three writing systems in vietnam

the history of the Vietnamese culture exerting important roles in the Vietnamese written culture: — ch% Hán was borrowed together with the Hán philology from China, — ch% Nôm was built

Three writing systems in the

Vietnamese philology

Prof Dr.Sci Nguy!n Quang H"ng

Hà N#i, Vi$t Nam

2:30 – 4:00 pm, April 17, 2008 Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

Harvard University

writing system before Vietnam had contacts with the Hán or the Sanskrit scripts.

the history of the Vietnamese culture exerting

important roles in the Vietnamese written culture:

— ch% Hán was borrowed together with the Hán

philology from China,

— ch% Nôm was built from the materials of, and

modeled after the Hán script,

— ch% Qu&c ng% was created from the latin alphabet and modeled after the European phonemic scripts.

CH' HÁN CH' HÁN ! CH' NÔM LATIN ALPHABET ! CH' QU(C NG'

Formation and development

! Contact of the Vietnamese Hán Vi!t and Hán texts

— First contact between Vietnamese and Hán.

— Vietnamese texts in Hán

! From ch" Hán to ch" Nôm.

— The formation of ch% Nôm for the Vietnamese language

— Parallel existence of ch% Hán and ch% Nôm.

! Ch" Qu#c ng" and its status.

— European missionaries with ch% Nôm and ch% Qu&c ng%.

— Ch% Qu&c ng% with the French colonial regime and the Nguy!n Dynasty

— Ch% qu&c ng% with the revolutionary movements of the early XXth Century.

Before the Xth Century

(covering the areas south of Ng* L+nh

down to the middle of Central Vietnam).

Nam Vi$t, created Giao Ch, Region, with 9 districts, 6 of which covered an area in

Qu-ng )ông-Qu-ng Tây, and 3 of which were in the today’s Vietnam (i.e Giao Ch, (north), C.u Chân (from Thanh Hóa to

Qu-ng Bình) and Nh/t Nam (from Qu-ng Tr0 to Qu-ng Nam).

After the Xth Century

and self-determination by Ngô Quy1n and built a )2i Vi$t culture through many

feudal dynasties thereafter.

for 1,000 years under Chinese domination, Vietnamese ethnic communities lived

together with other ethnic communities in southern China, and later with the Hán

migrating from the heartland China.

The Hán migration to Vietnam

! The Hán o3cials of all ranks and armies were sent by the Chinese authorities to govern Vietnam.

! Many Hán intellectuals who could not stay with the Chinese central government, found their way south to exert their

talents, like !"#L4u Hy, $% Trình Bính, and others.

! Many “ordinary” people migrated south to build their lives in the new land: some “exiled” by China as “criminals”, while other ordinary people who volunteered to migrate.

! The Hán people, with di5erent goals and di5erent means, contributed to the introduction of the Hán language and the Hán script to native people in Vietnam.

Literary texts in Vietnam before the Xth Century

! Ch% Hán came into Vietnam thanked to the activities of S+ Nhi6p &'#(136-226 AD) in his school in Luy Lâu (B7c Ninh) teaching Confucian books to the Vietnamese The ealiest Vietnamese Confucianists who passed the Chinese mandarin examination were Tr48ng Tr9ng () (Ist C AD), and L:

Ti6n *+ (IInd C AD), etc.

! Ch% Hán was used by Vietnamese in Giao Châu in

concurrence with the propagation of Buddhism (and

Taoism) The City of Luy Lâu during the V-VIth C had been the center of translation and printing of Buddhist sutras in Hán Typical figures included Thích )2o Cao ,-.#and Thích Pháp Minh ,/0, both lived in the Vth C who were well versed in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism They left behind a buddhist work named L$ ho%c lu&n 1234

Literary works in Hán…

Vietnamese learned the Hán script with the current Hán pronunciation, and wrote Hán texts according to the Chinese philology.

was a “foreign language” In essence, it

was not di5erent from Hán used in the

Chinese territories (or perhaps it had

traces of the Hán spoken in L+nh Nam).

Literary works in Hán after the Xth Century

founded the state following the Chinese model, using Confucianism as the foundation For that reason, ch% Hán and Hán literature were highly esteemed in

Vietnam.

considered Hán as the o3cial script of the state.

teachings, and gradually used to build a Vietnamese culture in Hán script in all aspects of social life: folk

culture, religions and beliefs, science and education, politics and administration, literature and arts.

