Southern Vietnamese

Southern Vietnamese is a broad regional group of Vietnamese varieties centered on Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, with substantial variation within the region. It shares the national written standard and Latin-based Vietnamese orthography; differences from northern varieties lie chiefly in pronunciation, vocabulary, and patterns of usage rather than in a separate written language. A prominent phonological feature is a five-tone system created by the merger of hỏi and ngã, and southern tonal contrasts generally do not employ the voice-quality differences found in Hanoi speech. Many speakers also merge particular initial or final consonants, although the details vary by locality and social setting. Southern words such as ba and má for parents and trái for “fruit” coexist with regionally different alternatives, while broadcasting, music, and migration spread southern forms beyond their original area.