Vietnamese Alphabets

Letter Name IPA

A aa/aː˧/Ă ăá/aː˧˥/
 âớ/əː˧˥/
B bbê; bờ; bê bò/ɓe˧/
C cxê; cờ/se˧/
D ddê; dờ/ze˧/
Đ đđê; đờ/ɗe˧/
E ee/ɛ˧/
Ê êê/e˧/
G ggiê; gờ; ghê/ʒe˧/
H hhắt; hờ/hat˧˥/
I ii; i ngắn/i˧/
K kca/kaː˧/
L le-lờ; lờ/ɛ˧ləː˧˩/
M mem-mờ;em mờ/ɛm˧məː˧˩/
N nen-nờ; en nờ/ɛn˧nəː˧˩/
O oo/ɔ˧/
Ô ôô/o˧/
Ơ ơơ/əː˧/
P ppê; pờ; bê phở (colloq.)/pe˧/
Q qcu; quy; quờ/ku˧/
R re-rờ; rờ/ɛ˧zəː˧˩/
S sét sờ; xờ mạnh; xờ nặng/ɛt˧˥səː˧˩/
T ttê; tờ/te˧/
U uu/u˧/
Ư ưư/ɨ˧/
V vvê, vờ/ve˧/
X xích xờ; xờ nhẹ/ik˧˥/
Y yi dài; i-cờ-rét/i˧zaːj˧˩/

Indonesia coffee premiums fall, undercut Vietnam prices

Indonesia coffee premiums fall, undercut Vietnam prices

Premiums for Indonesian robusta fell to their weakest level since April on Thursday after farmers increased deliveries to raise cash ahead of a Muslim festival, spurring buying by local roasters.

The fall in premiums to $80-$100 a tonne, down from $200 last week, may also prompt foreign buying as sellers in rival producer Vietnam are still offering robusta at premiums of up to $130 to London futures, their highest in two years, dealers said.

Daily arrivals in the main growing island of Sumatra jumped to as high as 3,000 tonnes, compared with about 1,000 tonnes in mid-May. Indonesia, the world's third-largest coffee producer, is also the second-largest grower of robusta after Vietnam.

"The beans have been traded at $100 premiums FOB. We also see offers at $80 but only from small suppliers who want to sell 36 or 40 tonnes of beans," said a dealer in Sumatra, referring to the grade 4,80 defect robustas.

"Many trading houses are still focusing on fulfilling deliveries. Premiums have come down because supply is improving and also because London futures have gone up."

Dealers saw buying interest from local roasters and processed food producers, such as PT Mayora Indah. Strong domestic demand will boost Indonesia's consumption in 2013/14 by nearly a third to more than four million 60-kg bags, according to a Reuters poll.

Heavy rains during the current crop in Sumatra have disrupted deliveries from plantations and the drying of beans. Premiums jumped as high as $200 a tonne earlier this month, the highest since 2012, although deals were struck at $150 premiums.

Differentials for Vietnam's grade 2, 5 percent black and broken beans were steady at $100 to $130 a tonne this week as farmers held on to their beans, hoping for higher global prices and better returns.

Indonesia and Vietnam together account for nearly a quarter of the world's coffee output. Robusta is either blended with higher-quality arabica beans for a lower-cost brewed coffee or processed into instant coffee.

"We haven't bought more Vietnamese beans so far. We're trying to get more beans from Indonesia. It's still much cheaper. I think we should be able to get the 80 defect beans at less than $100 premiums in bulk," said a dealer in Singapore.

"You can see supply is coming in," he added.

Indonesian farmers were selling more beans to trading houses as the weather improved and because they also needed extra cash to celebrate Eid al-Fitr in early August, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation.

"Daily arrivals have improved to 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes since last week. I guess farmers need to cover their daily needs," said a dealer in Java, adding that sales had only gone to local buyers at present.

London September robusta ended up $4 at $1,950 a tonne on Wednesday, after jumping to $1,979, the highest price since May 24, tracking New York arabica on fears of a frost threat in top producer Brazil.

~News courtesy of Thanh Nien News~

1st wax museum opens in Da Nang

Vietnam’s first wax museum opens in Da Nang



A life size statue of US President Barack Obama on display at Vietnam’s first wax museum, which opened July 11 in Da Nang City

Vietnam’s first wax of museum opened July 11, featuring life size statues of international celebrities.

Located at the Ba Na Hills Resort in the central coastal city of Da Nang and funded by Sun Group, the museum has 25 wax statues of celebrities including the US president Barack Obama, soccer star and fashion icon David Beckham and wife – singer turned fashion designer Victoria Beckham; movie stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; Hallyu star Bi Rain; the late Chinese-American martial artist Bruce Lee; Michael Jackson, and Queen Elizabeth II.