From the Xth Century…

! At the beginning of the Xth C., the Vietnamese

read ch% Hán with the Hán-Vi!t pronunciation—anativized phonological system that was di5erentfrom the Chinese phonological system

! Thus, ch% Hán and Hán texts in Vietnam ceased

to be a “foreign language”, and had become

familiar to the Vietnamese language and the

Vietnamese people

From Hán to Nôm: formation

! The formation of ch! Nôm to represent Vietnamese language

be found in many Hán texts, where there were Hán ideograms or semi Hán

ideograms that represented Vietnamese

words, chiefly, personal or geographic

names, or local object names For

example, the texts of the 7 steles of the L: Dynasty (1010-1225).

Tombstone of Lady Lê

! The tombstone Ph'ng Thánh phu nhân Lê th( m)chí 56789:;< bears no author’s name, butits content reveals that it was erected not long

after the 11th year of Emperor Chính Long B-o

<ng (1174) of the L: Anh Tông’s reign

! The tombstone was found in the Diên Linh PhúcThánh Temple, near H48ng N#n Village, Tam

Thanh District, Phú Th9 Province

! (1) => );u =ình: ?@AB=>C (Nh>t t9a l2c trì

*+u *ình x?) ‘One located at *+u *ình’

! (2) DE C ng9: ?F@ADEC (Nh>t =i1n t9a l2c

c,a ngõ x?) ‘A ricefield is located at *+u ngõ’

Tháp Mi6u stele

! The stele Báo ân thi.n t/ bi k$ HIJKLM found

at Tháp Mi6u Temple, V+nh Yên Province, was

dated at the 6th year of the Emperor Tr0 Bình Long

<ng (1210) of the L: Cao Tông’s reign

! Ch% Nôm borrowed from Hán ideograms:

• N#)"ng: N [OPQ 01ng H2p, N#[RSQ 01ngNhe, N ! 01ng Chài

• T Th@ng: T U Th3ng Hàm, T VTh3ng Ch4y,

T W#Th3ng T4o, …

• X T.u (read d&u): X [YZ ] d&u B5i

• V Trãi (read ch4y): T V Th3ng Ch4y

Newly formed Nôm ideograms

• [YZQ B5i {radical ThAy+Bi}: [YZQF B5i

*i.n (B8i ricefield)

• ! Chài {radical M0ch+Tài}: N!!01ng Chài

• [RSQ Nhe {radical ThB+Nhi}: N[RSQ 01ngNhe

• ! O6n {b# M!+UyCn}: O6n [sweet rice cake]

! The presence of these Nôm ideograms in the steletexts at the end of the XIIth or the beginning of

the XIIIth C gives us the clearest evidence of theformative stage of ch% Nôm

Stele Báo ân thi.n t/ bi

k$ HIJKLM at Tháp

Mi6u Temple, B2ch Tr%

prefecture, Yên Lãng

District, V+nh Yên

Province, was dated in

the 12th lunar month

An earliest Nôm text

Ph&t thuy-t *4i báo ph' m7u ân tr8ng

kinh \]^H_`I)a [Sutra of the

Buddha’s teachings on pious duty to

their parents’ great sacrifice].

printed at the end of the XVIIth or the

beginning of the XVIIIth Century by Duke Tr0nh Quán.

Middle Vietnamese Cv-CVC

and CCVC syllable structures

! Many Nôm ideograms in the sutra have the oldeststructure of Vietnamese language compared to

those in the texts printed at the time

! There are 74 words written in 2 separate Hán

ideograms (Cv-CVC), and 63 words by two Hánideograms combined into one (CCVC) They

reflect the time when Vietnamese was not yet

strictly monosyllabic

! We may not have exact date for this sutra, but theNôm translation in Ph&t thuy-t cannot be done

later than the XIIth Century, when Vietnamese

began to lose these complex syllable structures

• !{b+w} [a-phB] !{b+x} [a-phê] > V< v (p.14a)

• !{b+y} [a+h"ng] > Ng8ng (p 46a)

• !{f+z} [ba+l$] > Tr=i (pp 16b, 20a, 34a,34b, 43b)

• "{{+i} [lâm+cá] > Tr9m (p 3a)

• !{|+)} [kh-+trùng] > Ch1ng (p 22a)

Hán Nôm philology

! Hán Nôm philology consists of all works using ch% Hán and ch% Nôm by the

Vietnamese people.

