Từ điển Pigneaue de Béhaine và Jean-Louis Taberd như là nền tảng của chữ Quốc ngữ
UED Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities & Education, ISSN: 1859 - 4603
TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI, NHÂN VĂN VÀ GIÁO DỤC
BEHAINE - TABERD DICTIONARIES AS FOUNDATION OF QUOC NGU'S
SPELLING AND WRITING
Nhận bài:
Le Nama, Nguyen Van Hiepb*
15 – 04 – 2020
Chấp nhận đăng:
10 – 09 – 2020
Abstract: The paper describes two dictionaries compiled by Pigneaue de Bé haine and Jean-Louis
Taberd as the foundation for the Vietnamese script, shown in the solutions using Latin letters, combined
with some diacritics to describe parts of syllables in Vietnamese. The paper also pointed out and
analyzed the causes of the success and great contributions of these two dictionaries.
Key words: Pigneaue de Bé haine and Jean-Louis Taberd‘s dictionaries; Vietnamese script; initial
consonant; rhyme; finals; diacritics; Portuguese period.
is still too little research about the contributions of these
two dictionaries. Among them, we should mention the
1. Introduction
Quoc Ngu was first created by Western
missionaries, who wished to latinize Asian languages
for evangelization. From its conception to early
foundations, Quoc Ngu has gone through many
changes. “Dictionarium Annamatico - Latinum”, written
by Jean-Louis Taberd and published in 1838, can be
argued as the earliest foundation of Quoc Ngu. Since
then, Quoc Ngu's spelling has largely stayed the same.
Our discussion consists of the basic foundation that
modern Quoc Ngu was built upon from the works of
Pigneaue de Béhaine and Taberd, including the
“Portuguese period”, latter unsuccessful attempts to
reform the system that was founded at the end of 18th
century, beginning of 19th century.
work of Nguyễn (1994, 89-120) or the “Writing and
Phonology” section of Quoc Ngu Period XVIII,
collected and edited by Đoàn (2008, 418-445).
Missionary Jean- Louis Taberd, while completing his
pivotal dictionary, insisted that he used Pigneau de
Behaine's work as a foundation. Many latter researchers,
including linguists Doan Vien Thuat and Nguyen Thi
Bach Nhan, confirmed this. This is why in certain cases,
we collect their names under one title to highlight the
close relationships of the two dictionaries, the
foundational basis of Pigneau's works and the dictionary
that Taberd published (for example, the 2nd section
“Behaine- Taberd dictionaries, foundation of modern
Quoc Ngu's spelling and writing”, below).
From 1990 onwards in Vietnam, the two
Vietnamese-Latin dictionaries written by Pigneau de
Behaine and Taberd have been recognized as the
founding principles of modern Quoc Ngu's spelling and
writing, along with other contributions as Nom-Quoc
Ngu's legacy in pre-modern Vietnamese. But the
recognition has not been widespread and official. There
2. Behaine - Taberd dictionaries, foundation of
modern Quoc Ngu's spelling and writing
2.1. Foundation of modern writing
Many researchers admitted that the appearance of
Quoc Ngu in Pigneau de Behaine - Taberd is the
foundation of modern-day Quoc Ngu's spelling and
writing:
“The An Nam Latin dictionary (1772 - 1773)
marked an important period in which Quoc Ngu is
founded upon, including the early years of 17th century
(1615-1621) to 1651 with the crucial works of de
a Reseacher in Paris, France
bInstitute of Linguistics
*
Corresponding author
Nguyen Van Hiep
Email: nvhiepseoul@gmail.com
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Rhodes. According to Pigneau de Béhaine, the ways of
writing Quoc Ngu remain largely unchanged” (Béhaine,
1999).
Rewinding back time, to the 1950s, Le Ngoc Tru in
his work “Vietnamese spelling dictionary” published in
the South did not mention Béhaine - Taberd dictionaries
in its references list (1959: vii), probably because there
was no way to directly research their dictionaries.
Shortly after that, however, he began to praise the works
of Béhaine, stating that from the foundation that the
Vietnamese - Latin dictionary established, Quoc Ngu
became an intricate system of communication that
South East Asia acknowledged and desired”, according
to historian Henri Bernard- Maitre who wrote from the
works of missionary de Rhodes, the talented linguist
who finished the project, and the determined priest Ba
Da Loc who made adjustments” (Lê, 1961, 45).
“For Quoc Ngu's script, this is a shift in the change
to the phonology system of French, marking an
important change in the development of Quoc Ngu.
After Béhaine's dictionary, Quoc Ngu has become more
complicated... The importance of this dictionary is that
it has collected past experiences and formed them into
specific sets of rule (...) Taberd's way of writing is not
much different compared to modern Quoc Ngu.
