced variants in final position: dog,
laterally released, when followed by /l/: giggle and nasally released when
followed by/ m/: dogmatic.
The glottal plosive /ʔ/ occurs frequently but it is less important, since it is
usually just an alternative pronunciation of /p/, /t/, or /k/ in some contexts.
E.g. sick guy [sɪʔgaɪ] or quite right [kwaɪʔraɪt].
The fricatives
There are nine fricatives patterned in pairs, except the last one /h/.
/f, v/ are voiceless and voiced labiodentals. They have one allophone in all
positions: E.g: fat – wife - leaf
vet – love – of
/θ, ð/ are voiceless and voiced interdentals. They both have one allophone in
all positions. E.g: thin – method – bath
this – brother – bathe
/s, z/ are voiceless and voiced alveolar sibilants. They have one allophone in
all positions. E.g: say – precise – hiss
zero – desire – nose
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/∫, ʒ/ are voiceless and voiced alveo-palatal sibilants. /∫/ has allophones in all
positions, while /ʒ/ only has allophones in medial and final positions.
E.g: ship – cushion – push
pleasure – garage
/h/ is a glottal fricative in English, a voiceless, fortis sound. It occurs initially
and medially. E.g: hear – vehicle. In some words, /h/ is not pronounced, like
hour, honest.
The affricatives
/t∫, dʒ/ are alveopalatal voiceless and voiced affricates. They are produced by
the blade of the tongue raised against the region just behind the alveolar
ridge. They occur in all position. E.g: chip – kitchen – rich
John –
rejoice – stage
The nasals
There are 3 nasals /m, n, η/.
/m/ is voiced labial nasal. It occurs in all positions. E.g: meet – common –
come
/n/ is voiced alveolar nasal. It occurs in all position. E.g: name – final – can
/ η/ is voiced velar nasal. It can only occur finally and before unstressed
vowels. E.g: singing – bring
The approximants
In the initial position and before a stressed vowel, the semivowel /y/ becomes
a voiced palatal consonant. E.g: yes – beyond, and the semivowel /w/, a
voiced bilabial consonant. E.g: wet – win. However, before /r/, (e.g. write) the
sound /w/ is no longer pronounced.
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/r/ is a voiced alveolar sound. It is sometimes treated as a semivowel which
has three main allophones: a frictionless continuant, a flapped, a rolled.
The lateral
/l/ is a voiced alveolar sound. The main variants of /l/ are a so-called “clear”
/l/and a “dark” /l/. The clear /l/ is distributed before a vowel. E.g: let. The dark
/l/ is distributed in word-final position or before a consonant. E.g: kill – silk
Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
We have analyzed Vietnamese and English phonological systems. Now we come
to the main purpose of this paper as stated at the beginning. We will contrast the two
systems to see the differences between them, and also draw difficulties of Vietnamese
learners of English.
Distinction in Vietnam
Comparing Vietnamese and English charts, we can see that there are three
classes of consonants exclusively existing in Vietnamese.
The stops: the voiceless aspirated alveolar /tʰ/, the retroflex alveolar stop /tʂ/ and the
voiceless unaspirated palatal stop /c/.
The fricative: the voiceless palatovelar aspirant /x/.
The nasal: the voiced hard palatal nasal / ɲ /
In these three classes of consonants, the sounds /tʰ/ and /x/ which in some
aspects are similar to the sounds /θ/ and /k/ in English, respectively. Therefore, they can
cause problems for English learners of Vietnamese because they can pronoun /θ/ and
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
/k/ in their source language instead of pronouncing /tʰ/ and /x/. Similarly, the sound /tʂ/
and /ɲ/ are also real problems for English learners since they do not exist in English. In
turn, however, Vietnamese learners also have difficulties when pronouncing /θ/ and /k/.
Normally, they tend to substitute /tʰ/ and /x/ for /θ/ and /k/. Nevertheless, these problems
for Vietnamese and English learners are not very serious if they are taught carefully
about the phonetic nature of these sounds in order to pronoun them with relative
accuracy.
Distinction in English
In English, there are four classes of consonants that are unique to English.