Three types of Hán Nôm texts from linguistics/grammatology

! Hán masterpieces (written solely in Hán), e.g 04iVi!t s, k$ toàn th> ^}~M•€ [A complete

history of )2i Vi$t] during the reign of Chính Hoà

of the Lê Dynasty; historical novel Hoàng Lê nh2tth#ng chí •9?‚< [Records on Unification of

Royal Lê] of the Ngô Family Literary Group at thejunction of Lê - Nguy!n Dynasties

! Nôm masterpieces (written solely in Nôm), e.g C>tr+n l4c *4o phú ƒ„…-† [Prose on Living on

Earth, Enjoying the Way] by King Tr;n Nhân Tông(Tr;n Khâm: 1258-1308); or 0o4n tr>=ng tân

thanh [The Tale of Ki1u] ‡ˆ‰Š by Nguy!n Du

Three types…

! Masterpieces with Hán and Nôm interpersed or inparallel, e.g Ch? nam ng8c âm gi6i ngh@a ‹Œ•Ž

•• [An explanation of the Manual of the

Hán-Nôm Sounds] (XVth C.), Tân biên Truy.n kA m4nl'c gi6i âm t&p chú ‰‘’“”•–—•Ž˜™#[NewEdition of Records of Oral Extraordinary Stories inNôm] (XVIIth C.), etc

Hán and Nôm

! Therefore, in order to read a Nôm text, one

cannot avoid learning Hán, and in order to read

Vietnamese Hán texts, one cannot avoid learningNôm Perhaps this is the reason people call the

ch% Hán and ch% Nôm, and the two “languages”

Hán and Vi$t as “Hán-Nôm” to distinguish the

ideographic script from the qu&c ng% (and French)

! In this interaction, the Vietnamese have created acultural treasure in Hán-Nôm worthy of being

revered in the written culture of all Vietnamese

Status of ch% Nôm

! Ch% Nôm was a national script used to write literary

masterpieces in Vietnam, esp in T’ang genre, and a series

of epics in the 6-8 syllable stanzas (e.g The Tale of Ki.u ) and 7-7-6-8 syllable stanzas (e.g The Song of A Soldier’s Wife ) It was also used together with ch% Hán in all aspects

of social, political and administrative life of the country.

! History does not fail to mention H" Qu: Ly š›œ

(1336-1407?), the first emperor who wanted to promote Nôm in

education and court records And later, Emperor Nguy!n

Hu$ •ž (1753-1792), who established Sùng Chính Institute

to translate Confucian books into Nôm, and who loved to

use Nôm in royal court process However, their terms were

so short that their policies were yet to fully implemented.

Accordingly, ch% Nôm never became the o3cial script of the

European missionaries

! At the highest development of Hán Nôm, at the

beginning of the XVIIth Century, the Catholic

missionaries began to arrive in Vietnam Most of

them were fluent in Hán (and Japanese) script It

was natural for them to rely on Hán and Nôm to

propagate the bible and stories of the saints.

! The clearest evidence lies in a series of books and manuscripts composed by an italian missionary

named Girolamo Maiorica (1591-1656), the most

typical among which was Các Thánh truy!n Ÿ6’ [Stories of the Saints] with more than 2,000 pages in Nôm prose, completed in the 4th year of Emperor

First use of latin qu&c ng%

missionaries Francisco de Pina, Gaspar do Amaral and António Barbosa were in

Vietnam, learning the language and the

culture of the Vietnamese.

using the latin alphabet to write

Vietnamese sounds, which was later called ch% Qu&c ng%.

First publications in qu&c ng%

! The first texts in qu&c ng% were printed by a French

missionary named Alexandre de Rhodes (1593-1660) in

1651 in Roma: Phép gi6ng tám ngày ; V9n ph4m Vi!t ng"

and TB *iCn Vi!t-B1-La ( Dictionarium Annamiticum,

Lusitanum et latinum ).

! One detail: A de Rhodes came to Vietnam with G Maiorica

on the same ship in 1624 Maiorica focused on writing

catholic books in Nôm, while A de Rhodes focused on

speaking Vietnamese fluently and on creating a European phonetic writing system for Vietnamese to preach directly to the population.

