Vietnamese pronouns can act as substitutions for noun phrase. While true pronouns exist in Vietnamese, most are rarely used in polite speech. In most cases, kinship terminology is used when referring to oneself, the audience, or a third party. These terms might differ slightly in different regions. Many of them are derived from Chinese loanwords, but have acquired the additional grammatical function of being pronouns over the years.
Vietnamese terms of reference can reveal the social relationship between the speaker and the person being referred to, differences in age, and even the attitude of the speaker toward that person. Thus a speaker must carefully assess these factors to decide the appropriate term. It's not unusual for strangers to ask each other about age when they first meet, in order to establish the proper terms of address to use.
Read more about Vietnamese Pronouns: True Pronouns, Kinship Terms, Third-person Forms of Kinship Terms, Non-kinship Terms Used As Pronouns, Obsolete Pronouns, Pairs
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