Originally posted by: JinLien
Most common Vietnamese surnames are borrowed from the Chinese.
Nyg is a common Chinese sound (also is a last name) that are in use in parts of Asia.
Nguyen is pronounce exactly the way it is spell as 99.99% of the Vietnamese words, however the South, parts of the North, and Central Vietnam bastardized it because they are too lazy to pronounce it correctly as it is intended.
Vietnamese are so lazy that they drop characters or part of a word so they can talk quicker such as, Cali for California, or pound as pow (it is too much work to pronounce the d at the end).
South Vietnamese pronounce tr as g, and v as d.
PS. Most educated Vietnamese do not speak with the speech impediment that plagues the common population.
It is just a dialetical difference. It isn't incorrect. Also we don't say tr as g we say it sort of like ch but different.
The north say tr and ch the same, while the south differentiate them. Same was x and s.
Also "uye" is a single syllable sound. Vietnamese is monosylabic language.
Also interesting fact. The word Viet Nam come from the chinese words Nan Yeu, Nan was changed to Nam and Yeu was Changed to Viet. It originally ment South Yeu.