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Thai or Vietnamese ? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| TKK Groupie ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5952 days ago 55 posts - 58 votes  | Message 1 of 41 26 August 2008 at 7:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Which language sounds more beautiful ? Thai or Vietnamese ?
Incidentally, Which one is considered more useful or helpful ? So far, I haven't got to learn either of them, & I've never been to Thailand or Vietnam. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cisa Super Polyglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6423 days ago 312 posts - 309 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Hungarian*, Slovak, FrenchC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin, SpanishB2, RussianB2, GermanB2, Korean, Czech, Latin Studies: Italian, Cantonese, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Hindi, Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazakh, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 41 26 August 2008 at 10:03am | IP Logged | ||
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You should watch the film Anna and the King (with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat), there you can hear some Thai. And it´s also a cool movie! ;) Thai has some interesting sounds, but it doesn´t really attract me.
For the first ´sight´ Vietnamese sounded a little similar to Cantonese, but now that I´ve met some more Vietnamese people, heard more of it, not any longer. It has some strange sound which may not sound appealing to everybody, but I think it sounds cool! :) I don´t speak neither of them, so this judgement is based really only on what I heard from these two languages, but it´s only my personal opinion. Edited by Cisa on 26 August 2008 at 2:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| joan.carles Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6337 days ago 332 posts - 342 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, French, EnglishC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Hungarian, Russian, Georgian | Message 3 of 41 26 August 2008 at 10:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I learned some Vietnamese, but don't know anything, or almost anything, about Thai. So I can not compare, but i can tell you that to me Vietnamese sounds cool too. I also found some resemblances to Cantonese, some words and sounds (the range of possible syllables is wider both in Cantonese and Vietnamese, compared to Mandarin), but as Cisa says, once you dig a little bit in these languages, you realize they are not that alike.
Again the usefulness depends much on your intentions, what do you want to do with the language? In terms of number of speakers, Vietnamese clearly outnumbers Thay: 67 million speakers of Vietnamese 20 million speakers of Thai. Even if you count the other Thai languages (whose mutal intelligibility with Thai I don't know), the total number, including 15 M (NE Thai), 6 M (N Thai) and 5 M (S Thai) , comes to 46 million. (Figures extracted from Ethnologue). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6144 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 4 of 41 26 August 2008 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||
The Thai spoken in that movie is HORRIFIC. No Thai actors performed in the movie because of it is perceived as being derogatory towards the monarchy and it is banned in Thailand. On the sounds of the two languages, IMHO neither sound particularly pleasant. If it helps, Cantonese sounds to me like Mandarin spoken with a Thai accent, while Vietnamese speakers often sound scared! The speaker figures are very misleading, both countries have an exceptionally high literacy rate, especially among developing countries, and this is because both standardised languages are used in all schools. As a result they are spoken by virtually everyone, so 60-65 million seems more reasonable for Thai and around 80-90 million for Vietnamese. The Thai dialects are verging on mutually intelligible but everyone can switch to standard Thai. I have travelled extensively in Thailand, especially in the North-East and North, and also in Laos, and I never had any problems using Thai. There is also a distinct but regular difference between North and South Vietnamese. Unless you are planning to visit the region or have family heritage, none of the languages are particularly useful globally or economically (maybe different for a Chinese because families of Chinese heritage dominate the two economies). The literary history is heavily influenced by Chinese and Indian traditions and despite the high literacy rate reading isn't a popular pastime. There is a bigger oral and musical heritage, but you will probably need to go to the region to experience it. If you do choose to learn one of the languages throughly, you will find it an amazing experience when you do travel. Very few foreigners make a real attempt at learning any of the languages so you will find that everyone wants to talk to you, have their photo taken with you, etc especially in rural areas. Hope that helps, Fat-tony 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cisa Super Polyglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6423 days ago 312 posts - 309 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Hungarian*, Slovak, FrenchC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin, SpanishB2, RussianB2, GermanB2, Korean, Czech, Latin Studies: Italian, Cantonese, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Hindi, Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazakh, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 41 26 August 2008 at 2:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Of course, since probably the actors were not native speakers. But that was the place where I could hear some more Thai, and some Youtube videos. :)
Tony, I would be really curious why one do YOU prefer? Just according to your ears. ;) Edited by Cisa on 26 August 2008 at 2:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6144 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 6 of 41 26 August 2008 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's actually really difficult to choose. They both have very similar sounds inventories, Vietnamese has more vowels,
but Thai still has a lot compared to most languages. Vietnamese also has one more tone (6 vs 5), but the way syllables are constructed in both languages is very similar (same few sounds can end syllables; similar restricted consonant clusters at the start). I really can't decide. Also, as I hear Thai everyday, it's difficult to assess its "beauty". I will have to choose Thai, but I can really give a concrete reason and I feel biased because it's my wife's language! Fat-tony 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7025 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 41 26 August 2008 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Where I live, Vietnamese would be much more helpful. However, I think the writing system of Thai is more interesting. To me written Vietnamese is quite unattractive, with the Latin alphabet and all those diacritical marks. I personally think Thai sounds more appealing too. Both countries have an excellent cuisine.
Which country would you rather visit, Thailand or Vietnam? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TKK Groupie ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5952 days ago 55 posts - 58 votes | Message 8 of 41 26 August 2008 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Vietnamese alphabet seems much easier than weird Thai writing system.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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