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The
Vietnamese Language
Vietnamese
is a monosyllabic language with five tones: sac (high), hoi (lowering),
huyen (low), nga (rising), and nang (lowest). However, the various tones
are pronounced differently depending on region. Many linguists consider
our language to be related to Cambodian and other languages spoken in Indochina.
(Note: Only parts of this section will have Vietnamese written with accents.)
Han Viet (Chinese-Vietnamese) Chinese-Vietnamese are Chinese words as pronounced by Vietnamese speakers. Many Vietnamese words have Chinese roots just as many English words have Greek and Latin roots pronounced in an English-sounding way. Chinese-Vietnamese words are used more often in formal occasions, official papers, the naming of children, and literature. Many Vietnamese words of Chinese-Vietnamese roots have a unique definition in Vietnamese which they do not have in Chinese and are often meaningless to actual Chinese speakers. (Compare this with how the English language uses Latin. For example, the English word science comes from the Latin word scientia, meaning true knowledge, but science is pronounced entirely different and has an entirely different meaning from scientia.) We often combine Chinese roots pronounced the Vietnamese way to create new words for our own usage.
Chu Nom Vietnamese as a spoken language has existed since ancient times, but we did not yet have a written language until much later. For that reason, the Vietnamese imperial court used Chinese characters in its official papers. Chu nom is an invented writing used to express words completely Vietnamese in origin without any Chinese roots. A chu nom character has two parts. The first part is a Chinese character to represents the word's meaning. The second part shows the reader how to pronounce it in Vietnamese. However, chu nom is very hard to learn because one has to first learn Chinese characters. Furthermore, chu nom does not have a clear system of rules, making it even more difficult.
Quoc Ngu (National Language) Perhaps Vietnamese is the only Asian Language with a Roman alphabet. A Roman alphabet is one with letters such as A, B, C, etc. The Vietnamese alphabet is very similar to the alphabet of English and many other European languages. This is because our alphabet was created by Catholic missionaries. When missionaries started coming to Vietnam at the beginning of the 16th century, they wanted to learn how to read and write the native language in order to communicate with us. Unfortunately for them, chu nom was far too difficult for foreigners to learn. So they started using the Roman alphabet to represent spoken Vietnamese sounds. However, every missionary devised a separate system of fitting the Roman alphabet to Vietnamese pronunciation because they did not work together and because they were of different nationalities with different native languages. Afterwards, a French priest named Alexander de Rhodes reviewed the various alphabet systems and established a new version. This writing has become known as quoc ngu, or national language. Quoc ngu has been improved gradually to become the Vietnamese written language still used today. If you look at European languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese, you will see many accents similar to those in Vietnamese, but we pronounce them completely different from the way Europeans pronounce them.
Quoc Ngu Is Popularized Alexander de Rhodes was the first person to print books and dictionaries in quoc ngu. Under French colonization, quoc ngu was further developed. The first periodical written in quoc ngu was the French-published Gia Dinh Bao. In the mid-1910s, Pham Quynh began publishing the magazine Nam Phong Tap Chi written in quoc ngu. About ten years later, this new writing became the official writing taught in elementary schools. Although there were already many writers that had written in quoc ngu, the credit of popularizing it goes to the group known as Tu Luc Van Doan (the Independent Literary Circle). Tu Luc Van Doan was established by a group of young writers and poets who were had received a Western education and wanted to apply Western scientific thought to Vietnamese literature. They started a new movement in poetry, free verse (poetry that does not follow a regular meter or rhyme scheme). They believed quoc ngu literature should be lucid, simple, and easy to understand so everyone would be able to read it.
Literature
Van
chuong bac hoc, or literature, is the body of works written in Chinese characters
or chu nom by the mandarins and the literatus of Vietnam, scholars educated
in the Eastern tradition. These works follow set, regular forms of rhythm
and rhyme, the most common of which are Duong luat, luc bat, and song that
luc bat. Duong luat follows the conventional poetic forms popular in China
during the Duong dynasty (the Tang dynasty). One example of Duong luat is
Nguyen Khuyen's "Thu Dieu." The other two forms, luc bat and song that luc
bat, are Vietnamese and do not have Chinese origins. Just as in English
language poetry there are two types of sounds, stressed and unstressed,
in Vietnamese poetry there is bang and trac. Bang words are either toneless
or have the huyen tone. Trac words can have the tones sac, hoi, nga, or
nang. The luc bat, or six-eight, form begins with a line of six words, followed
by a line of eight words (In Vietnamese, each word is one syllable, so the
lines are of six and eight syllables). There are no rules about the number
of lines, but they always fall in couplets of six- and eight-word lines.
