How do you pronounce "Nguyen"?

[SunWuKong]

i have a question that i've been meaning to ask for a while now. how is the Vietnamese surname "Nguyen" pronounced?

[537]

i have a question that i've been meaning to ask for a while now. how is the Vietnamese surname "Nguyen" pronounced?


I always thought it was "win" with a very light ng right before it. (ngWin)

[hooligan]

yeah, something like that. "win"

[ChinaLama]

well i guess i'd better not offend people by caling them "nuh gueee nnn"

[seanp]

i have a question that i've been meaning to ask for a while now. how is the Vietnamese surname "Nguyen" pronounced?


inside joke.. if you write the word backward, that's how most white people pronounce it :p

Anyway... it's ng... uyen the ng is nasal, the uyen is almost like yuen in mandarin but with a little y in huyndai.. then there is a falling-rising tone... haha... vietnamese is so hard -__-

Anyway, 30% vietnamese has that last name because the last dynasty is the nguyen. Some people changed their last name to nguyen because

1. Loyalist of Nguyen Dynasty OR
2. Afraid that they will be discriminated and changed their last name (Trinh and Ly etc.) from previous dynasty to nguyen.

[SunWuKong]

inside joke.. if you write the word backward, that's how most white people pronounce it :p

Anyway... it's ng... uyen the ng is nasal, the uyen is almost like yuen in mandarin but with a little y in huyndai.. then there is a falling-rising tone... haha... vietnamese is so hard -__-

Anyway, 30% vietnamese has that last name because the last dynasty is the nguyen. Some people changed their last name to nguyen because

1. Loyalist of Nguyen Dynasty OR
2. Afraid that they will be discriminated and changed their last name (Trinh and Ly etc.) from previous dynasty to nguyen.


Cantonese has that nasal ng sound, too.

anyway, i think i know how it's pronounced, from your explanation, but do you know where i can find a sound file on the web for this word?

[specialK]

i pronounce it "we-ing?" as if it were a question.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Cantonese has that nasal ng sound, too.

for now ... wait a few decades and see if any HK kid can still pronounce it. No one will really miss it, though, I guess, unlike "n" (as in "you"), the lack of which leads to all sorts of problems when studying foreign languages.

Hey, I just realized, if "ng" completely disappears from HK Cantonese, that would make two out of three Cantonese nasal initial consonants lost. Wonder if they're gonna lose "m" next or turn it into "b" or "w" or something. Crap, no one would be able to understand them speaking English. :eek:

[seanp]

http://www.geocities.com/supernovahp/nguyen.wav

copy and past into the address bar...

That's my mom name.. Nguyen Anh Nga :glare:

[jenjen]

we have one form of nguyens per year level (our forms go by surnames) at my school and we've developed three ways of pronouncing it. each a bit more anglicized than the last. there's new-win (win is stressed). new-win (the -in in win as in the -en in happen). and, new yen. no one bothers pronouncing it the real viet way coz the nasal sounds are just too hard.

and apparently the surname nguyen= surname 'ruan' in chinese (?!)

the shanghainese have the 'ng' sound too. ng = fish/five etc.

[SunWuKong]

and apparently the surname nguyen= surname 'ruan' in chinese (?!)


which ruan? do you think you can type it out?

[seanp]

which ruan? do you think you can type it out?


This Ruan :)
http://nomdb.cafe68t.net/image/Nom24407.jpg

[jenjen]

thanks seanp. so considerate too. a pic so the people who don't have chinese support (or shitty one like me) can view it too.

so nguyen = chinese ruan then?

[AliBabaIncorporated]

if you're wondering about writing Vietnamese names in Chinese characters, a good starting point is this country information page about Vietnam (big-5 only, sorry):
http://content.edu.tw/junior/geo/ty_cg/10133106.htm
Check the "politics" section under "gov't," it lists the names of a lot of upper-level governmental officials in both chinese and roman letters (and all the counties of Vietnam, though it doesn't show their spelling in Vietnamese) ...

