Question

What would Vietnam be like if China and France had never conquered the land (e.g., culture, language)?

Answer 1

Good question you should go and dig in to the history of our country more and analyze the pro and coin of each event, I give you a hint the French did give you the Alphabetical representation of our language but actually it was the gift from god, because god required the Catholic priest to have PHD in Divinity and written and spoken seven languages so they become experts in Linguistics, this is the talent god given them to eliminate illiteracy around the world to pay off a portion of their government imposed on the poverty population of the world

Don’t forget in any event there are many angels of the consequences looking at all and using your thinking and experience and your teacher and family the people with good knowledge and experience to analyze all angles for the future of their children and their country not for their own political ambition

Answer 2

It could’ve gone two different ways: Indianization/Sinicization! Without Chinese occupation, Vietnamese might have been influenced by the southern Indianized kingdoms became Indianized itself, & Champa wouldn’t have been wiped out! At later periods, it might’ve been Islamized by Maritime Southeast Asia just like Champa, or it could’ve stayed Indianized like other Mainland Southeast Asia, sharing cultural heritage with Thailand, Laos, & Cambodia! Language-wise, majority of loanwords would have been from Indic languages, & their script would’ve long been the phonetic abugida script, sharing similarities & origin with Thai, Lao, & Cambodian languages!

However, it could’ve also been Sinicized either way! Several Đông Sơn drums created before Chinese occupation at northern Vietnam were found with Chinese characters on them! This could’ve meant that Vietnam, whether it was conquered/not, were on the verge of willing Sinicization like Korea & Japan! Therefore, it might’ve just ended up like today, but has less similarities with China! Language-wise majority of loanwords would still be from Sinitic languages, just not as many as now! Without French colonization, Vietnam would’ve still retained its Sinitic writing system, & at the dawn of Westernization that favored widespread literacy, would’ve standardized chữ Nôm completely, allowing mass education!

Answer 3

The southern part of Vietnam only became part of the country for the last 300 years, so it would be highly possible that the Champa kingdom (modern central Vietnam) would stay as is, and the Prey Nokor region (modern south Vietnam) would stay with Cambodia. The country of Vietnam wouldn’t be named as such either because it is a sinicized name itself.

There is a theory that the natives of the land (North of modern Vietnam) branched out from the first Chinese domination around 2000 years ago into “Kinh” and “Mường". As a result, the natives that were sinicized, or hybrid Chinese - Mường are known today as “Kinh”, while the “Mường" term itself is what Kinh use to refer to the branch that managed to keep themselves together, and from any foreign influence. Nowadays, Kinh is the majority of the Vietnamese population (84%+) and the term is sometimes misused as the definition of “Vietnamese”, and Mường is recognized by the Vietnamese/Kinh as an ethnic minority group.

So maybe “the Vietnamese” in that parallel world would be like them.

Read more about them from:

https://muong.vn/en

Answer 4

We would not have the current map. We would not have many delicious food. We still have tradition characters and less foreign languages and still have popular brass drum festivals like seeing on the face of Dong Son drums.

https://www.granger.com/results.asp?search=1&screenwidth=412&tnresize=200&pixperpage=40&searchtxtkeys=dong%20son&lstorients=132

The map of current Vietnam is considered as the ying yang symbol of the world

Ying Yang VN of the world map

Answer 5

It could’ve gone two different ways: Indianization (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia) or Sinicization (Japan, Korea).

Without Chinese occupation, Vietnamese might have been influenced by the southern Indianized kingdoms became Indianized itself, and Champa wouldn’t have been wiped out. In later periods, it might’ve been Islamized by Maritime Southeast Asia just like Champa, or it could’ve stayed Indianized like other Mainland Southeast Asia, sharing cultural heritage with Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Language-wise, majority of loanwords would have been from Indic languages, and their script would’ve long been the phonetic abugida script, sharing similarities and origin with Thai, Lao, and Cambodian languages.

However, it could’ve also been Sinicized either way. Several Đông Sơn drums created before Chinese occupation in northern Vietnam were found with Chinese characters on them. This could’ve meant that Vietnam, whether it was conquered or not, was on the verge of willing Sinicization like Korea and Japan. Therefore, it might’ve just ended up like today, but has less similarities with China (since it wasn’t occupied, the influence wouldn’t have been huge, and Vietnam would’ve retained a lot more of its original culture, such as tattoos and hair-cutting). Language-wise majority of loanwords would still be from Sinitic languages, just not as much as now. Without French colonialization, Vietnam would’ve still retained its Sinitic writing system, and at the dawn of Westernization that favored widespread literacy, would’ve standardized chữ Nôm completely, allowing mass education.