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Vietnam Language
The
Vietnamese language belongs to a
language group which was established
a long time ago in East Asia.
Changes in material conditions over
many centuries and the increasing
demands of cultural life have
influenced the Vietnamese language.
While adopting many elements of the
Chinese language, the Vietnamese
people changed many Chinese words,
gradually creating Han-Viet
(Chinese-Vietnamese) which
incorporated purely Vietnamese
words. "Vietnamization" not only
applied to the Chinese language, but
also to French and other language
groups, creating a diverse
vocabulary for the Vietnamese
language.
Written
When the multi-ethnic Vietnamese
nation was taking shape, a great
monarchy was established in the
North, and it began a southward
expansion. The Vietnamese nation
underwent thousands of years of
Northern domination. This was why
Chinese was used for a long time as
the official written language. Local
mandarins of various levels were
allowed to sit for examinations in
the Northern Court (China), and were
recruited into the administrative
machinery of foreign invaders.
Based on Chinese characters, the
Vietnamese worked out a unique
writing system of their own called
Chu Nom. In Chu Nom, two Chinese
characters were usually combined,
one of which indicated the meaning
of the Vietnamese word, while the
other indicated pronunciation. Chu
Nom was welcomed and widely used by
the masses in their daily life, as
well as in transcribing their
national history and literature.
According to researchers, Chu Nom
probably originated around the end
of the Northern domination period
and early in the 10th century (the
independence period). The oldest
evidence of Chu Nom currently
available is a stele in the Bao An
Pagoda in Yen Lang, Vinh Phu
province, dating back to 1209 AD (Ly
Dynasty). It was not until the 13th
century under the Tarn dynasty that
Chu Nom was systematized and used in
literature.
Nguyen Thuyen (alias Han Thuyen) and
Nguyen Si Co wrote poems in Chu Nom.
Ho Quy Ly (1400 AD) made Chinese
textbooks which translated the
Vietnamese language using the Chu
Nom writing system. He also used Chu
Nom to write royal proclamations and
ordinances. In the 15th century,
Nguyen Trai, a national hero, used
Chu Nom to write 250 poems in Quoc
Am Thi Tap (Collection of Poems in
the National Language). The Chu Nom
literature continued to be developed
from the 16th century onwards and
totally dominated national literary
circles. Ba Huyen Thanh Quan (the
wife of the Chief of Thanh Quan
district), Cao Ba Quat and Kieu
Story of Nguyen Du, and the
translation of Chinh Phu Ngam
(Lament of a Wife Whose Husband has
Gone to War) by Doan Thi Diem were
quite noteworthy poems.
In conjunction with the development
of the nation, the Vietnamese
language was constantly developed
and improved. Around the 17th
century, western missionaries came
to Vietnam and learned Vietnamese in
order to disseminate Catholicism.
They developed a romanced script to
represent the Quoc Ngu (meaning
national language) in order to
translate prayer books and
catechisms. A number of Portuguese
and Italian missionaries used Quoc
Ngu to compile catechisms and
Portuguese-Vietnamese and
Vietnamese-Portuguese dictionaries.
Based on these works, Alexandre de
Rhodes, a French Jesuit missionary,
published the Vietnamese
Portuguese-Latin dictionary which
was a fundamental catechism in Rome
from 1649-1651. After Alexandre de
Rhodes, Quoc Ngu was further
improved by foreign missionaries and
Vietnamese scholars.
In 1867, some colonial schools began
to teach Quoc Ngu. It was not until
early in the 20th century that Quoc
Ngu became widely used in the local
primary educational system. The
introduction of Quoc Ngu constituted
a new step in the development of the
Vietnamese language. While
romanization received a reserved
welcome in other Asian countries, it
recorded extraordinary success in
Vietnam, creating favorable
conditions for cultural and
intellectual development. |