Twenty-five cases that we noted when discussing
Béhaine's dictionary, have been removed from Taberd's.
This shows that Taberd has a more straightforward way
of handling things, different than de Rhodes who was
afraid of changing the works by his predecessors”
(Hoàng, 2007, 324 - 325).
2.2. Traits of Bé haine- Taberd's spelling and
writing system
2.2.1. Background of Bé haine and Taberd
dictionaries
Linguist Doan Thien Thuat recognizes the
contributions from the two Vietnamese - Latin and
Vietnamese - Portogunese dictionaries, especially the
Vietnamese - Latin dictionary of Béhaine, claiming that
"Quoc Ngu has been more uniformed and preserved to
modern days” (Đoàn, 2008, 433).
a. Béhaine's dictionary
The Dictionarium Anamitico
- Latinum (or
Vietnamese - Latin dictionary) by Pigneaue de Béhaine,
consists of two sections: word search and meaning
translation into Vietnamese. The translation section has
662 pages, serving as the main part of the dictionary.
This section uses entry as currency and sorts them
alphabetically, from a, b, c ... to ư, v, x. For each word,
the Nom is placed first, followed by Quoc Ngu, and
Latin at the end. The dictionary has 5,943 words in
total, and can reach 50,000 or more if counting
compound nouns and phrases. The word search section
has 67 pages, including a Nom to Quoc Ngu translation
chart and an instruction to find obscure Nom’s words
(according to the introduction to Pigneaue de Béhaine
dictionary, Han Nom Journal no.3 (20), 1994).
... but have not been officially recognized
However, the foundation principles of Béhaine-
Taberd dictionaries have not met with widespread
recognition in the world of researchers, especially for
the people that work on modern Vietnamese dictionary.
Recently, dictionarist Hoang Phe (with the Vietnamese
dictionary that he serves as the main editor and
frequently republished), while admitting that modern
Quoc Ngu's spelling was stabilized during the middle of
the 19th century, refuses to directly credit Béhaine-
Taberd dictionaries (3).
Pigneau de Béhaine, born as Pierre Joesph Georges
Pigneau de Béhaine, was born in 1741 at Aisne
province, located in the North of France. He is
previously known in Vietnam as Ba Da Loc, or Bi Nhu.
He left France in 1865 as a missionary of Paris Foreign
Missions Society. In 1867 he moved to Ha Tien in the
south of Vietnam and managed a seminary in Hon Dat
province. When the seminary was no longer safe, he and
the rest of the staff moved to Pondichery in India, a
concession of France, at the end of 17th century.
Around 1772 - 1773, he started to compile the first
“Spelling standards were slowly formed throughout
history, in someways spontaneously, according to the
ways of spelling in dictionaries, especially ones that
were written from the 19th century to date” (P. Hoàng,
1961). Hoang Phe came up with this when Behaine's
dictionary had not been approached by Vietnamese
linguists. It is important to note that An Nam - Latin
dictionary written by Béhaine was only republished
recently (Béhaine, 1999).
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Le Nam, Nguyen Van Hiep
Vietnamese - Latin dictionary, with the help of other
Vietnamese, French, and Spanish.
Pigneau de Behaine's work was gifted to Vietnam
Academy of Social Sciences), very few people had
access to Béhaine's dictionary. In one of the first articles
in 1960, researcher Nguyen Khac Kham noted: “Until
now it remains impossible to identify which part
Béhaine came up with, and which part was written by
Taberd” (K. K. Nguyễn, 1993).
Prior to 1975 in Vietnam, researchers from both the
north and south side of Vietnam came to understand that
the handwritten copy of Pigneau de Behaine was burned
in a fire in Ca Mau circa 1778 (P. Hoàng, 1961, 18; Lê,
1961, 37). A copy of this handwritten dictionary is
currently preserved at Paris Foreign Missions Society,
and in 1960 it became a source of information for
researchers in the South. At the start of 1980, the Han
Nom Research Institute in Ha Noi was awarded a copy
of Pigneau de Béhaine's handwritten Vietnamese - Latin
dictionary.
Le Ngoc Tru was arguably one of the earliest
people who had the chance to compare a copy of
Béhaine's handwritten dictionary to the work of
Taberd. He noted: “the section that from word “Vọng”
to “Vồng”, was exactly the same, from the style of
Quoc Ngu translation, to Nom and has the exact
number of words, no less or more” (Lê, 1961, 39). His
claim is similar to father A. Launay's, “when compared
to the original handwritten work, it is clear that Father
Taberd did not change much” (Lous Mallaret 2004
(1948): lxiii). Linguists Nguyen Thi Bach Nhan and
Doan Thien Thuat confirmed that the spelling section
of Taberd's was largely the same as Pigneau de
Behaine's work.
b. Vietnamese - Latin dictionary with additional
contributions from Taberd
The Vietnamesse - Latin dictionary written by
Taberd was first printed in 1838 in a printing house that
belonged to J. Marshnam, at Serampore (Bengale,
India). The dictionary consits of three parts. The first
part has 46 pages that gives an overview of Vietnamese
grammar. Part II has 723 pages serving as the main
portion, including around 10.000 words in Vietnamese.
