History of writing in Vietnam
Spoken and written Vietnamese today uses the Latin script-based Vietnamese alphabet to represent native Vietnamese words (thuần Việt), Vietnamese words which are of Chinese origin (Hán-Việt, or Sino-Vietnamese), and other foreign loanwords. Historically, Vietnamese literature was written by scholars using a combination of Chinese characters (Hán) and original Vietnamese characters (Nôm). From 111 BC up to the 20th century, Vietnamese literature was written in Văn ngôn (Classical Chinese) using chữ Hán (Chinese characters), and then also Nôm (Chinese and original Vietnamese characters adapted for vernacular Vietnamese) from the 13th century to 20th century.[1][2]
Chữ Hán were introduced to Vietnam during the thousand year period of Chinese rule from 111 BC to 939 AD. Texts in Vietnam were written using chữ Hán by the 10th century at the latest. Chữ Hán continued to be used as the official administrative script until the 19th century with the exception of two brief periods under the Hồ (1400–1407) and Tây Sơn (1778–1802) dynasties when chữ Nôm was promoted.[3][4] Chữ Nôm is a blend of chữ Hán and unique Vietnamese characters to write the Vietnamese language. It may have been used as early as the 8th century but concrete textual evidence dates to the 13th century. Chữ Nôm never supplanted chữ Hán as the primary writing system and less than five percent of the Vietnamese population used it, primarily as a learning aid for chữ Hán and writing folk literature. Due to its unofficial nature, chữ Nôm was used as a medium for social protest, leading to several bans during the Lê dynasty (1428–1789). In spite of this, a sizable body of literature in chữ Nôm had accumulated by the 19th century, and these texts could be orally disseminated by individuals in villages.[5][6][7][8]
The two concurrent scripts existed until the era of French Indochina when chữ Quốc ngữ, the Latin alphabet, gradually became the current written medium of literature.[9] In the past, Sanskrit and Indic texts also contributed to Vietnamese literature either from religious ideas from Mahayana Buddhism, or from historical influence of Champa and Khmer.
In Vietnamese, Chinese characters go by several names, but all refer to the same script:
The Vietnamese word chữ 𡨸 (character, script, writing, letter) is derived from a Middle Chinese pronunciation of 字 (Modern Mandarin Chinese in Pinyin: zì), meaning 'character'.[15]
Từ Hán Việt (詞漢越, "Sino-Vietnamese words") refers to cognates or terms borrowed from Chinese into the Vietnamese language, usually preserving the phonology of the original Chinese that was introduced to Vietnamese. As for syntax and vocabulary this Sino-Vietnamese language was no more different from the Chinese of Beijing than medieval English Latin was different from the Latin of Rome. Its major influence comes from Vietnamese Literary Chinese (Chữ Hán).[16]
The term chữ Nôm (𡨸喃, "Southern characters") refers to the former transcription system for vernacular Vietnamese-language texts, written using a mixture of original Chinese characters and locally coined Nôm characters not found in Chinese to phonetically represent local Vietnamese words, meanings and their sound.[17][18] However, the character set for chữ Nôm is extensive, containing up to 37,000 characters, and many are both arbitrary in composition and inconsistent in pronunciation.[19][20]
Hán Nôm (漢喃, "Hán and chữ Nôm characters") may mean both Hán and Nôm taken together as in the research remit of Hanoi's Hán-Nôm Institute, or refer to texts which are written in a mixture of Hán and Nôm, or some Hán texts with parallel Nôm translations.[21] There is a significant orthographic overlap between Hán and Nôm and many characters are used in both Hán and Nôm with the same reading.[22] It may be simplest to think of Nôm as the Vietnamese extension of Han characters.
The term chữ quốc ngữ (𡨸國語, "national language script") means Vietnamese written in the Latin alphabet.
History[edit]
General history[edit]
Chữ Hán (Chinese characters), also known as chữ nho (Confucian script), were introduced to Vietnam during the thousand year period of Chinese rule from 111 BC to 939 AD. Although the earliest extant texts written in chữ Hán appeared in Vietnam by the 10th century, chữ Hán was the only known writing system in Vietnam at the time, and had likely been used in prior times. Chữ Hán continued to be used in Vietnam after the end of Chinese rule in the 10th century and was instated as the official court script in 1010 and 1174. The Confucian examination system in Vietnam was written in chữ Hán. It remained the official writing system of Vietnam until the 19th century with the exception of two brief periods under the Hồ (1400–1407) and Tây Sơn (1778–1802) dynasties when chữ Nôm gained ascendance.[3][4]
Chữ Nôm is the adaptation of chữ Hán and creation of unique Vietnamese characters to transcribe the Vietnamese language based on approximations of Middle Chinese pronunciations. It is speculated that chữ Nôm appeared as early as the 8th century using chữ Hán to record elements of the Vietnamese language, however the earliest extant textual evidence of chữ Nôm dates to the 13th century. Chữ Nôm includes thousands of characters unique to Vietnamese not found in Chinese. Due to social circumstances and linguistic inefficiencies, chữ Nôm never replaced chữ Hán as the primary writing system in Vietnam and was only promoted during the short-lived Hồ (1400–1407) and Tây Sơn (1778–1802) dynasties. Less than five percent of the Vietnamese population used chữ Nôm and only did so as a learning aid for chữ Hán or writing folk literature. As a result of its marginalized nature and lack of institutional backing, chữ Nôm was used as a medium for social protest during the Lê dynasty (1428–1789), leading to its ban in 1663, 1718, and 1760. Gia Long, founder of the Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945), supported chữ Nôm until he became emperor and immediately reverted to chữ Hán. Despite its limited usage, a sizable body of literature in chữ Nôm had accumulated by the 19th century, and served as a written medium for oral dissemination by individuals in villages.[5][6][7][23]
The two concurrent scripts existed until the era of French Indochina when chữ Quốc ngữ, the Latin alphabet, gradually became the current written medium of literature.[24] In the past, Sanskrit and Indic texts also contributed to Vietnamese literature either from religious ideas from Mahayana Buddhism, or from historical influence of Champa and Khmer.
Pre-writing[edit]
During ancient times, the ancestors of the Vietnamese were considered to have been Proto-Austroasiatic (also called Proto-Mon–Khmer) speaking people, possibly traced to the ancient Dong Son culture. Modern linguists describe Vietnamese as having lost some Proto-Austroasiatic phonological and morphological features that the original Vietnamese language had. This was noted in the linguistic separation of Vietnamese from Vietnamese-Muong roughly one thousand years ago.[25][2][26]
Related romanisations: