Vietnamese alphabet

Basic Latin Latin-1 Supplement Latin Extended -A Latin Extended -B Latin Extended Additional

Chu Quoc Ngu ( Hán Nom: 𡦂 国语, literally writing the national language ), short Quoc Ngu, is since 1945 official heads of state and transport font Vietnam. The Vietnamese language ( vietn.: tiếng Việt, Hán Nom:㗂 越), is a tonal language which has six tones in contrast to Mandarin. Their precise and readable representation poses a challenge to the development of this typeface indicates Accordingly concerns with Quoc Ngu to a phonetic script ( phonetic spelling ), from their spelling to the pronunciation can be derived very accurately.

Quoc Ngu was developed from the mid-17th century as a Latin alphabet with special characters and diacritics for tonal identification and revised several times and unified. It is the only font used for notation of a tonal language based on the Latin alphabet. Overall, the modern Quoc Ngu knows next to Latin letters 134 combinations of basic letters and diacritical marks that give the font its typical appearance. The notation is the monosyllabic character of the Vietnamese language, hyphens are used only in foreign words. Because the font is not strictly standardized, inconsistent spellings are more common.

Partly exist for the languages ​​of minority peoples in Vietnam 's own writings, the Tai Viet script for the languages ​​of the Tai Dam and Tai Don.

• 2.1 tones
• 2.2 pronunciation of the letters
• 2.3 Table of the alphabet

History

The Vietnamese language has been, or is written in three writing systems:

• The writing system chu Nho ( 𡨸 儒) for the Chinese and the Sino -Vietnamese vocabulary with the Chinese characters Chu Hán ( 𡦂 汉, also: Hán tự ,汉字)
• The writing system Hán NOM (汉 喃) with the Hán tự / Chu Hán character and the building on Chinese characters Chu Nom ( 𡦂 喃, also: Quốc âm ,国 音) for the Vietnamese vocabulary
• Chu Quoc Ngu ( 𡦂 国语), a Latin alphabet with diacritics, the current writing system in Vietnam

Whether the Vietnamese had their own script before the contact with the Chinese culture, archeology until now could not be clarified.

Chu Nho and Hán Tự

The Vietnamese language was similar to the Korean and the Japanese language, heavily influenced by the Chinese language. During the thousand years of Chinese domination (111 BC to 938 ) was Chinese official and the language of education. The Chinese brought with them their language, their literature, philosophy and history to Vietnam, but especially for the Confucian officials Tests for Mandarinat were profound knowledge of Chinese language and writing is essential. This led to the adoption of numerous Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese. The logo graphic writing system of the classic Chinese Vietnamese Chu Nho is called ( 𡨸 儒, pronunciation: cɨ̌ ɲɔ ), literally writing the Confucian scholars. It differs from the Chinese, especially in the debate. Long Chu Nho was the only available option to write the Vietnamese language, an art that dominated almost exclusively Vietnamese elites with Chinese education. Sharply separated from this education literature, the popular literature has been passed down orally only with their fables, humorous stories, folk songs and proverbs.

Hán tự (汉字, pronunciation: hǎ ː n tɨ ˀ ), also Chu Hán ( 𡦂 汉, literally writing the Hán ), is the Vietnamese term for Chinese characters in Chu Nho and in fact developed vietnamisierten writing system Hán NOM (汉 喃). They served the transcript of classical Chinese and the Sino - Vietnamese Hán Việt vocabulary (汉 越) in the Vietnamese language, as opposed to the character of the Chu Nom ( 𡦂 喃, also 𡨸 喃, literally marble font ), with those in Hán could be listed nom the native vocabulary of the Vietnamese language.

Hán NOM and Chu Nom

After the Vietnamese independence from China 939 and probably at the time when the Sino -Vietnamese pronunciation had established, so the earliest from the 11th, but certainly from the 13th century, scholars began Vietnamese to modify the Chinese script. This began with the standardization of the spelling of a Vietnamese Wortgut, such as proper names. Later own characters were introduced in order to better express words that frequently occurred in Vietnam. There was a Vietnamese own font, the chu nom or just nom. Since the signs have not been set by word origins, the various authors who developed chu nom, was unknown so, the font for the Chinese in the end was unreadable.

