Vietnamese belongs to the Austroasiatic language family, and is spoken by more than 80 Million people worldwide, most residing in Vietnam.
Vietnamese has been the official language of Vietnam since it became a sovereign country in 1954, little more than half a century. Vietnamese uses the Latin script, with some added diacritics for certain tones. However, there also used to be a traditional form of Vietnamese that used a modified version of Chinese. Initially, Vietnamese was basically written Chinese, but over time, a Vietnamese style evolved. Still, a large part of Vietnamese vocabulary borrows from the Chinese language. Catholic missionaries introduced Latin script in the 17th century, and both scripts were used until the 20th century. However, the modified Chinese script was still the norm at that time, both in literature and for administrative purposes. Not until the end of French colonization was today's Vietnamese (Latin script) declared the official language, now the only form used at schools and universities.