Part III is the index section with 101 pages regarding
Hortus floridus Concincinoe. The last part has 128
pages on how to find Nom's words.
c. Behaine's writting - spelling system and Taberd's push
It is clear that Quoc Ngu was becoming
increasingly popular, especially after the second part of
19th century in the South of Vietnam, where France
took over. The question is: what was the status of Quoc
Ngu and Béhaine's writting - spelling system at the end
of the 18th century, beginning of 19th?
Jean-Louis Taberd was born in 1794 at Saint-
Etienne, Loire province in Central France. Taberd was
sent by Paris Foreign Missions Society to the south side
of Vietnam, and was appointed as an apostolic vicariate
in Lai Thieu, Inner Land in 1827. In 1833, when king
Minh Menh sent his army to Gia Dinh to defeat Le Van
Khoi and ban Catholicity, Taberd moved to Thailand,
and then in 1835 to Serampore in East India, which was
under control by Denmark.In 1838, with the help of
English government in India, George Eden and the
Asian Group, the Vietnamese - Latin dictionary was
published (4). In his introduction, Taberd claims that his
work was based on the handwritten work of Pigneau de
Behaine.
Researchers such as Le Ngoc Tru claimed: "the
adjusted writing system, before Taberd composed and
printed his work in 1838, must have been popularized
in the world of missionaries under the leadership of
Pigneau de Béhaine, 70 years ago in 1774. “Though it
was not composed into a book, this system of Quoc
Ngu was applied and spread among missionaries in the
Inner Land and Outter Land, or at least applied in the
South under the leadership of the bishop” (Lê, 1961,
38-40). One of the notable aspects of this handwritten
dictionary was an uniform system of writing-spelling
in the book (“Thánh giáo Yếu lý Quốc ngữ” in Han-
Nom and Quoc Ngu Latin, also composed by Pigneau
de Béhaine).
Prior to 1954, former chief executive EFEO Louis
Mallaret claimed that there was a need to compare the
Vietnamese - Latin dictionary published in 1838 and the
handwritten work of Pigneau de Behaine in 1772-1773,
to evaluate the contribution of each author. In Vietnam,
until the beginning of 1990 (which was after a copy of
Meanwhile, linguist Doan Thien Thuat highlights
the importance of Taberd's dictionary, saying that
without his work, the writing system would take much
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longer to become popular... (Taberd dictionary) helped
to spread the system. It made Pigneau de Béhaine's
system popular and preserved it to current days (Đoàn,
2008, 433) (5).
This is considered to be a significant shift (this
effectively ends the clash between tilde and High-rising
broken tone). The removal of tilde may not be to erase
the trace of Portuguese in Quoc Ngu, like many assume.
Many legacies of the “Portuguese period” remain in the
Béhaine - Taberd writing - spelling system (see 1.3.1),
and the removal of tilde gave way to a simpler, more
streamlined, and convenient system (not being clashed
with the High-rising broken tone in the system of six
tones of Vietnamese).
2.2.2. Comparisions to modern-day spelling system
Alphabet
The number of alphabet letters in Béhaine - Taberd
dictionaries is the same as the number of letters in a
modern alphabet. As for the order of the letters, other
than a notable difference being the letter “Y” being
placed for “I”, the biggest difference when compared to
modern dictionaries is the omission of the letter “P” in
b. Comparing rhymes in Pigneau de Behaine's
dictionairy and Alexandre de Rhodes's dictionairy
(during the Portugese period) to modern day writing
- spelling system
Béhaine
-
Taberd dictionaries (many modern
dictionaries have added this letter in with other words
that originated from foreign countries, but this is
considered to be part of the localization process).
Here are three statistical tables by Nguyen Thi Bach
Nhan (Thesis “The transformations of Quoc Ngu's letter
from 1620 to 1877”):
Rhyme
* Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin dictionary (1651)
a. Tilde of last vowel (˜ or ~) is turned to “ng”
Chart 1. “List of rhymes without prevocalic” (page 63)
Vietnamese single vowel in Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin dictionary
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Le Nam, Nguyen Van Hiep
Chart 2. List of rhymes (without prevocalic)
Diphthongs in Vienamese - Portuguese - Latin
Chart 3. List of rhymes (without prevocalic)
in Pigneau de Béhaine's Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin dictionary
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e. Outdated rhymes
In comparison, we can see that the rhymes in
For example, the rhyme “ƠU” in BƠU or MỞU, or
NGỚU no longer exist
Vietnamese - Latin dictionary (1773) in the above
charts are identical to rhymes in modern dictionary
(expect for rhymes that are related to the letter “I”, see
section D). On the opposite hand, there are many
differences between the modern writing - spelling
system compared to the Vietnamese - Portuguese -
Latin (1651).
