That situation can be seen obviously in many countries included Vietnam. After persistent and resilient wars to achieve freedom and independence for the whole nation, Vietnam carried out an economic reform policy known as “doimoi” in the year of 1986 ...
2.3. Review of Sino-Vietnamese words
2.3.1. Definition
Many definitions were given by different linguistic researchers.
In 1972, Bui Duc Tinh showed a simple definition of Sino-Vietnamese in his work named Vietnamese Grammar (Simple and Practice): “It can be simply defined that Sino-Vietnamese words are Chinese-rooted words which are pronounced in accordance with Vietname
In 1998, Nguyen Nhu Y stated in the Dictionary of linguistic terms explanation: “Vietnamese words which have Chinese origin, enter Vietnamese vocabulary system and are subjected to rules of Vietnamese pronunciation, grammar and semantics, are called Sino
Starting from the historical perspective, the treatise Chinese-rooted words in Vietnamese language by Le Dinh Khan, consistent with the view of Nguyen Nhu Y, stated that: “Sino-Vietnamese words are Chinese words that Vietnamese language borrowd from Tan
Those definitions have both similarities and differences. To sum up, during more than four thousand years of constructing and protecting the nation, Vietnam had even experienced over one thousand years under the control of ancient Chinese feudalism. T...
2.3.2. Characteristics
- Being Vietnamized:
+ Pronunciation:
As we know, from the beginning until the current period, Chinese phonetics has undergone many changes, which influences Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation. In order to have an obvious view on Sino-Vietnamese phonetics, Nguyen Ngoc San distributed in Theori...
Old pronunciation: Chinese pronunciation from Tien Tran (先秦) period, Luong Han (两汉) period to periods around Nguy Tan (魏晋) period.
Medieval pronunciation: Chinese pronunciation from Tang (唐) dynasty to the Middle Ages(中原音韻).
Modern pronunciation: Chinese pronunciation from Ming (明) dynasty to the time of Beijing (北京) pronunciation.
Vietnamese feudal dynasties used to choose ancient Chinese words as the national official language. Although Chinese words were modified in each Chinese dynasty, they were still pronounced according to Tang phonology by Vietnamese. Nowadays, this pron...
+ Structure:
Reverse position:
Reverse elements:
Shorten: thừa trần turns into trần (in ceiling – trần nhà), lạc hoa sinh turns into lạc (in peanut - củ lạc or đậu phộng), etc.
+ Meaning:
In conclusion, after a rather long period of variation, Sino-Vietnamese words have been modified to combine pronunciations of both Chinese and Vietnamese phonology and to gradually be more natural in Vietnamese.
- Being formal:
As a result of over a thousand years of Chinese domination from Han Dynasty, and a further thousand years of strong Chinese influence, a lot of Chinese vocabulary was adopted into Vietnamese. Literary Chinese was used in administration, and thus terms...
2.3.3. Classification
- Time-based
The long history of contact between Chinese and Vietnamese is remarked by two important periods of early Tang Dynasty (8th century) and late Tang Dynasty (8th – 10th century). Mai et al (1997) divided Chinese-derived words into two sub-groups accordin...
Besides, there is a part of Sino-Vietnamese words which do not have Chinese roots but are borrowed from other countries by Chinese people. For example:
Words of Japanese origin: trường hợp (場合) - case, nghĩa vụ (義務) - obligation, kinh tế (經濟) - economics, thủ tục (手續) - procedures, biện chứng (辨證) - dialectics, xã hội (社會) - society, phát triển(發展) - development, nghiên cứu (研究) – research, nông nghiệp
Words of Sanskrit origin: Phật đà (佛佗), Niết bàn ( 涅槃), Di Lặc(彌勒), Thích Ca Mâu Ni (釋迦牟尼), etc.
Words of European origin: Câu lạc bộ (俱樂部), Anh Cát Lợi (英吉利), Mạc Tư Khoa (莫斯科), Nã Phá Luân (拿破侖), Gia Nã Đại (加拿大), etc.
In general, the important milestone to classify Sino-Vietnamese on the basis of time is Tangdynasty.
- Form-based
According to Literature textbook - Grade 7, Ministry of Education and Training (2004), Sino-Vietnamese words are formed by Sino-Vietnamese elements. This is also the base to classify Sino-Vietnamese words into two main kinds of single words and compou...
They can be listed in the following table:
Table 1: Form-based classification of Sino-Vietnamese words
2.4. Review of the year 1992 in Vietnam
1992 is a special landmark in Vietnamese history in which Vietnam enacted an amended Constitution known as 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Since 1986 Vietnamese people have carried out a process of all-round reform and renewal ...
1992 is also the first year when Vietnam gained the trade balance, which has great meaning to international economics of Vietnam.
It can be said that the year 1992 is an important transition point in diplomatic relationships of Vietnam to foreign countries. Vietnam – China border war in 1979 and the announcement of "normalization of relations'' with Vietnam made by the US Presid...
Therefore, this milestone has created great influences on international economics of Vietnam and has showed the close relation between the Constitution and the country’s external economics.
As mentioned, the long history of contact between Chinese and Vietnamese is remarked by two important periods of early Tang Dynasty (from 1st century B.C to 8th century A.D) and late Tang Dynasty (from 8th – 10th century A.D to present). Mai et al (19...
- Pre 1992
According to statistics from observing samples, there are 74 English international economics terms. Among them, 48 terms are old Sino-Vietnamese words, which accounts for 64.86% of English international economics terms translated by Sino-Vietnamese wo...
- Post 1992
Together with changes of time, the proportion of types of Sino-Vietnamese words used for translating English international economics terms also has certain variations. There is a significant increase in the number of Sino-Vietnamese words used to tran...
The analysis above can be indicated clearly in the diagram about the summary of the proportion of types of Sino-Vietnamese words used for translating English international economics terms.
Figure 1: The proportion of time-based types of Sino-Vietnamese words used for translating English international economics terms.
It is clear from the chart that the proportion of old Sino-Vietnamese words and standard Sino-Vietnamese words vary in opposite directions. This implies that old Sino-Vietnamese words create certain difficulties in understanding and pronouncing which ...