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Science in Vietnam University in Vietnam |
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Vietnamese language
1. Speech: the
Language.
The origin of Vietnamese language is the
subject of debate among linguists.
But according to Professor Nguyễn Đình Hoà,
Faculty of Letters (Saigon University) the Vietnamese lexico has in common
with the Khmer, several nouns denoting parts of the human body, members of
the kingship system, species of local flora and fauna, farm tools as well as
some pronouns and some numerals.
On the other hand, Vietnamese has the same final consonants as Thai, and
like Thai, it makes use of pitch level. Although it is evident that
Vietnamese did not have its origin in Chinese, but the influence of Chinese
has always been strong in Vietnamese.
Thousands Chinese words and expressions have been incorporated into the
Vietnamese language, although the pronunciation has changed.
2.
The 6 tones and their phonetic symbols.
Vietnamese is a monosyllabic language having
- tones. A word can be repeated with any one of 6 tones to indicate
different meanings. The tones are represented by the following signs:
No marker, mid level: Ex. Ma (plantom,
ghost)
( ' ) high rising: Ex. Má (cheek)
( ' ) low-falling: Ex. Mà (but, which, who)
( ? ) falling-rising, constricted: Ex. Mả (tomb)
( ~) high-rising, broken: Ex. Mã (horse)
( . ) low-falling short, constricted: Ex. Mạ (young rice seeding)
There are several mutually intelligible
dialects in Vietnamese. We have a different, subjective distinction of tones
between northern, central and southern dialects, not including those of
high-landers.
Concerning the tones in the Vietnamese language, some authors suggested that
Vietnamese was originally and basically a polysyllabic language. And it was
later simplified by way of contraction due to the influence of the languages
of continental Asia, most particularly Chinese which is essentially
monosyllabic.
Thus some words which were polysyllabic in the 17th century have
now become monosyllable by way of contraction.
3. Systems of writing.
a/ Chữ Nho
Vietnamese was first written using the
Chinese writing system called Chữ Nho. Beginning
sometime around the 9th century, following the period of Chinese
domination, all government and official transactions, education,
correspondences and literature used the Chinese characters.
This chữ nho system was still used by scholars until a few decades
ago, and in fact, Vietnamese still request the services of scholars skilled
in chữ nho for lettering the banners and placards which are
traditionally found at weddings, funerals and festivals.
b/ Chữ Nôm
Vietnamese writers, however, desired a
language of their own in which to transcribe the national history and
literature. Gradually a new writing system known as Chữ Nôm
- vulgar or demotic script - was evolved.
Nguyễn-Thuyên or Hàn Thuyênn, a poet of the 13th century, is
believed to be-if not the inventor, the man responsible for spreading and
popularizing chữ nôm. Hàn Thuyên was a native of Thanh Lâm district,
Hải Dương province. He received the Thái Sinh degree, equivalent of a Ph. D.
in letters, in 1256, during the reign of Emperor Trần Thái Tôn (1225-1257).
In this system, two Chinese characters were usually combined, one of which
indicated the meaning of the Vietnamese word, while the other indicated the
pronunciation.
The chữ nôm system however was never accorded recognition as the official
language.
c/ Chữ Quốc Ngữ
Around the 17th century, catholic
missionaries developed a Romanized script to represent the Quốc Ngữ
(national language) in order to translate prayer books and catechisms.
The Quốc ngữ (Latin alphabet) is generally said to have been invented by
Alexandre de Rhodes, a French Jesuit missionary whose, Portugese-Latin-Vietnamese
dictionary was published in 1651. Monsignor Pigneau de Behaine (18th
century) and Monsignor Tabert (1838) later continued the works of Alexandre
de Rhodes.
The Quốc ngữ was adopted and was taught in schools, won more and more
favour with the public, and officially became popular, especially when Việt
Nam was under French domination (1864-1945). At the beginning of the present
century, Nguyễn Trường Tộ, a great Vietnamese reformer, presented to the
Royal Court a petition requesting the adoption of the Quốc ngữ as the
official writing. His request was not accepted, because Sholars of the time
were reluctant to abandon older traditions. Only after the abolition of the
triennal examinations in Chinese characters, 1915 in North Viet Nam, and
1919 in Central Việt Nam, the Quốc ngữ became the accepted form of popular
and national writing.
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