2.3. Reasons that led to Bé haine - Taberd's
dictionaries success
Building and establishing Quoc Ngu writing -
spelling system is a product of a long process (at least
more than a century) of experiments, testing, and
adjustments. The Béhaine - Taber's dictionaries are the
almost completed product of this whole process. What
led to the success of these dictionaries, especially the
dictionary that Pigneau de Béhaine published in India
(1772 - 1773), in the time when Vietnam was going
through chaos and wars, will certainly be the topic of
other researches. One of the biggest questions is: Did
this important handwritten dictionary inherit the
composing methods of other national dictionaries in
Europe that were also in the forming process? Firstly,
the four main characteristics that contributed to the
success and accepted by Vietnamese linguists are:
c. Cases where rhyme no longer exists in modern
spelling system, but has been replaced with
alternatives
+ Ếc - > Ếch; Lậnh - > Lệnh (or Lịnh); Ngèo -> Nghèo
Trần Nghĩa (1994) noted very few occasions where
the old spelling system is reserved: Aóng can be written
as Óng (p. 73), Cặch -> Kệch (p. 171) or Mằu -> Màu
(p. 352).
In the case of aong, Nguyen Thi Bach Nhan’s
indicates the rhyme /ɔŋ/ appears 475 times, including
451 as ong and 24 times as aong (taking just 4.85%)
(Nguyễn, 1994a, 113 -114). Ong, as a new way of
spelling, is more relevant in the work of Béhaine.
2.3.1. Turning points in phonetics
The change in Vietnamese's phonetics made
Vietnamese at the end of 19th century sound like the
Vietnamese of today.
d. Cases that Beahaine was uncertain of
Nguyen Thi Bach Nhan especially noted that
writing au - ău to spell /ăw/ has roughly the same
frequency (87 and 62 times out of 149, accounting for
58% and 42%). According to the author, Pigneau de
Béhaine kept the spelling ău, which originated from the
Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin dictionary (and has
become the traditional way of spelling for over a
century), showing that he was indecisive in certain cases
of spelling (Nguyễn, 1994a, 111-112).
+ The loss of certain double consonants (bl, ml, tl
and classic b).
+ Changes in rhymes: Vietnamese at the end of the
17th, 18th centuries tended to extend when pronouncing
and say the consonant with a greater volume in the latter
part of the speech. At the end of the 18th century, there
is a tendency to pronounce less ang > ăng, ơng > âng, or
ơc > âc (Đoàn, 2008, 435).
2.3.2. The uniformed spelling system
- The I and Y issue
Doan Thien Thuat emphasized the main progress of
changes in spelling through dozens of Quoc Ngu's
literature, especially in the case of word ng which was
used in parallel with tilde to create the consonant /ŋ/. In
the case of rhymes that end with ng, the role that
Pigneau de Béhaine played in using a uniform letter is
clear (Đoàn, 2008, 436).
+ I in “uiê”: DUIÊN (Duyên), KHUIẾT (Khuyết).
+ I in “ui”: HUINH (Huynh) or HUÌNH (Huỳnh).
+ I in “uia”: KHUIA (Khuya).
The letter “I” and “Y” are often used to replace
each other from then to now (Cao, 2014). In the
Vietnamese - French dictionary, composed by Joesph
Simon Theurel and published in 1877, the word
HUINH, HUÌNH is placed right after HUYẾT,
HUYỆT, HUYỄN (Theurel, 1877, 189).
2.3.3. Greater understanding of phonetics
We can say that Pigneau de Béhaine created a
Quoc Ngu revolution. This change caused a shift in the
Quoc Ngu from a system that was based on phonetics
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Le Nam, Nguyen Van Hiep
(a way to pronounce that aids foreigners to learn
Vietnamese - added by author) to a system that based
on phonetic recording (which is built from the inputs of
native - added by author) (T. B. N. Nguyễn, 1994b).
3. Contributions prior to Pigneau de Bé haine:
the marks of the “Portugese period”
Quoc Ngu is a writing system that aims towards the
recording of language phonetics, based on the
separation of words to small bits with different values,
called as phonemes. The development of Quoc Ngu
script using European character is a long process, with
contributions from many, including Vietnamese.
Documents show that at the end of the 17th century,
Quoc Ngu began to have a more stable outlook,
especially with the release of the Vietnamese-
“While using Quoc Ngu, its users slowly realized
the importance of rhymes that they hear and that
reflects in the writing system” (Đoàn, 2008, 435).
