THE PROBLEM OF VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE FAMILY

Abstract

Vietnam is a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual country. Fifty-four ethnic groups coexist in harmony, of which the Jing (also known as Yue) accounts for 86% of the total population of the country. The language of the Jing nationality, namely Vietnamese, is currently the national language. All 54 ethnic groups have their own languages, which belong to 40 ethnic groups of the Austroasiatic family, 5 ethnic groups of the Austronesian family, and 9 ethnic groups of the Sino-Tibetan family. At the same time, Vietnamese is between the Sino-Tibetan, South Asia, South Island and other language families, so it is unavoidable to be affected by these language families.

It has long been controversial that Vietnamese belongs to which language family. This paper will contribute to understanding this problem by reviewing some materials that have been studied by predecessors and counting vocabulary in the Vietnamese language.