Vietnam was a French Colony?
I love Asian food, including Vietnamese.
But was thinking about the country’s past recently, and despite the actual history and French words that have made it into the language, I have a hard time believing it was once a French colony.
Why? Because French, as a Latin-based language, makes far too much sense.
It seems more like it should have been an English colony…you know, the language where we have words spelled exactly the same, but pronounced differently, like estimate (the noun) and…estimate (the verb); or words spelled differently but pronounced exactly the same, like the grammar Nazi’s favorites there, their, they’re…
Seriously. It’s really only in English that Nguyen would be pronounced like “when”.
I love Asian food, including Vietnamese. But was thinking about the country’s past recently, and despite the actual history and French words that have made it into the language, I have a hard time believing it was once a French colony. Why? Because French, as a Latin-based language, makes far too much sense. It seems…
How about these crazy English words:
Flamible and inflamible. Sound like opposites, but actually mean the same thing.
Sanction and sanction. Exactly the same but can mean the opposite thing.
I had several friends in high school named Nguyen. They never told us the way to pronounce their name…
-Mike