Perhaps missionaries had asked for a collaboration
with the native, as an amateur linguist, to test phonetic
solutions. The native with some knowledge about
phonetics and spelling has played an important part in
choosing a writing - spelling system that suits the
community.
Portuguese
-
Latin
dictionary
(Dictionarium
Annamaticum - Lusitinum et Latinum) by priest Rhodes
(1651) in Rome
The uniformization of writing the diphthong /uo/ is
͜
seen as an important shift. This diphthong combines
with the off-glide /i/, in Béhaine's dictionary, is written
as "uôi", in Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin (de
Rhodes) has 8 ways: uôi, uoi, uêi, uâi, uôy, uây, oây, oêi
(Table 19, (Nguyễn, 1994a, 115-116). This is perhaps
because the users are becoming increasingly aware of
the value of rhymes that they hear, uniforming it, and
making it easer to write. We think that this can be the
principle behind Pigneau de Béhaine's decision to
choose this way of spelling.
3.1. Main achievements of the "Portuguese period"
When developing Quoc Ngu to write Vietnamese, a
language that has very different phonetics compared to
European languages, its contributors use existing
Roman characters and also add new characters.
Quoc Ngu “de Rhodes era”, or the “Portuguese
period” uses many characters in the European alphabet
to write Vietnamese.
Consonants: Nguyen Thi Bach Nhan's examination
of “Briefings on Annam or Dong Kinh” ( Vietnamese -
Portuguese- Latin) and “Origins of Vietnamese's
alphabet” of A-G. Haudricourt - 1949) shows that the
first 31 consonants, other than the letters in Roman first
consonants chart (B,C,D,Đ which D with an extra sign,
NH), there are letters that originated or are directly from
Latin letters (L, M, N, Q, T, V/U), Portuguese letters
(CH, GI, NH, X), Spanish (CH, X), Greek (B, H, K,
KH, PH, TH), modern Italian (G, GH, NG), Germany
(K), self made double consonants (BL, ML, TL)… or
borrowed words with different pronunciations (S, TR)
(Nguyễn, 1994a, 52-54). The number of consonants, in
the documentary “Yearly records sent to priests
supervising in Japan and China” of Gaspar de Amiral is
almost the same, with only 4 missing (bl, g, gh and ml).
2.3.4. The Bé haine - Taberd's dictionaries are
not only for Vietnamese - Latin translation but
also for Nom
The Béhaine - Taberd's dictionaries are not only
for Vietnamese - Latin translation, but also for Nom.
Though this dictionary follows the A, B, C order of
Europe, characters in Nom are prioritized. The team
that contributed to this certainly knows Western
Europe and Viet - Han cultures, as their suggestions
can affect the whole community, especially the Nho
community, which then was considered to be the
higher class in Vietnamese society and led to greater
acceptance.
We know that alongside the Vietnamese - Latin
dictionary (including Nom), Pigneau de Béhaine also
left another important handwritten work: the Han -
Viet - Latin. The dictionary follows the order of Han
character, with the equivalent in Vietnamese (which
follows Europe's alphabet order) and explanation in
Latin. This is a very rare work, but has not been
analyzed by researchers in Vietnam (Béhaine, 1999).
Vowels: A, E, I, O, U are directly taken from the
Latin alphabet, with the letter Y coming from Greek.
Some vowels with diacritics already exist in European
languages ((â, ô, ê). Others that did not exist yet such as
(ơ, ư) were inspired from Eastern Roman, with letters
such as ü, ö.
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Vowels: A, E, I, O, U are directly taken from the
Latin alphabet, with the letter Y coming from Greek.
Some vowels with diacritics already exist in European
languages ((â, ô, ê). Others that did not exist yet such as
(ơ, ư) were inspired form Eastern Roman, with letters
such as ü, ö.
Vietnamese has so many dialects and subdialects that
could have changed in this time.
In complicated cases, the spelling solution that was
provided before Béhaine - Taberd's dictionaries were
scattered. Speaking of this, linguist Hoang Phe was
sympathetic: “the rhymes that have changed are
complicated ones, structured- wise, and analyzing them
is diffifcult. In these cases, the creators of Quoc Ngu
was troubled. In modern Quoc Ngu, if not all, rhymes
that use similar phonetics still struggle to make sense”.
(P. Hoàng, 1961, 16-17). The author mentioned how the
rhyme ây has 5 ways of writing, other than ây, there is
êy (ếy, lếy), êi (ai nếi), âi (đầi tớ) and ei (quéi)…
(Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin dictionary). According
to Hoang Phe, possible reasons for this are because the
author of the dictionary based their works on previous
issued documents, or based it from dialects of different
areas, or the author hesitated due to the lack of
analyzation of certain syllables.