Another batch of 25 figures made of a mixture of beeswax and plastic, will join the first batch by the end of this year.

The museum was constructed to attract more tourists to the city. It is able to receive around 1,000 people per day, also includes an area for visitors attempt to make their own clay creations.

Entrance to museum costs VND50,000 (US$2.30).

~News courtesy of Thanh Nien News~

Quang Binh to open tours to Son Doong Cave

Quang Binh Province to open tours to Son Doong Cave

Tran Tien Dung, Deputy Chairman of the People’s Committee in the north central province of Quang Binh, has agreed to a pilot program to open adventure tours to Son Doong Cave--the world largest cave--from August this year.



A view of Son Doong Cave

There will be two seven-day and six-night tours or three five-day and four-night tours each month.

Each tour will comprise a maximum of seven visitors and 15 local porters will help carry their baggage and other belongings.

Once the pilot program proves successful, the province will host adventure tours to the Son Doong Cave during the dry season from February to August every year.

~News courtesy of SGGP~

Writing system

Writing system

Up to the late 19th century, two writing systems based on Chinese characters were used in Vietnam:

All formal writing, including government business, scholarship and formal literature, was done in Literary Chinese (chữ nho "scholar's characters").

Folk literature in Vietnamese was recorded using the Chữ Nôm script, in which many characters were borrowed and many more modified and invented to represent native Vietnamese words.

A romanization of Vietnamese was codified in the 17th century by the French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (1591–1660), based on works of earlier Portuguese missionaries Gaspar do Amaral and António Barbosa. This Vietnamese alphabet (quốc ngữ or "national script", literally "national language") was gradually expanded from its initial domain in Christian writing to become more popular among the general public. 

Under French colonial rule, Vietnamese written with the alphabet became required for all public documents in 1910 by issue of a decree by the French Résident Supérieur of the protectorate of Tonkin. By the middle of the 20th century virtually all writing was done in quốc ngữ. Only a few scholars and some extremely elderly people are able to read chữ nôm today. In China, members of the Jing minority still write in Chữ Nôm.

Changes in the script were made by French scholars and administrators and by conferences held after independence during 1954–1974. The script now reflects a so-called Middle Vietnamese dialect that has vowels and final consonants most similar to northern dialects and initial consonants most similar to southern dialects (Nguyễn 1996). This Middle Vietnamese is presumably close to the Hanoi variety as spoken sometime after 1600 but before the present. (This is not unlike how English orthography is based on the Chancery Standard of late Middle English, with many spellings retained even after significant phonetic change.)

~News courtesy of Wikipedia~

Vietnamese Grammar

Grammar

Vietnamese, like many languages in Southeast Asia, is an analytic (or isolating) language. Vietnamese does not use morphological marking of case, gender, number or tense (and, as a result, has no finite/nonfinite distinction). 

Also like other languages in the region, Vietnamese syntax conforms to subject–verb–object word order, is head-initial (displaying modified-modifier ordering), and has a noun classifier system. Additionally, it is pro-drop, wh-in-situ, and allows verb serialization. Some Vietnamese sentences with English word glosses and translations are provided below.

Mai là sinh viên.
Mai be student
"Mai is a student." (College student)

Giáp rất cao.
Giap very tall
"Giap is very tall."

Người đó là anh nó.
person that be brother he
"That person is his brother."

Con chó này chẳng bao giờ sủa cả.
classifier dog this not ever bark at.all
"This dog never barks at all."

Nó chỉ ăn cơm Việt Nam thôi.
he only eat rice.colloquial Vietnam only
"He only eats Vietnamese food."

Cái thằng chồng em nó chẳng ra gì.
focus classifier husband I (as wife) he not turn.out what
"That husband of mine, he is good for nothing."

Tôi thích con ngựa đen.
I (generic) like classifier horse black
"I like the black horse."

Tôi thích cái con ngựa đen.
I (generic) like focus classifier horse black
"I like any black horses."

~Info courtesy of Wikipedia~

Vietnamese Tones

Tones

Generally, the Northern varieties have six tones while those in other regions have five tones. 

The hỏi and ngã tones are distinct in North and some North-central varieties (although often with different pitch contours) but have merged in Central, Southern, and some North-central varieties (also with different pitch contours). 

Some North-central varieties (such as Hà Tĩnh Vietnamese) have a merger of the ngã and nặng tones while keeping the hỏi tone distinct. Still other North-central varieties have a three-way merger of hỏi, ngã, and nặng resulting in a four-tone system. 

In addition, there are several phonetic differences (mostly in pitch contour and phonation type) in the tones among dialects.

~Info courtesy of Wikipedia~