Latinisation of the Vietnamese Writing System: Historical Development and Contemporary Situation

Authors:

Pages: 62-72
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/MCDI1935

Abstract:

Vietnam is one of the countries in Southeast Asia which, due to the cultural and historical circumstances associated with the colonialism in Asia in the past centuries, gradually switched to the Latin alphabet as official script. Nowadays, most researchers agree that the latinisation of the written Vietnamese language has contributed greatly to the preservation and development of Vietnamese culture in the difficult times of Western modernisation, colonialism and wars in the 19th and 20th centuries. Currently, linguists are in search of solving some issues in contemporary Vietnamese language orthography, but they are also re-evaluating the heritage of the Sinitic-based Hán-Nôm writing system. The article aims to summarise the process of transition from the use of the Hán-Nôm writing system to the writing of the Vietnamese language in the Latin alphabet, known as Quốc Ngữ.

Keywords:

Vietnamese language; latinisation; orthography; Han-Nom script; French Indochina; language policy of Vietnam.

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