Tones: Using tone marks to signify Vietnamese tones
Tones and rhymes are crucial in understanding
Vietnamese and this is a great challenge for foreigners:
“The phonemes in European languages are segmental
phonemes, linear, allowing researchers to separate them.
On the opposite hand, in Vietnamese and other South
East Asian languages, the phonemes are featured on a
different level, embedded, with a tone as unsegmented
phoneme covering all syllables, blurring the line of
syllables” (Hoàng T. C., 1989, 111).
Seperating unsegmental tone allows linguists to
encode the complicated “rhymes” section (including
single vowel/ or diphthong + final consonant/off-glide)
along with on-glide. Seperating phonemes, using
different diacritic with vowels, building a tone system,
seperating tone from rhymes are important achievements
of the Portuguese period (Nguyễn, 1994a, 30).
3.2.2. Limitations
Doan Thien Thuat, in the book “Quoc Ngu script in
century XVIII”, based on his analyzation of 42 Quoc
Ngu books prior to the Béhaine-Taberd's dictionaries,
also noted that there are many vowels or rhymes that are
described using different spellings. For example, the
As noted by Alexandre de Rhodes, tone is very
important in Vietnamese. “We say that voice is the soul
of words in this language, so it is important to pay
attention to them. Because of this, we use tone marks
from Greek, such as acute, grave, and circumflex for
them, because they are not enough […]. However, all
the tones of this language are divided into six
categories, so all words of this language belong to one
of these six categories, and in reality, there is no
exception” (Fernandes & Assunção, 2017, 168) (6).
diphthong /uo/ when combined with different finals lead
͜
to 18 different ways of writing (uom, uâm, uôt, uot, uât,
oân, oât, oat, uâng, uoc, oâc, uôy, uoi, uâi, uây, oây,
uêi). Or the diphthong /ie/ has six ways of spelling
͜
(Đoàn, 2008, 426 - 427).
Overall, spelling in the 17th was not uniformed. One
of the reasons is hue of vowel in rhyme depends on the
last consonant/off-glide. Researching on the changes of
modern Vietnamese phonemes, linguist Hoang Thi Chau
imagined dozens of complicated changes of Vietnamese's
phonenemes in the last 5 centuries, which includes the
time when creators of Quoc Ngu were creating a writing
system for Vietnamese. Most notable is the complicated
relationship in rhymes between vowels and last
consonant/off-glide (Hoàng T. C., 1989, 153).
3.2. Rhymes - a huge obstacle
3.2.1. Challenges
The Quoc Ngu of 17th century of de Rhodes is
still very different than the uniformed version of
Pigneau de Béhaine in the latter years. The main
difference is rhymes-related. Rhymes in Vietnamese,
for the most part, are not similiar to ones in European
languages. They have complex structures, and
missionaries back then could not identify phonemes
effectively. This is especially hard because
In conclusion, the differences in Vietnamese
between regions, alongside the rapid changes of the
language in this period, and limitations in understanding
rhymes, all led to the lack of an appropriate phoneme-
spelling system for Quoc Ngu during the period prior to
127
Le Nam, Nguyen Van Hiep
Béhaine - Taberd. (see the section “On the marks and
other signals in vowels”, Vietnamese - Portuguese-
Latin dictionary of Rhodes (1651, 10-11))
European
-
Vietnamese in
a
close Catholic
environment or multi-cultural Catholic/ Oriental
studies/ Nho studies.... has become public property.
The debate seems to be over. However, there is a
contradiction: right when the Latin’s based Quoc Ngu
formed with inputs from the Béhaine - Taberd's
dictionaries, finally proved its immovable position in
Vietnam's society, there is a proposal to reform it on a
major scale (Bui Hien's project) that disturbed society,
even causing paranoia in a section of the public. A
project is considered to be "impossible" (V. H. Nguyễn,
2017), but forced authorities to raise their voices. Many
bring their theories, that if the knowledge about Béhaine
and Taberd's valuable works was more widespread, and
educated at school, then proposal from Bùi Hiền would
only push some discussion in its field and failed to reach
its eventual popularity. However, this stir did have
several positive notes. As for the history of Quoc Ngu,
the value of Nam Hiệp Dương Việt's dictionary by
Taberd suddenly became well-known, helping to gain
attention from experts to an abandoned field.
4. General comments
How Quoc Ngu was completed at the end of the
18th and beginning of the 19th century remains a topic
that needs to be uncovered by linguists, phonologists, as
well as history researchers. However, two general
comments can be made about the Quoc Ngu's language
system under Béhaine - Taberd and issues regarding
reforming Quoc Ngu.
4.1 The phoneme record system has become a
public property.
The Quoc Ngu script is phonetic writing type.
This type of script is intended to record the sound of
language, based on the segment of speech into the
smallest units of distinctive value, called phonemes.
