Comments on: The Vietnamese Alphabet

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:41:42 +0000

Tatyana, I wouldn't grant my suggestion the title of correction until we find out if it is in fact correct. Yuet might be pronounced as Yvette, or close to it. The u, v, and w sounds are all related.

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:13:53 +0000

Knowing the tendency of American-Asians to substitute English or French first names for their own, sometimes not related, I didn’t try to repeat her pronunciation. I assumed (funny how mind works) automatically that her name was Yvette, and that’s how I addressed her in conversation; she didn’t correct me. But then I looked at her business card, found this spelling and realized my error.

Thank you for correction, I’ll try to imitate it to best I can next time I speak to her — but, considering the tones issue, I’m sure I’ll do it wrong anyway.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:29:14 +0000

I don't know how to pronounce the Vietnamese name Yuet, but from what I've read the Vietnamese y is simply another way of writing i; it's always a vowel and never a consonant. So it should, as far as I can tell, be pronounced ee-oo-et — with some very specific tonality. (Amusingly, if you did get the tonality right when you asked Ee-oo-et?, then you'd get it wrong the first time you used it not at the end of a question. The rising, flat, or falling tone is significant.)

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:12:58 +0000

Very timely post. Last week I was introduced to a woman named Yuet (Vietnamese last name; withheld for privacy), and I didn’t catch the way she pronounced it. Was trying to come up with passable version… now don’t know if she didn’t correct me out of politeness or I did it right.

How would you say it?