<P> Because the accents of Central Vietnam (culturally centered at the ancient capital of Huế), to the unaccustomed ear, reduce the number of tones to 5 (for Quảng Trị and Huế accents) or only 4 (for Hà Tĩnh, Nghệ An and Quảng Bình accents), Central Vietnamese speech can be relatively difficult to understand for Vietnamese speakers from the Northern and Southern regions . The most difficult are from the provinces of Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh . </P> <P> While these differences may seem superficial to non-Vietnamese speakers, even the difference in sound between Northern and Southern Vietnamese is quite striking . </P> <P> The vocabularies of the different regions also differ, as certain words mean different things in different regions . For example, the word mận refers to two different fruits: it is used for Prunus salicina (a type of plum) in the North, while in the South it refers to Syzygium samarangense (the rose apple). Kinship terms are especially affected, as each term has a subtly different meaning in each region . In the South, the eldest child in a family is referred by the ordinal number 2, while in the North the number 2 refers to the second - eldest child . </P> <P> While the entire country lies in the tropics, there is quite a large difference in climate between Northern and Southern Vietnam . </P>

Why was vietnam split into north and south