The study of minority languages can provide linguists with extremely valuable materials for understanding and developing linguistic theories and research methods, exploring the history and developmental rules of the Vietnamese language and the languages of other ethnic groups, and contributing to solving linguistic issues arising from real-life needs. The study of the languages of Vietnam's ethnic nationalities by the Vietnam Institute of Linguistics has always followed these objectives, resulting in numerous fundamental and applied research projects, as well as many linguistic studies. The essay collection "Exploring the Languages of Vietnam's Ethnic Nationalities", published in 2009, is part of these research outcomes. The book consists of articles primarily derived from institute-level research conducted between 2000 and 2009, overseen by the Department of Minority Language Studies at the Vietnam Institute of Linguistics. The essays focus on the following topics:(1) Phonetics – Dialects – Writing Systems; (2) Historical-Comparative Studies; (3) Grammar; (4) Language and Society.

This book introduces traditional handicrafts (also known as ancient crafts) in Vietnam. These crafts tell us stories from the past that have been passed down to the present day.

This book examines the languages of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic nationalities within the context of its multi-ethnic and multilingual landscape. It is structured into two main sections: The first section analyzes the linguistic characteristics of Vietnam’s ethnic nationalities, while the second provides an encyclopedic overview of their languages.

The Mạ people are a member of the great national family of Vietnam and have long inhabited the majestic Central Highlands. They possess a rich folk literature and arts heritage, distinctly reflecting their unique cultural identity. The collection and publication of Mạ folktales play a crucial role in allowing the Mạ people to express their voice while also helping other ethnic nationalities understand their character and spirit. This book by author Tạ Văn Thông is therefore of great significance in preserving the folk cultural traditions of the Mạ people in particular and Vietnam’s ethnic minorities in general.

Through the collection of Kơ Ho folktales, we can gain insight into the richness and diversity of successive cultural layers that have interacted, blended, and enriched one another throughout the long history of ethnic communities in Lâm Đồng and the Central Highlands. These cultural layers range from the swidden agriculture traditions of the highland regions to the wet rice cultivation culture and the coastal cultural influences. In addition to the indigenous cultural foundations created by the ancestors of these ethnic minority peoples, history has also witnessed the exchange and integration of new cultural elements introduced by the Chăm and Vietnamese people. The treasury of Kơ Ho folktales and their cultural heritage as a whole serve as a testament to this dynamic cultural evolution.

The primary task of this monograph is to summarize and evaluate previous research findings on various aspects of Kơ Ho phonetics, revisiting unresolved and inadequately addressed issues. However, the main objective of this book is to provide a comprehensive and in-depth description of the current state of Kơ Ho phonetics—something that no previous work has accomplished. This includes the characteristics of speech sounds, syllables, and the phonological unit that the author refers to as the “phonetic mold.” It also examines phonetic variations by comparing Kơ Ho dialects, the complex and diverse nature of natural phonetic features, and the identification of essential distinctive features that serve as markers of linguistic signs in the Kơ Ho language.

The Kháng people are a community residing in the Northwest region of Vietnam, primarily along both sides of the Đà River. Due to their small population and relatively scattered settlement, often interspersed with other ethnic nationalities, the Kháng language is used only within families and villages, mostly by older generations. Without formal instruction or the development of a written literary tradition, the Kháng mother tongue is at high risk of extinction. This book presents the results of a study on the phonetics of the Kháng language and proposes a writing system for the Kháng people in Vietnam.

This work focuses on “grammar” in a broad sense, offering a comprehensive description of the Hmong language from multiple perspectives. To provide readers with a more complete understanding of the Hmong language, the book goes beyond grammatical knowledge (covering words, phrases, and sentences) to include sections on the history of the Hmong people and their language, their linguistic origins, typological characteristics, phonetics and writing system, dialectal variations, and the origins of lexical layers in the Hmong language. The book also provides a relatively comprehensive bibliography of studies on the Hmong language conducted in Vietnam and globally up to recent times.

With his monograph “Phonetics of the Mường Language across Dialects”, Dr. Nguyễn Văn Tài was the first scholar to conduct a comprehensive survey and description of Mường phonetics across its dialects, from which he divided them into three regions: Northern (Sơn La, Hà Giang, Tuyên Quang, Lào Cai, Yên Bái), Central (Hòa Bình and its surrounding areas), and Southern (Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình). The 350-page work is accompanied by three appendices: a comparative study of Việt–Mường phonology, a lexical comparison of nearly 1,000 words across 30 sub-dialects, and 34 maps of dialectal phenomena. “Phonetics of the Mường Language across Dialects” is a work of both theoretical and practical significance, invaluable for research on the Mường language and the history of Vietnamese, and it rightfully deserves a place in the linguistic bookshelf.

In 1835, Qing scholar Cai Tinglan (蔡廷蘭, 1801–1859) was traveling from Fujian back to his home in the Penghu Islands when his vessel was caught in a violent typhoon. Blown far off course, the ship drifted at sea for more than a week before reaching the coast of central Vietnam. What began as an unexpected maritime disaster turned into a months-long journey through Vietnam during the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng. Cai recorded his experiences in 《海南雜著》 (Hainan zazhu, Vietnamese: Hải Nam Tạp Trứ), first published in 1837. From clothing, food, religious practices, and marketplaces to roads, geography, and the workings of government, the book offers a rare glimpse of Vietnamese life in the 1830s through the eyes of a Chinese scholar. Particularly fascinating is the role of writing as a means of crossing linguistic boundaries. Although Cai could not speak Vietnamese, he was able to communicate with Nguyễn officials in literary Chinese through written conversations known as “brush talks” (bút đàm). His literacy transformed him, in the eyes of Vietnamese officials, from a suspicious foreign castaway into a recognized scholar with whom they could exchange poetry and writings—and whom they would assist on his journey home. The work also reveals a Vietnam deeply connected to the maritime worlds of East and Southeast Asia, where networks of merchants, migrants from Fujian and Guangdong, officials, scholars, texts, and commodities regularly moved across what we now regard as national and political boundaries. Nearly two centuries later, Hải Nam Tạp Trứ received its first English translation as Miscellany of the South Seas: A Chinese Scholar’s Chronicle of Shipwreck and Travel through 1830s Vietnam, translated and introduced by Kathlene Baldanza and Zhao Lu and published by the University of Washington Press in 2023. Notably, the translation is based primarily on a handwritten copy now preserved at the Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies in Hanoi, under the shelf mark HVv.80. From a shipwreck in 1835, to a book published in 1837, to a text transmitted across multiple languages and now accessible online around the world, the journey of Hải Nam Tạp Trứ is nearly as remarkable as that of its author.