Vietnamese French (French: français du Viêt-nam) is a dialect of French spoken in Vietnam. Vietnam is the largest of the three Francophone nations in Asia, the others being Laos and Cambodia, and the language is spoken by over 5% of the population and sometimes used in international relations.[1]
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The French language's presence in Vietnam began in the 18th century when French explorers and merchants began sailing near the Indochina coast. When the French replaced the Portuguese as the primary European power in Southeast Asia in the 1850s by attacking and conquering Vietnamese cities, they introduced the French language to locals. French became the governing language of French Indochina, which included present-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Many Vietnamese began learning French, which replaced the native Vietnamese and royal court Chinese languages and eventually the Vietnamese language's official script was in the Latin Alphabet.[2] The building of missionary and government schools spread the French language among educated Vietnamese and soon became the language of the elite classes by the end of the 1800s. By the early 1900s, the French language began spreading to the urban masses and became the primary language of education. A French pidgin called Tây Bồi was developed among Vietnamese servants in French households and those who spoke partial French. Nevertheless, at the French language's height in Vietnam between the 1900s and 1940s, a large number of Vietnamese did not speak French well or learn the language and some revolutionaries refused to learn the colonial language, though ironically speeches and papers written to promote independence were written in French. During World War II, Japan briefly occupied Vietnam and established Vietnamese as the sole official and educational language.[3]
The French language in Vietnam slowly began to decline after World War II as revolutionary movements increased and their works began to be written more in Vietnamese. Poorer and generally, more rural populations began to resist French rule and guerrilla forces, the Viet Minh attacked the French and sparked the First Indochina War. The French language however, continued its presence in government, education and media in urban and semi-urban areas not held by the Viet Minh. By the early 1950s, the war had become unpopular in France and French forces were losing to guerrilla forces.[4] At the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Viet Minh defeated the French and Vietnam gained its independence though the nation was divided into a communist north and democratic, pro-French government in the south. Fearing persecution of the communist government, hundreds of thousands fled to the south, including French-educated and speaking elite and French continued to be an unofficial administrative and educational language in the south and illegally, border areas of the north. French forces remained in South Vietnam until 1956, the year that elections were to be held to unify Vietnam under a single government.[5] Despite the Vietnam War erupting shortly afterwards, French continued a healthy presence in South Vietnam until the 1970s. The sharpest decline of the French language in Vietnam was after the Fall of Saigon in 1975 as the communist government imposed Vietnamese as the sole official and educational language on the entire nation, including the south, which was in a transitional phase until 1976.
The number of students receiving their education in French in Vietnam declined to about 40% by the 1980s and continued to decline well into the 1990s.[1] Additionally, a large number of French-speakers who were anti-communist fled Vietnam and immigrated to nations such as the United States, France, Canada and Australia. As of 2000, only about 5% of students received their education in French, mostly concentrated in private education. Meanwhile, the rise of the English language further declined French's status in Vietnam as English is seen as the language of international trade, commerce and diplomacy and is now the most studied foreign language. In recent years however, the French language has revived in education in Vietnam and the nation is a member of La Francophonie and French has somewhat of a diplomatic language position in Vietnam. In higher education and professions, French is the principal language and Vietnamese elites continue to speak French today as well as the elderly population, a legacy of the colonial era.
Vietnamese French is based on standard Parisian French, but contains words that have been influenced not only by Vietnamese but also by Chinese and English, the latter due to U.S. presence in the south during the Vietnam War. Additionally, the pronoun vous used as the formal and plural form of you, is used not only to address elders but also to adults of the same age unlike Standard French, where tu is used among adult friends of the same age. Below are notable words of French used in Vietnam that differ from Standard French.
| Vietnamese French | Standard French | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| ma-đam | madame | ma'am, Mrs. |
| ga | gare | train station |
| xà bông | savon | soap |
| tivi | télévision | television |
| búp bê | poupée | doll |
| bánh ga-tô | gâteau | cake |
| phanh | frein | brake |
| ma-ki-dê | maquiller | make up |
Despite the decline of French in the late 1970s to 2000s, Vietnam continues to have a French-media market and presence. A small number of French-language newspapers, most dominately Saigon Eco and Le Courrier du Vietnam, circulate in Vietnam. News broadcasts as well as TV programs in French are shown on Vietnamese television channels daily. Radio broadcasts in French are also present.[1]
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