Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Vietnamese language" in English language version.
Of the approximately 90 millions speakers of Austroasiatic languages, over 70 million speak Vietnamese, nearly ten million speak Khmer and roughly five million speak Santali.
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | |||
Centering | ia~iê [iə̯] | ưa~ươ [ɯə̯] | ua~uô [uə̯] | |
Close | i [i] | ư [ɯ] | u [u] | |
Close-mid | ê [e] | ơ [ɤ] | ô [o] | |
Open-mid | e [ɛ] | ă [ɐ] | â [ʌ] | o [ɔ] |
Open | a [a] |
This description distinguishes four degrees of vowel height and a rounding contrast (rounded vs. unrounded) between back vowels. The relative shortness of ă and â would then be a secondary feature. Thompson describes the vowel ă [ɐ] as being slightly higher (upper low) than a [a].
Thompson, Laurence C. (1991) [1965]. A Vietnamese reference grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1117-8.