! Thus in the middle of the XVIIth Century, ch% Qu&c ng% was

The French colonial regime

and the Nguy!n Dynasty

limited the teaching of ch% Nho, and promoted the use

of ch% Qu&c ng% (together with French).

SàiGòn on 4/6/1878 states: “Whereas the use of

‘quocngu’ can only help to assimilate the population into our regime, and by the way, it is a good political measure to institute ‘quocngu’ to be used in o3cial

communications”, and therefore, it was decided “From the above-mentioned date [1-1-1882], no

appointment made, and no promotion allowed if the o3cials at the ward, district and prefecture level if

they cannot communicate in ‘quocngu’.”

Circular of the French governor

Saigon on 1/30/1882, ch% Nho was

nullified in Cochinchina to be replaced by the writing system for the Cochinchinese language by a latin script called ‘Quocngu’ and French.”

Agreement between the

French & the Nguy!n Dynasty

! The Patenôtre Agreement (6/6/1884) established the French protectorate over the central and northern Vietnam.

! On 12/21/1917 Governor Albert Sarraut promulgated a

General Regulation of the Indochinese Public Instruction

restricting the teaching of ch% Nho in French-Vietnamese schools.

! On 7/14/1919, the Hu6 Royal Court promulgated a Royal Decree to merge the traditional Confucian learning into the French-Indigenous educational system, consistent with the Regulation by Governor Albert Sarraut.

! Thus, the H48ng examination in the north occurred in Nam )0nh in 1915, and the H#i examination in Hu6 in 1918 were the last Confucian examinations in Vietnam.

The demise of Hán Nôm?

! From then on, ch% Hán did not enjoy a dominantstate status, and was replaced by ch% Qu&c ng%and French Nevertheless, Hán literature was notabsent from the French-Vietnamese protectorateschools and the learning of ch% Hán (and ch%

Nôm) continued to occur in private homes, esp infamilies with a Confucian tradition

! Many intellectuals at that time were not only wellversed in Qu&c ng% and French, but also well

imbued with a Hán Nôm cultural foundation fromthe family and national tradition

Qu&c ng% and patriotic

ng% in the enlightenment of the population,

calling on every one to learn ch% Qu&c ng%,

because “Ch" Qu#c ng" is the soul of the

country

Truy1n bá qu&c ng% & Bình

dân h9c vE

Revolution in 1945, there were a series of campaigns, such as “Eradication of

illiteracy” (i.e in ch% Qu&c ng%),

“Eradication of Hunger” and “Eradication of Foreign Aggressors” called by President H" Chí Minh The patriotic intellectuals joined

to “spread literacy in qu&c ng%” [ truy.n bá qu#c ng" ] among the poor and working

population.

The rise of qu&c ng%

! Thus, not only the French colonialists, but alsothe patriotic intellectuals and a large section ofthe population in Vietnam realized the

convenience of ch% Qu&c ng% for their use andtheir works

! In other words, ch% Qu&c ng% has won its o3cialstatus as the national writing system of Vietnamsince the beginning of the XXth Century, not

because of the power of any governmental

decision or regulation, but because of the

natural/objective selection of the contemporaryhistorical process in Vietnam

Characteristics of the 3 scripts

! Ideographic and phonographic representation

! Both Hán and Nôm are syllabo-morphemic writingsystems: each ideogram is written in a square

representing sound and/or meaning of a morphemic unit for two monosyllabic languages:Hán and Vietnamese

syllabo-! The phonetic expressiveness of Nôm is far betterthan that of ch% Hán On the other hand, the

semantic expressiveness of ch% Nôm is less

compared to that of ch% Hán Both of these Nômabilities are built on the graph, meaning and

sound (Hán Vi$t) elements of ch% Hán

Characteristics of qu&c ng%

! Ch% Qu&c ng% is a phonemic script composed oflatin letters (characters) of the alphabet in a left-to-right directed path The sound is arranged

phonemically by the letters modelling the

European writing systems, but with its own

composition patterns

! Ch% Qu&c ng% does not have an ability to

represent meaning (similar to the European

scripts) However, in some cases the spelling candi5erentiate meanings of homophones, e.g

da gia, d" vs gi",