The sixth word of the first line rhymes with the sixth word of the second
line; the eighth word of the second line rhymes with the sixth word of the
third line and the sixth word of the fourth line, and so on. The rhythm
and rhyme of the couplet should be as follows, where B represents bang,
T represents trac, and the asterisks represent different rhymes:
B B T T B B* (6)
B B T
T B B* T B** (8)
B B T T B B** (6)
B B T T B B** T B*** (8)
The luc bat does not need to adhere strictly to the bang trac rule or have perfect rhymes, but it absolutely cannot have too many or too few words and it always begins with a six-word line and ends with an eight-word line. The odd words are not as important as the even words (the underlined letters in the model above) in the bang trac rule, and the rule is most important for the last word of each line. One example of luc bat is Nguyen Du's Kieu story (whose official title is Doan Trung Tan Thanh), considered the most important literary work in Vietnamese literature. The following passage is from the Kieu story, with rhyming words italicized:
Trܧc
sau nào thÃy bóng ngÜ©i
Hoa Çào
næm ngoái còn cÜ©i gió Çông.
XÆp xŠ én liŒng lÀu không
CÕ lan m¥t ÇÃt, rêu phong dÃu giày.
This
passage has three rhymes: ngÜ©i-cÜ©i, Çông-không-phong, and giày (which
will rhyme with the sixth word of the next line). The rhythmic pattern of
the four lines is as follows:
T B B T T B
B B B T B B T B
T B T T B B
T B T T B B T B
The poet does not strictly follow the bang trac rule, but all the important
words are according to the rule. The song that luc bat, two sevens six-eight,
form is also a distinctly Vietnamese form. It has two seven-word lines,
than a line of six words, followed by a line of eight words. The first word
of the seven-word lines are not specified by the bang trac rule. The rhythm
and rhyme of song that luc bat is as follows, with 1 representing the first
word of the two seven-word lines: 1 T T B B T T* (7) 1 B B T T* B B** (7)
B B T T B B** (6) B B T T B B** T B*** (8) 1 T T B B T T*** (7)... An example
of song that luc bat is Chinh Phu Ngam, as translated from Chinese poetry
into Vietnamese by Doan Thi Diem. In translating it, the poet rewrote the
poem in chu nom and recast it in the Vietnamese poetic form of song that
luc bat. The following lines are from that poem, with the rhyming words
italicized: Chí làm trai dÆm nghìn da ng¿a Gieo Thái sÖn nhË t¿a hÒng mao,
Giã nhà Çeo bÙc chi‰n bào, Thét roi cÀu VÎ, ào ào gío thu The preceding
lines have three rhymes: ng¿a-t¿a, mao-bào-ào, and thu (which should rhyme
with the seventh word of the next line). The rhythmic pattern of those lines
is as follows: T B B T B B T B T B T T B B T B B T T B T B B T B B T B Folk
Literature Folk literature is a body of sayings, songs, and poetry as natural-sounding
as ordinary speech where the author is unknown. This includes thanh ngu,
tuc ngu, and ca dao. Folk literature is commonly known and used throughout
the population; every person is familiar with it. Thanh ngu can be roughly
translated as an idiom or figure of speech. It is a phrase that already
has a meaning of its own which can be used within a written or spoken sentence
to express oneself. An example: Dau voi duoi chuot (Elephant-headed, mouse-tailed).
This saying describes a composition or a story that has a long, overextended
introduction but a ridiculously short conclusion. This saying has its own
meaning but it is not a complete sentence. Tuc ngu can be roughly translated
as a maxim or proverb. A tuc ngu is a succinct expression that is a complete
sentence with adequate meaning. It is usually an observation about life
or a piece of practical advice passed on from generation to generation.
An example: UÓn cây tØ thuª còn non, Dåy con tØ thuª con còn ngây thÖ. This
can be roughly translated as: Shape a plant when it is young, / Teach a
child from his time of innocence. This tuc ngu compares a human being to
a plant: if one wants to influence a plant's shape or a child's character,
then one must start when the plant is still soft and flexible and when the
child is still young. When the plant is mature, it will be too stiff; when
a person is old, he will already have absorbed bad qualities that are difficult
to change. This expression is a tuc ngu because it is a complete sentence
and is meant to teach a lesson (this tuc ngu is in the poetic form of luc
bat). Ca dao can be roughly translated as folk poetry. It includes short
songs commonly known throughout the population that often describe popular
customs and the thoughts and emotions of everyday life. Example: LÆy tr©i
mÜa xuÓng, LÃy nܧc tôi uÓng, LÃy rung tôi cÀy, LÃy ÇÀy bát cÖm, LÃy rÖm
Çun b‰p. This can be roughly translated as: Please let there be rain, /
With water for me to drink, / With rice paddies for me to plough, / For
a full bowl of rice, / For straw [from stalks of rice plants after harvesting]
to heat my stove. This ca dao has the rhythmic pattern of a poem and expresses
the importance of rain in agriculture and in the life of a farmer. Transformations
of the ca dao included lullabies, folk songs, and the poetry-like riddles
and challenges between boys and girls. The Literary Technique of Doi The
literary technique doi, or opposition, has a couplet where the two lines
are the same length and every word in the first line mirrors the corresponding
word in the second line in both sound and the meaning. To oppose in sound,
a trac word must correspond to a bang word. To oppose in meaning, the two
words must be the same parts of speech: if a word is adjective, its mirroring
word must be one as well; if it is a verb, the other one has to be one too.
