Vietnamese

Austro-Asiatic family · Vietic branch · Eurasia

Vietnamese is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Ordinal Numerals, WALS codes Vietnamese as “Variou-th: Other solutions”, a value held by 7 of the 321 languages coded, Burmese and Kewa among them.

On Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology, WALS codes Vietnamese as “Consistently zero-marking”, a value held by 6 of the 236 languages coded, Indonesian and Pirahã among them.

The closest grammar profile to Vietnamese in the atlas belongs to Nung (in Vietnam), a Tai-Kadai language: the two agree on 38 of the 43 features both have coded.

The order Vietnamese uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Vietnamese with Nung (in Vietnam) or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Vietnamese, rarest first.

Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsCompound type but no morphological type9 of 310
Politeness Distinctions in PronounsPronouns avoided for politeness7 of 207
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb0-1 category per word5 of 145
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns'We' and 'I' identical10 of 200
Negative MorphemesNegative word, unclear if verb or particle73 of 1,157
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in fricatives alone38 of 567
Zero Marking of A and P ArgumentsZero-marking16 of 235
Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated to remote demonstratives18 of 225

Inside the Austro-Asiatic family

Vietnamese matches the most frequent Austro-Asiatic value on 81 of the 111 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (73%). Among the 9 Austro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks fifth from the top.

Where Vietnamese breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Vietnamese	Most relatives
Tone	Complex tone system	No tones (12 of 15)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Vietnamese; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Thai Tai-Kadai96 of 117
Chrau Austro-Asiatic35 of 41
Khmer Austro-Asiatic73 of 91
Hmong Njua Hmong-Mien78 of 102

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Vietnamese for 128 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 116 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Vietnamese shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Glottalized Consonants	Implosives only	55 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Low	58 of 564
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively isolating	16 of 165
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor has no marking	32 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P has no marking	42 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160

Nouns and pronouns 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person stem with a pronominal plural affix	23 of 261
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always optional	55 of 291
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are obligatory	78 of 400
Distributive Numerals	No distributive numerals	62 of 251
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally similar, involving interrogative expression	43 of 116
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Number of Genders	None	145 of 257
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	No gender system	145 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	No gender system	145 of 257
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378

Noun phrases 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Adjectives without Nouns	Marked by preceding word	18 of 124
Action Nominal Constructions	Possessive-Accusative	29 of 168
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed	33 of 138
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Optional pronouns in subject position	61 of 711
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Both sequential type and purposive type	15 of 118
Comparative Constructions	Exceed Comparative	33 of 167
Predicative Possession	Topic Possessive	48 of 240
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Double-object construction	84 of 378
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric standard negation only: Type Sym	114 of 297
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	Non-assignable (no asymmetry found)	114 of 297
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M in Second Person Singular	m in second person singular	78 of 230
Tea	Words derived from Sinitic cha	110 of 230
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230