Ancient inscriptions in Chu Nom found on bells in temples and carved in stone. As the oldest preserved document is an inscription from 1209 on a timber carrier of Bảo Ân Pagoda (保 恩) in Yên long, Vĩnh Phúc Province. At issue is the origin in 1076 of Chu Nom inscription on a bronze tube in the Vân Bản Pagoda (云 岅) in DJO Sơn (徒 山) in Haiphong. The first known historical work in NOM is Dai ​​Su Ky Việt (大 越 史记, literally: The Story of Dai Việt ) Lê Văn of Huu, published in 1272 Nguyen Trai ( 1380-1442 ) wrote his work Bình Ngô Cao Dai still in Chu Hán. but Quốc âm thi tap and more than 200 poems he wrote in nOM.

In the 18th century many famous Vietnamese authors wrote their works in Chu Nom, the poet Hồ Xuân Hương (胡春香). His most famous work, which is to be mentioned here, bears the nickname Truyen Kieu (传 翘, literally: The history of Kieu ). This verse novel of the noble writer Nguyen Du (阮 攸, 1765-1820 ) with the original title Đoàn Trường Tân Thanh (断肠 新 声) is with its 3254 verses in the verse Luc Bát until now regarded as classics of Vietnamese literature, even considered a national epic and is standard reading in schools. It is based on the written in classical Chinese novel Chin Yun Chiao Chuan (金 云 翘 传, Vietn. Vân Kim Kieu ) by Jen Tsai Ching Hsin (青 心 才 人, Vietn. Thanh Tâm Tài Nhân ), the 1875 Trương Vinh Ky was transferred to Quoc Ngu. A German translation of Truyen Kieu from 1964 is titled The girl Kieu.

It was only during the Tây Sơn Dynasty (1788-1802) all administrative documents were written in nom. 1867 intended Nguyen Truong To (阮长祚) standardization of Chu Nom, but the new system Quốc âm Hán tự (国 音 汉字) was rejected by Emperor Tự Đức (嗣 德). Since Chu Nom was up to this point never officially standardized, there are some different characters for a Vietnamese word. Authors in NOM therefore always had to make a choice for which certain rules had emerged.

The wide use of the Chu Nom in the population, however, was his heavy learning curve in the way, so that the chu chu nom Hán writings and were used until the end of the 19th century in parallel. Today just can not actually read and write a small number of scholars Chu Nom. Even some Buddhist monks and the Jing or gin (京, Chinese京 族, Pinyin Jīngzú, gin - people ') who live in China Vietnamese, master it to some extent. However, for the majority of the more than 80 million Vietnamese speakers threatens much of Vietnam's recorded history to be unattainable. There are efforts by the Vietnamese government and the Nom Preservation Foundation, Hán NOM to revive and be incorporated into the education system.

Quoc Ngu

The Portuguese adventurers who invaded the country in 1516, followed in 1527 Dominican missionaries. Soon, a Catholic priest from Italy, France and Spain took their missionary activity in Vietnam. To learn the local language, they needed a transliteration of the Vietnamese pronunciation in Latin letters. At the same time they hoped that the knowledge of the Latin alphabet would facilitate the Vietnamese learning the relevant European language. These priests had some excellent linguistic training and developed a transcription system that resulted in the font Chu Quoc Ngu.

As pioneers are here Christofora Borri, Francisco de Pina and Francisco de Buzomi which still inconsistent, transcribed with the help of local believers and clergy Vietnamese terms in the Latin alphabet. The missionaries Gaspar d' Amaral (1592-1645), Antoine de Barbosa (1594-1647) and Alexandre de Rhodes ( 1591 or 1593-1660 ) created in the sequence independently of each other dictionaries in the Vietnamese language, D' Amaral the Dictionary Annamaticum - Lusitanum Barbosa and the Dictionary Lusitanum - Annamiticum, both originals are lost. Only the Dictionary Annamiticum Lusitinum et Latinum by Alexandre de Rhodes was released in 1651 in Rome for the pressure, which is generally regarded as the birth of Quoc Ngu.