To look up pronunciation of any Chinese character in Vietnamese, such as a surname (input using character, pinyin, or Cantonese romanization ... unfortunately not in vietnamese without tone marks, so you can't just type in someone's last name and get out all the characters pronounced that way), you can use the Nom Preservation Foundation's character lookup tool:
http://nomfoundation.org/nomdb/lookup.php

[ModernLogic]

What's the Chinese character for Nguyen? Anyone know?

[AliBabaIncorporated]

What's the Chinese character for Nguyen? Anyone know?
Well yeah, lots of people know now, cuz they actually bothered to look at the pretty picture about 5 posts up, or follow the link I posted which shows how many common Vietnamese surname such as Nguyen, Tran, Truong, Le, etc. are written using Chinese.

[SunWuKong]

What's the Chinese character for Nguyen? Anyone know?


here you go.

http://nomdb.cafe68t.net/image/Nom24407.jpg

[SunWuKong]

Well yeah, lots of people know now, cuz they actually bothered to look at the pretty picture about 5 posts up, or follow the link I posted which shows how many common Vietnamese surname such as Nguyen, Tran, Truong, Le, etc. are written using Chinese.


he could have been viewing this thread in "Threaded" or "Hybrid" form (you can switch it near the top of the page, right above the first post that appears). in which case, he would not have seen that post.

[BeTheReds]

Ive always heard by white people in the know that it is NEW YEN..

But from viets I have always heard WAYNE

[SunWuKong]

Ive always heard by white people in the know that it is NEW YEN..

actually i heard a Korean person say that just this past weekend. :)

But from viets I have always heard WAYNE

hahah you're not picking up the nasal 'ng' consonant.

[Chester]

On a slightly related topic...how do you pronounce "Ng"?

Not how are you supposed to pronounce it, but how do you pronounce it for non-Chinese?

I have a friend who's surnamed "Ng" and if I'm talking to a non-Chinese person and refer to her, I say "eng." If I pronounce it correctly, it's just too confusing.

"What's her last name?"

"Ng?"

"I asked...'what's her last name?'"

"Ng."

"No, I mean, I'm asking you."

[SunWuKong]

On a slightly related topic...how do you pronounce "Ng"?

Not how are you supposed to pronounce it, but how do you pronounce it for non-Chinese?

I have a friend who's surnamed "Ng" and if I'm talking to a non-Chinese person and refer to her, I say "eng." If I pronounce it correctly, it's just too confusing.

"What's her last name?"

"Ng?"

"I asked...'what's her last name?'"

"Ng."

"No, I mean, I'm asking you."


that's like how one of my colleague's name is Dat. i was talking about him to another colleague.

"i was at Dat's desk."

*looks at me strangely*

"you know Dat, right?"

"What?" *looks at me strangely*

"you know, Dat..."

"What???"

[BeTheReds]

On a slightly related topic...how do you pronounce "Ng"?

Not how are you supposed to pronounce it, but how do you pronounce it for non-Chinese?

I have a friend who's surnamed "Ng" and if I'm talking to a non-Chinese person and refer to her, I say "eng." If I pronounce it correctly, it's just too confusing.

"What's her last name?"

"Ng?"

"I asked...'what's her last name?'"

"Ng."

"No, I mean, I'm asking you."

That was my 4th grade teacher's last name. We called her Miss N G.

[pinkskyes]

how do u pronounce Ng?????????

[pinkskyes]

oops already asked!

[jenjen]

that's like how one of my colleague's name is Dat. i was talking about him to another colleague.

"i was at Dat's desk."

*looks at me strangely*

"you know Dat, right?"

"What?" *looks at me strangely*

"you know, Dat..."

"What???"

lol. i knew this guy called 'yu' in primary school.

"so who did it?
"yu."
"errr... no i didn't"
"no, yu did!!"
"err... NO I DIDN'T"
etc, etc.... and the vicious cycle continues...

