# Vietnamese: ngh



## shoddy

Hello
How is "ngh" pronounced in the Vietnamese language? 
For example, in _Vinh Nghiem Pagoda_.
Is it correct to pronounce "_Nghiem" _as /Negh.hiem/?


----------



## fdb

ngh is a graphic variant of ng before the vowel i. They are both pronounced like "ng" in English "sing".


----------



## Radioh

I think it's a bit different from the [ŋ] sound. They do sound similar but the back part of my tongue does not touch my soft palate when I pronounce the Ngh sound.


----------



## fdb

That is an interesting observation. There are no minimal pairs for “ng” versus “ngh”; they stand for the same phoneme. This phoneme [ŋ] is written “ngh” before the front vowels i, e and ê. In those positions the [ŋ] is slightly palatalised by the following front vowel. Does that sound right to you?


----------



## Radioh

I'm not sure. I'm no linguist. My tongue may touch the roof of my mouth when I speak normally but I'm sure it does not when I try to make a ng sound. However, this Wiki article suggests otherwise; the tongue should touch the roof of the mouth:
https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Vietnamese/Ng


----------



## anhnguyen

As for me, I pronounce ng and ngh the same ~ (I'm southern Vietnamese, by the way. I'm not sure how the nothern Vietnamese pronounce it.)


----------



## Emily Tran

Vietnamese pronounce ng and ngh the same, no difference, just different spelling


----------



## francallahan

It is absolutely the same thing. Both of them are pronounced as [ŋ] but the point here is that there are two case to write it.

When "ng" is before an e, ê or i, it's written as "ngh".

For example:
"nghe" - to hear. Not "nge"
"nghĩ" - to think. Not "ngĩ"

But: it remains as "ng" when it's written before an a â ă, o ô ơ or u ư
"ngã" - to fall
"ngõ" - an alley

Sorry for my bad english though. Hope it helped you. Good luck learning Vietnamese! I'm really glad when there is a foreigner learning Vietnamese.


----------