Until the mid-18th century Quoc Ngu was used mainly by the Catholic faithful. Meanwhile, won the French Jesuits, who had been largely reported from Japan, more and more influence in Vietnam, was also launched on the modernization phase of the Quoc Ngu, which by the work of Pierre -Joseph -Georges Pigneau de Behaine ( vietn. Bá Đa Lộc ). However, these died in 1799 before making his lexicon Việt - could publish - La Tinh ( Latinum Dictionary Annamatica ). It was not until 35 years later continued the missionary JL Tabert in Saigon continuing the work of Pigneau de Behaine. The special feature of his work was that he transcribed many well-known poems and proverbs of Chu Nom by Quoc Ngu along with his faithful. ( Dictionary Annamatico - Lazio ) In 1838 his dictionary Việt Nam Dương Hiệp tU Vung was printed. Writing was more compact, more elegant and easier to use by a strong revision of notation, the intensive use of additional characters and a unification for its numerous usage rules.

Under the pretext of protecting French missionaries anti-Western attacks, intervened France in 1858 in Vietnam and Indochina annexed until 1885. The Protectorate was also be established that to 1910 chu chu nom was Hán and in higher schools and the administration replaced by the French language and literature in the rest by Quoc Ngu. 1918 presented the imperial court in Hue, the literature survey, which prerequisite for the civil service, the Mandarinat was, and required the knowledge of Chu Hán.

In the years 1933-1945, the literary movement Tự Luc Van Đoàn struggled with their leading figure Nhat Linh to a clear, simple Quoc Ngu without words of Chinese origin, and thus initiated a modernization in the literature of Vietnam. In September 1945, the Việt Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and made Quoc Ngu, which was easier to learn for the rural population as chu nom, the official heads of state and transport header. The literacy rate has risen from 5 % to 90 % today.

Example

每 𡥵 𠊚 调 得 造化 班 朱 理智 吧 良心 吧 勤 沛 对 处 𠇍 𦣗 𪚚 情 朋友.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights )

Thu Phap - Vietnamese Calligraphy

Calligraphy ( vietn.: Thu Phap ,书法), the art of beautiful writing, in Vietnam has a younger tradition than in China or Japan. While the calligraphy writing systems Chu and Chu Nom Hán closely to the Chinese calligraphy ( vietn.: Thu Phap Á Dong ,书法 亚东) was ajar, developed in the 1930s under the influence of the poet - motion Phong Tho Trao Moi, a Vietnamese form for the font Quoc Ngu.

Given that interest in calligraphy was declined sharply after 1945, now developed by masters such as Lê Xuân Hòa, Tru Vũ, Nguyễn Thanh Sơn, Song Nguyen, Chính Văn Nguyễn Đình and a renaissance of Thu Phap. In Hue, for example, from the local Temple ( Đình ) and monks of pagodas Châu Lâm and Huyen Không operated a small garden of calligraphy. Organised have lovers among other things, in the UNESCO Việt Nam Calligraphy Club.

The alphabet Quốc NGU

The alphabet Quốc NGU includes the 29 letters [ a], [ ă ], [ â ], [ b], [ c ], [ d ], [ ð ], [e ], [ ê ], [ g], [h ], [i ], [ k ], [ l ], [ m], [n ], [ o ], [ ô ], [ o] [ p] [ q] [r ], [ s], [t ], [ u], [u ], [ v ], [ x ] and [ y]. Typical characteristics of writing are:

• The modified consonant [ ð ] is a voiced plosive ( voiced alveolar implosive ).
• The two modified letters [o ] and [u ] vowels, which are unknown in Western languages ​​, so-called moans.
• Nine diphthongs and a Triphthong represent ten speech sounds, which can be described phonologically as vowels, the consonant [j ] or [ w] follows.
• The letter [ f], [ j ], [ w] and [z ] are only the case of foreign-language words.
• The diacritic [ ̆ ] to denote the short pronunciation of [a].
• The diacritic [ ], representing the unity of [ a], [ e] and [ o].
• Five diacritics, which characterize the six syllable sounds of the Vietnamese language above or below vowels.

Since the vowels [ a], [ e] and [o ] from the outset the diacritic [] or [ ̆ ] can have, with two vowels diacritics are not uncommon.