However, there is an important note that this letter is
understood as the representative of the language it
serves, linked to vocabulary and grammar knowledge,
and certain phoneme solution of that language, and
should not be understood as a pure shorthand of a
language (7)/ In reality, the final goal and also the
everyday goal of phonetic writing system is to encode
and recover meanings that linguists have identified in
the form of a graph (only linguists would care about
how letter is encoded and reflect a language's
phonology structure, while regular users rarely care
about this complicated matter). From this view,
overall, the Béhaine - Taberd 's dictionaries have
accomplished the goal to encode in a uniformed and
effective method, aiding in the recovery of
communication meanings, and very convenient for its
users. The writing and spelling system of Quoc Ngu
that the Béhaine - Taberd established and used
effectively came at the turn of the 19th century - early
20th, and should there be another time-consuming
reform to provide solutions? This was the exact
question that was asked at the beginning of the 20th
century. The answer is no! Other than a couple of
individuals, there is no society group that dare to go on
an adventure with the reform of the historical Quoc
Ngu (10). The Quoc Ngu system that was completed at
the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century -
the product of interaction, a close relationship between
4.2. Delusions about reform: The effects of
ignoring research on the history of language
Quoc Ngu's script is a fairly scientific phonetics
writing system. The people who wanted to reform
Quoc Ngu did not understand the basic that this script
is the product of hard work over centuries, the product
of Western's educated class on a high-class language,
accepted firstly by Catholics and later widespread
accepted by Vietnamese, using it as a primary
communication tool, replacing a writing system that
lost its historical position (Han script) and a script that
could not become an effective script in the workspace
for its nation (Nom script). Many advantages came
together to form Quoc Ngu's writing and spelling
system formed at the end of the 18th, beginning of the
19th century. From this period onwards, there will be
very few minimal changes, adjusting in detail and
partially, and this system will not accept any major
change.
There is a sad reality that in modern research on
languages, especially in the majority of introduction to
linguistics books, the introduction to writing systems is
very underwhelming, mostly appearing in the last few
chapters. Perhaps modern-day linguists still pay too
much attention to Saussure's instruction: " Language
128
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and writing are two distinct systems of signs; the
second exists for the sole purpose of representing the
first. The linguistic object is not both the written and
the spoken forms of words; the spoken forms alone
constitute the object" (Saussure, 1959, 23) (8). The
science of the history of writing, specifically Quoc
Ngu, must be built on strong foundations on research
methodology because this is an interdisciplinary
research subject, placed at the intersection between
phonetics - phonology and spelling, but also related to
other fields, such as social history, culture, political,
social science and psychology, even jurisprudence. A
solid methodological foundation will limit the
damaging consequences of delusions that forcefully
interfere with this delicate matter.
discussed, since it is impossible to approach the
original copy. The original copy of Pigneau de
Béhaine's is considered burned, and the only copy is
stored at the MEP archive - Paris Foreign Missions
Society). However, after the country was united,
Pigneau de Béhaine's is no longer mentioned. In 1994,
Han Nom Research Institute decided to upload this
dictionary, because “this is a precious work, which can
help us in researching ancient Vietnamese and Quoc
Ngu, especially Nom during XVIII century. Han Nom
Journal, since issues 1 (14-1993) published in many
issues for its readers. The main section would be
published first, followed by the index”.
2. Preserving its traditional value: “This
Anamitico - Latium's dictionary has an important place
and value in the country's culture, especially in
researching and understanding Vietnamese, with many
ancient words recorded (…) (the notes in Latin is
valuable, but rarely used). (...) This dictionary...now
near-extinct, has so many Vietnamese words of the
past that we can examine and cross-reference. At the
same time, what is valuable is that Nom is recorded
during that period, because it is valuable in many
ways” (Taberd, 2004). Or “The Vietnamese Latin
dictionary that Pigneau de Béhaine wrote plays an
important part in understanding the history of
Vietnam, from phonemes to meanings, from grammars
to rhetoric... Pigneau de Béhaine's dictionary,
therefore, is a necessary addition to Nom circa XVIII,
and after that, the history of Nom in its development
from the early days to 1944” (N. Trần, 1984).
One of the biggest topics related to Quoc Ngu
that should be further discussed is spelling standards in
cases that are still debatable. On the principle that
Quoc Ngu is established and formed upon, there is still
a need to research and identify spelling standards: The
Y/I issue, capitalizing organizational names,
transcription or using original names, issues on the
placement of tone marks… Issues like these seem
simple but are very important in today's digital era.
Along with this real challenging scenario, issues
related to theories such as: what is reforming script,
what is reforming spelling... need to be uncovered.
Understanding Behaine - Taberd dictionaries as
foundation of Quoc Ngu's spelling and writing,
comparing experiences of countries using Latin's
alphabet, as well as phoneme-based writing system,
with similar traits to Vietnamese, will bring valuable
lessons.
