ScriptLookup

Vietnamese

Tiếng Việt
vi 85M speakers

Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) is a Austroasiatic language with approximately 85M speakers speakers. It is written using the Latin script. Its BCP 47 language code is vi.

Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) is an Austroasiatic language and the official language of Vietnam. It is spoken by approximately 85 million people, predominantly in Vietnam and within Vietnamese diaspora communities worldwide.

Vietnamese is a tonal language with six lexical tones in the northern dialect. It uses the Latin alphabet with extensive diacritic marks — the Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc ngữ) was developed by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century and replaced earlier Chinese character-based writing systems. Vietnamese vocabulary contains substantial borrowings from Chinese.

Writing Systems Used for Vietnamese

Latin
Primary
Hello World
LTR Latn

Frequently Asked Questions

What alphabet or script does Vietnamese use?
Vietnamese is written using the Latin script (ISO 15924 code: Latn). Latin is written left-to-right.
What direction is Vietnamese written?
Vietnamese is written Left-to-right. Text runs from left to right, the same direction as most European languages.
How many people speak Vietnamese?
Vietnamese has approximately 85M speakers speakers worldwide. It is a member of the Austroasiatic language family.
What language family does Vietnamese belong to?
Vietnamese belongs to the Austroasiatic language family. It is written with the Latin script.
What is the language code for Vietnamese?
The BCP 47 language code for Vietnamese is "vi". This code is used in software, web standards (the HTML lang attribute), and internationalization contexts.

Language Facts

BCP 47 Code
vi
ISO 639-3
vie
Status
living
Speakers
85M speakers
Language Family
Austroasiatic
Scripts
1
Primary Script
Latin

Other Latin Languages

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Data sourced from Unicode CLDR and ISO 639-3. Last updated April 20, 2026.