The fricative: the voiceless interdental /θ/ and the voiced interdentals /ð/
The affricates: the voiceless alveopalatal / t∫/ and the voiced alveopalatal affricates /dʒ/.
The bilabial voiceless stop /p/ is important in English because it can occur in all
positions. While in Vietnamese, it is only occur in final position and initially in some loan
words, but Vietnamese learners are not very good at pronouncing it because they often
mix it up with its voiced partner /b/ which is more familiar in Vietnamese.
The approximant: voiced alveolar /r/.
These unique sounds in English have cause difficulties for Vietnamese learners,
since “it is more difficult to break an old habit than to learn a new one”. I mean they tend
to bring their own phonemic habits into English and fail to imitate proper pronunciation.
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
Hence, in the next step I will contrast in detail to withdraw problems that Vietnamese
learners often have as well as some possible ways to deal with those problems.
Teaching implication
As stated above, in this part, we will discuss problem sounds that often cause
most difficulties for Vietnamese learners. Firstly, in the stop we can see that the sound
/p/ is unfamiliar with Vietnamese learner because it rarely occurs in initial position. We
only find words with /p/ in the end and unreleased. Normally, it is an allophone of the
initial /b/. It results in failing to pronounce English initial and medial /p/ of Vietnamese
learners. They often mispronounced /b/ as /p/. To avoid negative substitution, learners
need to be drilled regularly and carefully until they can form a habit and pronoun pig
instead of big; pet instead of bet.
Secondly, the English interdental fricative pair /θ, ð/ are among the most problem
sounds for Vietnamese learners. In Vietnamese we also have voiceless alveolar
aspirated stop /th/ which is often used by Vietnamese learners to substitute for English
/θ/. They are not called their attention to put the tip of their tongue between the teeth
when producing English /θ/. Similarity, the sound /ð/ is also mispronounced as /d/ in
Vietnamese. Hence, it is the responsibilities of teachers to show their students the
differences between these sounds.
Thirdly, in the affricates, the unique sounds /t∫, dʒ/ which do not exist in
Vietnamese are also major problems. Therefore, Vietnamese learners have to be taught
the phonetic nature of these sounds to acquaint with them and then practice them
carefully so that they can realize strange sounds they produce when pronouncing them
incorrectly.
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
Finally, the voiced alveolar /r/ in English is not so difficult for Vietnamese learners
because the flap /r/ which occurs in initial position also exist in Vietnamese. However,
as a final and medial consonant, it is still a troublesome one. Therefore, the phonetic
difference should be pointed out, and the drilling lessons are still needed until the
student masters the distributional problem.
With the above problems, Vietnamese learners really need enthusiastic teachers
to instruct them and help them overcome difficulties in learning English in general and
pronouncing English consonants in particular properly. Teachers have to design
appropriate practices; however learners also need the patience in practicing. They can
listen and repeat native speakers’ voices or record their voices and then listen again to
recognize their mistakes which they need to improve.
Conclusion
Consonant is one of the aspects in pronunciation that Vietnamese students need
to practice regularly. Nevertheless, in high school, some teachers do not pay much
attention in teaching pronunciation due to the limited time of a period. They often focus
on grammar points which students need to practice to deal with the exams. In my
opinion, high school teachers do not see the importance of pronouncing English
properly of Vietnamese students in real communication. Most of high school students do
not pronounce English properly. As a result, they feel embarrassed while talking with
English speakers because they are afraid of making mistakes and misunderstanding.
With my little experience in teaching English for young students and seeing their
diffidence in speaking English, I acknowledge the necessity of teaching pronunciation
as pointed out at the beginning of this paper. Therefore, I think it is responsibilities of
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
teachers to draw their attention to the importance of pronouncing English properly right
from the first lessons of beginners. In this way, teachers should master the nature of
English and Vietnamese phonetic in order to take them as models to show their
teachers how to pronounce English in an understandable ways.
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Contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English consonants
References
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Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2009). Table of Vietnamese consonants.
Retrieved December 24th, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language#Consonants
Đoan, Thien Thuat,. (1977). Ngữ âm tiếng Việt. Hanoi: Hanoi National University
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Table of English consonants. Retrieved December 24th, 2009
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