Language and writing

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups. Each of them has its own language and their own cultural identity but sharing a unified culture. The cultural unity of Vietnam is manifested by the community spirit, the close relationships linking ethnic groups in the whole process of evolution. The Viet people use Latin with the arrival of Roman Catholic missionaries from 1553. While ethnic groups use Chinese writing or Sanskrit.

In the past, the Vietnamese emperors of feudal regimes had to have recourse to the Chinese - Chu  Nho or Han Chinese and Chinese derivative writing - Chu Nom for royal administration.

This language was called: Language scholars which was not accessible to the class of the plebeians.

Things have changed with Vasco Vamar who found the sea road to go from Europe to Asia. The Portuguese began to come to Macao before going to Vietnam for trade and to evangelize Catholicism in 1553.

First, the Portuguese Catholic missionaries as: Gaspar do Amaral, Antonia Barbosa, Francisco de Pina ... were based on the pronunciation of local persons to mark in the Latin the names of places.

Many writers of the French colonial era wrote that it was Alexander de Rhodes, a French missionary who invented the Vietnamese! An error or propaganda of colonialism?

The Portuguese missionaries: Gaspar do Amaral, Antonio ... have already come in 1553. While Alexandre de Rhodes was born in 1591 in France.

The Portuguese have made the first Vietnam-Portuguese dictionary in 1642 while Alexandre de Rhodes made the dictionary Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin in 1651.

That means: Alexandre de Rhodes has translated this dictionary made by the Portuguese in Latin only.

How we deny the role of Vietnamese priests who helped the Portuguese missionaries to do this work?

Language is a collective product, created by the people for thousands of years during work, cultural activities ... It's too rushed or superficial to conclude that Alexandre de Rhodes is creator the  of Vietnamese language.

There are 28 alphabets in this language:

A Ă Â B C D Đ E Ê G H I K L M N O Ô Ơ P Q R S T U Ư V X Y

a ă â b c d đ e ê g h i k l m n o ô ơ p q r s t u ư v x y

The language is monosyllabic. For example: Dominique, for us, There are: Do - Mi - Nic - Que: 4 words.

There are seven accents that make the differences in pronunciation and different meanings in the same word:

For example: Long – Dragon, Lòng : viscera, Lông - feathers, lỏng - liquid .....

As in most languages, Vietnamese is a very colorful language, having its difficulties. It is also very rich in popular expressions, proverbs, national and regional slang...

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