Local announcer: Should or shouldn't?

Recently, Vietnam Television has brought on board a number of new announcers with regional accents (Southern, Central…), perhaps with the hope of enriching the “voice” in their broadcasts. However, this has received mixed reactions from the audience. So how should we look at this?

Announcer speaking with Hue accent in VTV's 12 o'clock News on August 6, 2014.

Most recently (August 6, 2014), audiences across the country were introduced to a female editor with a Hue accent in VTV’s noon news program. Immediately, this received strong reactions from the online community, dividing into two opposing directions.

Many people support this new change in VTV's direction and believe that the national television station should expand.

The agreeing opinions said that “this editor’s voice is easy to listen to and emotional because of her clear pronunciation and speaking speed, worthy of leading the news”; “I really like listening to the Hue accent, soft and cute. I don’t know about everyone else, but I personally think that choosing an editor with a Central accent to lead the news is also meaningful. There are already editors from the North and the South, now adding another one from the Central region makes it meaningful for all people, regardless of region”; etc.

However, there are many opposing opinions and they are somewhat harsh.

“I can’t understand this editor’s voice. Her voice is very heavy, it’s tiring to listen to”; “The Central Television station should not be localized because there are already local stations that speak with local accents. For Vietnam Television, we need announcers who speak with standard, easy-to-listen accents. I can’t understand anything when I listen to the announcer who speaks Hue accent in the noon news program”; “The editor must speak with a standard, popular accent, but who can listen to the local accent? We are speaking for thousands, millions of listeners, not just a few. If there are local words that listeners are not from the same hometown as the editor, it will lead to confusion and misunderstanding of the information”; “Why does this editor speak like that and still have people praising her for her standard pronunciation? The question mark covers all the heavy accents, the tilde mark covers all the sharp accents. So where is the standard?”; etc.

The above public reaction, in my opinion, is normal and necessary. It shows that people are very interested in the role of Vietnamese in the mass media.

Following and listening to these debates, I would like to contribute my opinion completely as a personal person, not as a "representative" voice for linguists (because in reality this issue requires careful research, even based on legal documents).

Vietnamese is the language of the Vietnamese people and is currently the official language of a country (Vietnam) with about 90 million people.

Like many other languages, Vietnamese is also divided into many different dialect regions (which linguists agree on dividing into 3 main regions: Northern dialect, Central dialect, Southern dialect). Of course, there are also many different sub-regions.

Dialect distinction is based on many criteria, but the difference in phonetics is considered the biggest and most obvious distinction. Among the dialect variations, it must be admitted that Hanoi dialect (representing the Northern dialect) has the most advantages.

Hanoi dialect accurately reflects the segmental phoneme system (represented by letters such as a, n, ô, ...), only does not distinguish 3 tongue-twisting sounds (r, s, tr, for example: ra/gia; song/xong; trau/chau) and fully preserves the 6 tone system "no tone, flat, sharp, question, fall, heavy" (that is, when speaking, each tone is clear). The vocabulary system of Hanoi people is also complete and closer to the national language. Simply because it is a big city, and the capital, the diverse population, the clear exchange and integration have helped Hanoi language retain positive factors and eliminate factors that easily hinder communication.

But the language of each region has its own standard, such as the local languages ​​(in Vinh, Hue, Saigon) have all the characteristics of different geographical regions and it cannot be said that any region is more important than another (Vinh, Da Nang, Hue, Saigon... are all big cities with languages ​​representing an entire region). Currently, there is no document or law that requires Hanoi language to be considered the national standard (which State agencies and media agencies must follow). The only thing is that State media agencies in Hanoi often use Hanoi language as the standard and because Hanoi language converges many other dialectal elements, there is an "implicit" convention that Hanoi language is the standard language, which leads to the above-mentioned reactions.

Linguistics accepts (and encourages) unity in diversity. I think it is normal for VTV to introduce and broadcast announcers with different accents. There are already editors with Southern accents, now adding editors with Hue accents (or Nghe An, Da Nang…) will enrich the Vietnamese language picture. Listeners have the opportunity to be exposed to a new accent, which may be somewhat difficult to accept at first, but will eventually get used to.

It must also be said that the “strong reaction” was mainly from the Northern audience, but for millions and millions of people in the Central and Southern regions, this was not only not strange but on the contrary, very interesting and very proud. Moreover, the unity and standardization in writing is what is important.

These announcers will use a (pre-prepared) text that is universal, meaning there won’t be many local words that are rarely used or difficult to understand. As for their heavy pronunciation, pronunciation without tone (Ha Tinh becomes Ha Tinh), pronunciation with syllables (Sai ​​Gon becomes Sa Goong, Viet Nam becomes Giec Nam, lan ram becomes lang mang…), these are unique features that need to be respected. It is these differences that create the interesting “specialties” of regional dialects that we should preserve and conserve. There can’t be a language where millions of people speak the same thing.

Of course, the speech of the capital Hanoi is still being oriented by the whole population (according to the centripetal law). In the trend of development and integration, regional boundaries in dialects are being blurred, sometimes completely lost. That is a pity. We should know how to appreciate and preserve dialects if we have the opportunity. Therefore, the fact that VTV announcers speak with a different accent from Hanoi is, in my opinion, encouraging.

(Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Van Tinh - Vietnam Institute of Lexicography and Encyclopedia)

According to chinhphu.vn