If the first line has a repeated word or a word used in two different meanings,
the second line must do the same. A couplet that doi in meaning is much
more common than one that doi in meaning and sound. The following is a couplet
that doi in meaning: RuÒi ÇÆu mâm xôi, mâm xôi ÇÆu. Ki‰n bò dïa thÎt, dïa
thÎt bò. These two lines roughly translate as: "A fly has landed on a serving
dish of sticky rice, a dish of sticky rice with beans. An ant is crawling
on a plate of meat, a plate of beef." However, the doi is lost in translation.
The two lines form the following pairs of opposing words: ruoi-kien (fly-ant),
dau-bo (land-crawl), mam-dia (serving dish-plate), xoi-thit (sticky rice-meat),
dau-bo (beans-cow). The cleverness of these two lines is that dau, meaning
both "to land" and "beans," opposes bo, meaning both "to crawl" and "cow"
or "beef." In poetry, this technique of doi is often transformed where the
first half and the second half of one line oppose each other or lines of
different numbered words roughly oppose each other. The Kieu Story The Kieu
story, whose official title is Doan Truong Tan Thanh, by Nguyen Du, is the
most important work in Vietnamese literature. Tran Trong Kim wrote in the
Introduction of the Kieu story edition edited my himself and Bui Ky, "Every
Vietnamese, from the common laborer to those educated in literature, is
familiar with [the Kieu story], reads it, and acknowledges its greatness."
Nguyen Du (1765-1820) was a mandarin of the Nguyen dynasty originally from
Ha Tinh. As the Vietnamese ambassador to China, he happened to read while
there a collection of romances by Thanh Tam Tai Nhan. The novel was of mediocre
writing about a very talented and unusually beautiful woman named Vuong
Thuy Kieu. Although Kieu is good and has all the lofty virtues of loyalty,
faithfulness, filial piety, and honesty, her fate is full of suffering and
she is forced to be a prostitute in a brothel. Nguyen Du only borrowed the
plot of this novel to compose a poem in chu nom more than one thousand lines
long. That the Kieu story originated as a mediocre novel and became the
most important work in Vietnamese literature is due to Nguyen Du's talent.
Like many others of his time, Nguyen Du believed that people who were unusually
talented and beautiful often had to endure a miserable fate. Therefore,
the fate of his main character Kieu was created following that belief. The
greatness of the Kieu story is not in the plot but in the writing: in the
poem, Nguyen Du expresses the entire range of human emotions. For almost
any situation, the Vietnamese can use a few lines from the Kieu story to
express their thoughts and feelings of the moment. Using lines from the
Kieu story to express one's personal situation is called lay Kieu, meaning
selecting from the Kieu story. The poem is can be used as a lullaby for
mothers putting their children to bed. The names of many characters in the
poem have become common terminology in Vietnamese. Because it has been so
deeply absorbed into the life of all Vietnamese, because it has become a
permanent classic in our literary treasury, Pham Quynh once said: If the
Kieu story endures, then our language endures; if our language endures,
then our country will endure. Other Languages Used in Vietnam Vietnam has
many ethnic minorities such as Chinese-Vietnamese, Cambodian-Vietnamese,
Cham-Vietnamese, and the Thuong. Each of these minorities have their own
language. There have been many waves of Chinese refugees to Vietnam throughout
Vietnamese history. The Chinese-Vietnamese speak many languages, the most
common of which is Cantonese (tieng Quang Dong). The Central region of Vietnam
was once the country of Champa, which was conquered by Vietnam conquered.
Today, there are still many Chams living there. They have their own language
and culture. Because the South of Vietnam once belonged to Cambodia, there
are still many Cambodians living who continue to speak Cambodian as their
native language. The Thuong, also called the Montagnards, are native peoples
who live in the mountains and highlands of Vietnam. There are numerous tribes
with so many different languages that they cannot even begin to be listed
here. The French language also has a strong presence in Vietnam because
Vietnam was once a French colony. Especially among the elderly population,
many people still speak French. However, French is losing out to English.
Today, more students are learning English than French. Bibliography Bui
Ky and Tran Trong Kim, ed. Truyen Thuy Kieu by Nguyen Du. [Story of Thuy
Kieu] Glendale, California: Dai Nam, 1995. Dien Huong, Thi Phap. [Methods
and Forms of Poetry] Saigon: published by the author, 1950. Duong Quang
Ham, Viet Nam Van Hoc Su Yeu. [A Summary of Vietnamese Literary History]
Glendale, California: Dai Nam, year of publication not known. Reprinted
from the tenth reprint published by the Center for Educational Material,
Republic of Vietnam's Department of Education, 1968. We would also like
to thank the Gia Long Alumni Association of Seattle for allowing us to use
the material used as study guides for students competing in Doi Vui De Hoc
at the Tet in Seattle for the year Tan Ty 2001.
VAN CHUONG
