The relationship between Vietnamese and languages of ethnic minorities: Perspectives of the Party and State of Vietnam and current use

Abstract

Vietnam is a multi-ethnic, multilingual country. Therefore, right from its establishment (1930) up to now, in its leadership, the Party and State of Vietnam soon had specific guidelines on language policy. There have been quite a few research works referring to the basic contents of the language policy of our Party and State. However, these studies usually only focus on either the policy towards Vietnamese language or the policy towards the languages of ethnic minorities. How the relationship between Vietnamese and languages of ethnic minorities in each period (with different social contexts) is handled has hardly been noticed. The article aims to clarify this issue. Besides, the article also provides more information about the actual use of Vietnamese in relation to the mother tongue of 53 ethnic minorities and considers it as a demonstration of the effectiveness of the language policy. Hopefully these are also lessons for us to reflect on policy directions in the future.