[SunWuKong]

how do u pronounce Ng?????????


here's a link to a sound file (http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Canton/sound/ng5.wav)

[yoMAMA]

I remember when i first went to my junior high school, and their's a vietnamese kid with the last name nguyen.

I aksed another kid how to pronounce it, and he told me it's 'win'.

[NGHIEM]

if you're wondering about writing Vietnamese names in Chinese characters, a good starting point is this country information page about Vietnam (big-5 only, sorry):
http://content.edu.tw/junior/geo/ty_cg/10133106.htm
Check the "politics" section under "gov't," it lists the names of a lot of upper-level governmental officials in both chinese and roman letters (and all the counties of Vietnam, though it doesn't show their spelling in Vietnamese) ...

To look up pronunciation of any Chinese character in Vietnamese, such as a surname (input using character, pinyin, or Cantonese romanization ... unfortunately not in vietnamese without tone marks, so you can't just type in someone's last name and get out all the characters pronounced that way), you can use the Nom Preservation Foundation's character lookup tool:
http://nomfoundation.org/nomdb/lookup.php

excellent post, this is perhaps the best post in this site i have seen so far
can you post a similar link but about korean to chinese translation ??
this vietnamese-chinese character lookup is excellent
i want to find korean-chinese character lookup as well
i always wonder how they say "NUGYEN" in korean ??
i believe theres no one in korea with last name "NGUYEN" as theres no one
with last name "KIM" in korea

do feel free to post a link as soon as you can
i want to see the chinese character in korean way of english spelling
i know that "KIM" is "JIN" in chinese and "GHIM" in vietnamese
"NGUYEN" is "RUAN" in chinese but i dont know whats that in korean.
my last name "NGHIEM" is "GUANG" in chinese
the same "GUANG" as "GUANGDONG" a southern province in china.
i believe no chinese have this lastname

do post link to korean-chinese character lookup as soon as possible :D

[SunWuKong]

excellent post, this is perhaps the best post in this site i have seen so far
can you post a similar link but about korean to chinese translation ??
this vietnamese-chinese character lookup is excellent
i want to find korean-chinese character lookup as well
i always wonder how they say "NUGYEN" in korean ??
i believe theres no one in korea with last name "NGUYEN" as theres no one
with last name "KIM" in korea

do feel free to post a link as soon as you can
i want to see the chinese character in korean way of english spelling
i know that "KIM" is "JIN" in chinese and "GHIM" in vietnamese
"NGUYEN" is "RUAN" in chinese but i dont know whats that in korean.
my last name "NGHIEM" is "GUANG" in chinese
the same "GUANG" as "GUANGDONG" a southern province in china.
i believe no chinese have this lastname

do post link to korean-chinese character lookup as soon as possible :D

i'd like to get a dictionary like that, actually.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

excellent post, this is perhaps the best post in this site i have seen so far
can you post a similar link but about korean to chinese translation ??
this vietnamese-chinese character lookup is excellent
i want to find korean-chinese character lookup as well
i always wonder how they say "NUGYEN" in korean ??
i believe theres no one in korea with last name "NGUYEN" as theres no one
with last name "KIM" in korea

do feel free to post a link as soon as you can
i want to see the chinese character in korean way of english spelling
i know that "KIM" is "JIN" in chinese and "GHIM" in vietnamese
"NGUYEN" is "RUAN" in chinese but i dont know whats that in korean.
my last name "NGHIEM" is "GUANG" in chinese
the same "GUANG" as "GUANGDONG" a southern province in china.
i believe no chinese have this lastname

do post link to korean-chinese character lookup as soon as possible :D
impatient :P

anyway, Muller claims that character is read as "weon" or "wan" in Korean and "gen" or "gan" in Japanese:
http://www.hm.tyg.jp/~acmuller/dicts/dealt/data/96/c962e.htm
That dictionary as well as Breen (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/wwwjdic?1B), though primarily oriented towards Japanese, also include data about Korean and Chinese pronunciations.

http://www.chinalanguage.com/CCDICT/index.html
This dictionary can display pronunciation data about a character from all major Chinese dialects as well as Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean pronunciation. You can look up using radicals as well as Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean pronunciation (but not by typing in characters themselves, pain in the ass sometimes).