3. In actuality, Hoang Phe at the beginning of
1960 saw the huge similarity between Taberd's
spelling - writing system and the current system, but
he focused more on changes. He said " We say Quoc
Ngu from the last century to now has largely remained
unchanged, if not exactly the same. This is clear when
we compare Quoc Ngu in Taberd's dictionary and
some latter dictionaries with the Quoc Ngu that we use
today (P. Hoàng, 1961, 19-20). Hoang Phe, in the
above article, aslo claimed at that Central Library in
Hanoi, there was a copy of Pigneau de Béhaine 's
dictionary but later lost, and researchers in the North
lost an important document to research Quoc Ngu
script in the 18th century.
***
(*) We appreciate the comments that linguist
Hoang Dung made throughout writing this. Special
thanks to linguist Nguyễn Thị Bạch Nhạn for her
comments of the thesis “Quoc Ngu's changes in
appearance from 1620 to 1877”.
Notes
1. Until the beginning of 1960, linguistic
researchers from the North and South part of Vietnam
both acknowledge the importance of Pigneau de
Béhaine and Jean-Louis Taberd's dictionaries (even
though the value of each dictionary needs to be further
129
Le Nam, Nguyen Van Hiep
4. For a greater overview of Taberd's life and the
Viet - Latin dictionary, read Louis Malleret 2004
(1948): “Notes about Taberd's dictionary published in
Bengale in 1838” in Taberd's dictionary, the article of
École française d'Extrême-Orient 's chief executive
(1949-1956) was published in Bulletin de la Société
des études Indochinoises (Nouvelle série) T. XXIII.
N°1 129 - 1948.
consists of black and white dots just because a picture
of her does? In like manner, we must not confuse a
segmental description of speech with the speech itself.
In a sense, alphabetic orthographies can be understood
as
descriptions of their respective languages, but in any
event the relationship between sequences of alphabetic
letters and speech is never a one-to-one mapping
relation" (Coulmas, 2003, 113).
5. In reality, as we moved to the second half of the
19th century, based on existing foundations, Quoc Ngu
was in a different position, exceeding the limits of the
Catholic's community. Vietnamese learning books, as
well as books written in Vietnamese by Truong Vinh
Ky, as well as Quoc Ngu newspapers in the South
(notably Gia Dinh newspaper in 1865) with proper
standard and widespread accepted by society. This is a
road that led to a writing system slowly accepted by
entire Vietnam's society. “His career (Trương Vĩnh
Ký) led to a strong foundation for Quoc Ngu during its
early days. From then backward, Quoc Ngu only
operated within the realm of Catholic groups. For him,
the script exceeded a “church script” and entered
Vietnam's society... Nguyen Truong To was the person
who suggested using “quốc âm Hán tự”; Truong Vinh
Ky was the enthusiastic warrior of the new script. With
his reputation in education, he required Quoc Ngu to
be taught in elementary schools... His influences and
Huynh Tinh Cua's helped Quoc Ngu to grow early in
Vietnam.…” (Thanh, 1967, 32).
8. Evaluating the importance of scripts must be
changed, because in today's world, with the rapid
development of information technology, with Internet
and advanced communication forms such as email,
chat… the role of scripts is increasingly becoming
important. If in the past, when speaking of
communication, the writing system only played a
supporting role to sounds, then in today's world, it is
impossible to imagine modern society without a proper
writing system, with great knowledge being stored
online and in libraries (both physical and digital).
There are more and more people focusing on the
importance of the writing system and types of text,
written communication across cultures in business and
foreign exchange (Zhu, 2005, 20).
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131
Le Nam, Nguyen Van Hiep
TỪ ĐIỂN PIGNEAUE DE BÉHAINE VÀ JEAN-LOUIS TABERD
NHƯ LÀ NỀN TẢNG CỦA CHỮ QUỐC NGỮ
Lê Nama, Nguyễn Văn Hiệpb
aNhà Nghiên cứu ở Paris, Pháp
bViện ngôn ngữ học
Tóm tắt: Bài viết miêu tả hai cuốn từ điển của Pigneaue de Bé haine và Jean-Louis Taberd như là nền tảng cho chữ Quốc ngữ,
thể hiện ở các giải pháp dùng các chữ cái Latin, kết hợp với một số dấu phụ (diacritics) để miêu tả các bộ phận của âm tiết (syllable)
tiếng Việt. Bài báo cũng chỉ ra, phân tích nguyên nhân thành công và đóng góp to lớn của hai cuốn từ điển này.
Từ khó a: Từ điển Pigneaue de Bé haine và Jean-Louis Taberd; chữ Quốc ngữ; phụ âm đầu; vần; â m cuối; dấu phụ; giai đoạn
Bồ Đào Nha.
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