A History of Research on Vietnamese Intonation

Abstract

: In the field of Vietnamese phonetics and phonology, intonation has been received the least attention until recently. Before 1954, though there were several studies discussing Vietnamese intonation, the concept of intonation was not similar to what we understand about intonation today, which is different from lexical tone. After 1954, linguistic experts have started studying Vietnamese intonation from both empirical and instrumental lenses. Vietnamese intonation is then described in terms of both phonetic properties and functional perspectives. This article reviews the studies of Vietnamese intonation over the past seven decades with an effort to explain why it is still not possible to build a phonological theoretical model for Vietnamese intonation.