Unfortunately I don't know of any dictionary which contains both Sino-Korean and Vietnamese readings of characters. Hope that helps!

[AliBabaIncorporated]

i'd like to get a dictionary like that, actually.
I don't know of any widely available printed works. Handbook of Korean Vocabulary allows you to look up words by Korean pronunciation, and includes their writings in Chinese characters, though. I got mine used for $5 ... see amazon light page:
http://www.kokogiak.com/amazon/detpage.asp?sb=s&asin=0824818156&field-keywords=handbook+of+korean+vocabulary&schMod=books&type=

[NGHIEM]

impatient :P

anyway, Muller claims that character is read as "weon" or "wan" in Korean and "gen" or "gan" in Japanese:
http://www.hm.tyg.jp/~acmuller/dicts/dealt/data/96/c962e.htm
That dictionary as well as Breen (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/wwwjdic?1B), though primarily oriented towards Japanese, also include data about Korean and Chinese pronunciations.

http://www.chinalanguage.com/CCDICT/index.html
This dictionary can display pronunciation data about a character from all major Chinese dialects as well as Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean pronunciation. You can look up using radicals as well as Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean pronunciation (but not by typing in characters themselves, pain in the ass sometimes).

Unfortunately I don't know of any dictionary which contains both Sino-Korean and Vietnamese readings of characters. Hope that helps!


I HAVE TRIED THIS LINK http://www.chinalanguage.com/CCDICT/index.html
BUT IT DIDNT WORK AT ALL.......I CLICK ON OPTION KOREAN SEARCH
AND THEN CLICK ON ALL OPTIONS THEN TYPE IN KIM
AND IT COULDNT FIND ANY RECORD MATCH !!!!!!
AND THIS http://www.hm.tyg.jp/~acmuller/dict...ta/96/c962e.htm
IS NOT A VALID LINK !!!!!!!

I AM SURE THERES A KOREAN-CHINESE LOOKUP MUCH IN THE SAME
WAY AS THE VIETNAMESE-CHINESE LOOKUP YOU'VE POSTED BEFORE http://nomfoundation.org/nomdb/lookup.php
WHICH ALLOW YOU TO FIND CHINESE CHARACTER WHEN YOU TYPE IN ENGLISH PURNOUNCIATION OF KOREAN WORD.

OH YOU DONT HAVE TO FIND A DICTIONARY WHICH CONTAIN BOTH
VIETNAMESE-KOREAN CHARACTERS
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS CHINESE CHARACTER AND PURNOUNCIATION
FOR "VIETNAMESE" THEN YOU CAN FIND ITS MEANING IN "KOREAN"

FOR EXAMPLE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHATS "NGUYEN" IN KOREAN
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TYPE IN "RUAN" WHICH IS THE CHINESE EQUIVALENT
OF "NGUYEN" AND PERHAPS THE KOREAN PURNOUNCIATION FOR "NGUYEN" WILL POP UP.....I AM NOT EVEN SURE IN KOREAN PURNOUNCIATION HAVE SUCH THING AS "NGUYEN"

[NGHIEM]

OH ITS WORKING NOW LOLZ UMMMMMM :boldred:

[SunWuKong]

http://www.chinalanguage.com/CCDICT/index.html
This dictionary can display pronunciation data about a character from all major Chinese dialects as well as Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean pronunciation. You can look up using radicals as well as Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean pronunciation (but not by typing in characters themselves, pain in the ass sometimes).

oh the word-lookup there isn't as good as other dictionary sites though.

[NGHIEM]

do anyone of you have links that lead to detail infos about vietnamese version of hundred family name ?????
always i am curious if theres any vietnamese last name which is not in use among chinese population.