Notes on grammatical vocabulary in Central Vietnamese

Abstract

This study focuses on grammatical vocabulary in Central Vietnamese2 (CV, hereafter) with the goal of exploring historical-linguistic developments in Vietnamese in general.One purpose of focusing on grammatical vocabulary is to provide a sample of how this type of vocabulary can innovate over time in different dialectal regions. For research on Central Vietnamese in particular, this focus also allows some identification of historical patterns of lexical preservations (e.g., forms shared with other Vietic languages), innovations or general variation, and the effects of language contact. While CV is quite obviously Vietnamese, there are a number of distinctive traits in its grammatical vocabulary which highlight some of the differentiation over time between CV and standard Vietnamese3 (StV, hereafter). In a number of instances, data suggests reconstructability at the level of Proto-Việt-Mường or even Proto-Vietic forms. These historical points are dealt with throughout this paper and summarized in the conclusion.