3.

Native Vietnamese words: For native Vietnamese words, there were essentially two methods of representation: (i) Chinese characters were used without change to represent the pronunciation only (emptied of meaning). Native Vietnamese Word Chu Nom Character Function Sound: is pronounced mut6 in mt modern Cantonese and 'one' m in modern Mandarin. There is no connection between mt 'one' and the meaning of , which is 'to sink' or ('not have') in modern Chinese. (ii) New characters were created, either by putting two Chinese characters together on the basis of meaning and/or sound, or by modifying existing Chinese characters. (Sometimes this meant putting together two chu nom characters.) Some chu nom characters are: Combination of two meanings: Native Vietnamese Word tri 'sky, heaven' Chu Nom Character Components Function Meaning ('heaven') Meaning ('above')

Combination of two characters, one chosen for its meaning, one for its sound: Native Vietnamese Chu Nom Word Character ni 'mountain' la 'fire' l 'strange' Components Function Meaning ('mountain') Sound (ni in modern Mandarin) Meaning ('fire') Sound (l in modern Mandarin) Sound (lu in modern Mandarin) Meaning ('strange')

Modification of existing character chosen for its sound: Native Vietnamese Chu Nom Word Character Components Function

y 'that'

'clothing' minus top part

Sound only (y in modern Mandarin); original meaning is irrelevant

The chu nom system of writing could only be mastered by someone who already knew Chinese characters. Its use was thus confined to the educated elite and it was regarded as secondary to Chinese characters. Although chu nom was the medium for some of Vietnam's vernacular literature, most notably the Story of Kieu, a classic 18th century work, it was unable to match the prestige of orthodox Chinese writing. It was only fleetingly successful in gaining official acceptance as Vietnam's writing system. In the end, the Vietnamese abandoned both Chinese characters and the chu nom. Although Chinese characters have been swept into the dustbin of history, it's remarkable how much their spirit lives on, both in the Vietnamese vocabulary and, ironically, in the writing system. In fact, the practice of representing each syllable as one 'word', which is the common practice in modern Vietnamese, is actually a throwback to the old concept that each Chinese character is equivalent to one word. For instance, 'Hanoi', which linguistically speaking is one word, is written in Vietnamese as two: H Ni. This follows the Chinese script, which writes 'Hanoi' with two characters: (literally, 'river' + 'inside'). Treatment of foreign words Being written in the Roman alphabet, it is now quite easy for Vietnamese to adopt foreign words (from English, French, etc.) outright. There is no need to transform words into katakana as in Japanese, or try to find suitable-sounding characters, as in Chinese. Neverthless, Vietnamese has a long tradition of transforming foreign words into an acceptable Vietnamese form. This can be seen in naturalised words like: frein 'brake' film caf 'coffee' carotte 'carrot' phanh phim c ph c rt

And there are also cases where foreign words have entered via Chinese. The word cu lc b is the Vietnamese pronunciation of the Chinese word (Mandarin: jlb), which is the English word 'club'! For more modern borrowings, conflicting tendencies can be seen. For instance, it is possible to find the loanword 'guitar' written ghi ta, ghi-ta, ghita, or guitar. The loanword 'video' may be written vi-e-, vi-i-, or video. It is reasonable to expect that this tendency to directly use the foreign spelling will continue.

3. Native Vietnamese words: For native Vietnamese words, there were essentially two methods of representation: (i) Chinese characters were used without change to represent the pronunciation only (emptied of meaning). Native Vietnamese Word Chu Nom Character Function Sound: is pronounced mut6 in mt modern Cantonese and 'one' m in modern Mandarin. There is no connection between mt 'one' and the meaning of , which is 'to sink' or ('not have') in modern Chinese. (ii) New characters were created, either by putting two Chinese characters together on the basis of meaning and/or sound, or by modifying existing Chinese characters. (Sometimes this meant putting together two chu nom characters.) Some chu nom characters are: Combination of two meanings: Native Vietnamese Word tri 'sky, heaven' Chu Nom Character Components Function Meaning ('heaven') Meaning ('above')

Combination of two characters, one chosen for its meaning, one for its sound: Native Vietnamese Chu Nom Word Character ni 'mountain' la 'fire' l 'strange' Components Function Meaning ('mountain') Sound (ni in modern Mandarin) Meaning ('fire') Sound (l in modern Mandarin) Sound (lu in modern Mandarin) Meaning ('strange')

Modification of existing character chosen for its sound: Native Vietnamese Chu Nom Word Character Components Function

y 'that'

'clothing' minus top part

Sound only (y in modern Mandarin); original meaning is irrelevant

The chu nom system of writing could only be mastered by someone who already knew Chinese characters. Its use was thus confined to the educated elite and it was regarded as secondary to Chinese characters. Although chu nom was the medium for some of Vietnam's vernacular literature, most notably the Story of Kieu, a classic 18th century work, it was unable to match the prestige of orthodox Chinese writing. It was only fleetingly successful in gaining official acceptance as Vietnam's writing system. In the end, the Vietnamese abandoned both Chinese characters and the chu nom. Although Chinese characters have been swept into the dustbin of history, it's remarkable how much their spirit lives on, both in the Vietnamese vocabulary and, ironically, in the writing system. In fact, the practice of representing each syllable as one 'word', which is the common practice in modern Vietnamese, is actually a throwback to the old concept that each Chinese character is equivalent to one word. For instance, 'Hanoi', which linguistically speaking is one word, is written in Vietnamese as two: H Ni. This follows the Chinese script, which writes 'Hanoi' with two characters: (literally, 'river' + 'inside'). Treatment of foreign words Being written in the Roman alphabet, it is now quite easy for Vietnamese to adopt foreign words (from English, French, etc.) outright. There is no need to transform words into katakana as in Japanese, or try to find suitable-sounding characters, as in Chinese. Neverthless, Vietnamese has a long tradition of transforming foreign words into an acceptable Vietnamese form. This can be seen in naturalised words like: frein 'brake' film caf 'coffee' carotte 'carrot' phanh phim c ph c rt

And there are also cases where foreign words have entered via Chinese. The word cu lc b is the Vietnamese pronunciation of the Chinese word (Mandarin: jlb), which is the English word 'club'! For more modern borrowings, conflicting tendencies can be seen. For instance, it is possible to find the loanword 'guitar' written ghi ta, ghi-ta, ghita, or guitar. The loanword 'video' may be written vi-e-, vi-i-, or video. It is reasonable to expect that this tendency to directly use the foreign spelling will continue.