A written syllable consists of at most four parts:

Tones

• Main article: Vietnamese language

The tones of the Vietnamese vary in pitch and history ( "Melody" ), tone duration, intensity and Glottalisierung. They are called Thanh Dau or referred to ( " tone marks "). Not every syllable exists in every pitch; Some syllables found in only one or two of the six possible shades sense.

The Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao (also: Zhao Yuanren ) has developed a handy system to remember the sounds of tonal language. He divided the pitch into five levels, with 5 being the highest and 1 the lowest tone is. The change in tone can be represented by a concatenation of the numbers. A uniform medium would sound as / 33 notes / etc. This sequence of numbers is called a clay mold.

Pronunciation of the letters

Table of the alphabet

Classification and Coding

Since the beginning, there were no standards for input and display of NGU Quốc on the computer, more than 30 encodings of various national and international manufacturers have been developed. As of 1991, the Vietnamese Directorate for Standards and Quality TCVN designed ( Tieu chuan Việt Nam ), an agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology ( MOST), the 8- bit encoding Vietnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange ( VSCII ). This was set in 1993 in TCVN 5712:1993 as VSCII -1 standard and revised in TCVN 5712:1999.

The three most common 8 -bit code sets are VSCII or TCVN, VISCII and VNCII ( VPS). VSCII is an official standard, but VISCII most common. Since Quoc Ngu knows 134 different combinations of base characters and diacritics and ASCII claimed 128 characters are superfluous at 256 displayable 8-bit code points six. All three code sets have placed these six characters in the ASCII range 0-31 for control codes, VSCII even twelve signs, as it also assigns the isolated diacritics code positions. TCVN 6909:2001 With a 16- bit encoding for Quoc Ngu exists.

The universal character set Unicode has full support for the Vietnamese writing. However, there is no separate segment for Quoc Ngu, but the signs are allocated to the segments Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended -A Latin Extended -B Latin Extended Additional and. Unicode allows the user to select between pre-combined characters and the combining of basic letters and diacritics when typing. Since different operating systems freely combinable characters were not implemented by default (see Verdana font ), the precombined variant is most commonly used.

A selection of codes and character sets for Quoc Ngu:

• Font code ISO 15924: unclassified, Latin alphabet: # 215 Latn
• VIQR (Vietnamese Quoted- Readable ), 7 -bit input method of the Vietnamese Standardization Group, is based on ASCII, described in RFC 1456, 1992
• VNI Encoding, Encoding the VNI Software Company,
• VISCII (Vietnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange ), 8 -bit encoding of the Vietnamese Standardization Group, ISO 8859, described in RFC 1456, 1992
• VNCII (VPS ), 8- bit character encoding of the Vietnamese Professionals Society, 1993
• VSCII -1 ( also TCVN -1 or ABC -1), 8 -bit coding of the TCVN now STAMEQ described in TCVN 5712:1993, 1993
• Windows - Encoding: Code Page 1258, 1996
• IBM - Encoding: CP 01129, MCCSID 1129 Character set GCSGID 01336, 1997
• VSCII -2 or TCVN -2, 8- bit encoding in TCVN 5712:1999 described, ISO 2022- compliant, 1999
• TCVN 6909:2001, 16 - bit encryption, 2001
• Unicode: UTF- 8, a Transformation Format 8 -bit Unicode Transformation Format ( ) of the Universal Character Set, ISO 10646, described in RFC 3629, currently valid.

Since the most keyboards do not allow direct input of diacritics, various free utilities have been developed that act as keyboard drivers. They support the most popular input methods, including Telex, VIQR and variants, and VNI input method.

As part of the revival of the Chu Nom Hán are nom in recent years increasingly digitized and encoded in Unicode. Already in the 1990s the 16- bit code sets TCVN 5773:1993 have been submitted for Chu Chu Nom Hán and TCVN 6056:1995 and only for Chu Hán. Starting with Windows Vista, the characters are included in Microsoft Windows. By means of certain input programs can be type Hán NOM texts in Quoc Ngu.

See also: Han unification Unicode block Unified CJK ideographs, Unicode block Unified CJK Ideographs, Extension B

Gallery

Pitches and change in the standard Chinese by Yuen Ren Chao

Vietnamese Calligraphy

Classic Calligraphy to Tết in Hanoi