What language is this?

[filburt1]

http://www.vieteam.com/vtf/index.php?s=

English and some other language paired up there.

[Joe Gronlund]

i'll guess vietnamese

[ccd1]

It is Vietnamese

[filburt1]

Originally posted by baragon0
It is Vietnamese

Thanks, just making sure

[ccd1]

There's a bunch of Vietnamese newspapers that float around in Chinatown so I can recognize it from time to time--unless it turns out to be some other SE Asian language.

[DirectPixel]

Looks Thai to me.... but then again... I suck at languages... Only know chinese, english, and french...

[ccd1]

Originally posted by DirectPixel
Looks Thai to me.... but then again... I suck at languages... Only know chinese, english, and french...

Thai is typically posted using a Thai font, while for some strange reason, Vietnamese is done using Latin letters.

[DirectPixel]

Originally posted by baragon0
Thai is typically posted using a Thai font, while for some strange reason, Vietnamese is done using Latin letters.

lol.. you are right.

/me looks at the URL.

[thnhan]

Vietnamese - Latin characters

Thai is typically posted using a Thai font, while for some strange reason, Vietnamese is done using Latin letters.

The reason written Vietnamese language is represented by Latin characters is due to the Christian missionary back in 17th century. At that time, written Vietnamese is a derivation of Chinese glyphs and it was said even harder to learn than Chinese. So the missionary latinized the written language. The very first Latin-Portugese-Vietnamese dictionary is published in 17th century.

Through the centuries this written form of Vietnamese did not catch on until late 19th and early 20th century. In an attempt to modernize Vietnam, the intelligentsia encouraged the people to learn the new form of writing instead of the hard-to-learn old glyphs. Indeed, the latinized form is much easier to learn. The Vietnamese people never look back on the old writting form. The old written language (chữ Nôm) still exist as an academic research language only.

It's interesting to note that the Christian missionaries attempted the same in China and Japan but somehow their latinized form did not catch on.

Thank God the modern Vietnamese written language is in the latin form. Otherwise we have a tough time with keyboard and computer

N.T.

[cirdok2]

interesting!
Thanks

[Martin]

The reason written Vietnamese language is represented by Latin characters is due to the Christian missionary back in 17th century...

That was very informative. Thank you