Northern Accent vs Southern Accent – Pronunciation – Giọng miền bắc và giọng miền nam – Part 1

Like other languages,  the Vietnamese language has many accents and dialects. In this post, we are trying to point out some pronunciation differences between the Northern and Southern accents.

TONES

While dấu huyền (low-falling tone), dấu sắc (high-rising tone) và dấu ngang (mid-level tone) sound the same in the 2 accents, there are some differences in the other 3 tones:

Dấu hỏi (low-falling-rising tone)

The Southern dấu hỏi sounds softer, while the Northern one is stronger and clearer

Dấu ngã (high-rising broken tone)

There is no dấu ngã in Southern accent. Actually, Southern people uses dấu hỏi instead of dấu ngã

Dấu nặng (low-falling broken tone)

When pronouncing a word with dấu nặng, northern people lower their voice and stop sharply whereas Southern have a slightly rise in their voice at the end.

INITIAL CONSONANTS

ch

Northern accent, “ch” let more air out.

Southern accent, ” ch” no air

ch & tr

Northern people usually do not distinguish between “ch” and “tr”. However, there is a clear disparity in Southern Vietnamese.

Please watch the video below for clearer examples and explanation.

(To be continued)