История вьетской письменности: от иероглифов к латинице

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Spoken and written Vietnamese today uses the Latin script based Vietnamese alphabet to represent native Vietnamese words (thuần Việt), Vietnamese words which are of Chinese origin (Hán Việt, or Sino Vietnamese), and other foreign loanwords. Historically, Vietnamese literature was written by scholars using a combination of Chinese characters (Hán) and original Vietnamese characters (Nôm). From 111 BC up to the 20th century, Vietnamese literature was written in Văn ngôn (Classical Chinese) using chữ Hán (Chinese characters), and then also Nôm (Chinese and original Vietnamese characters adapted for vernacular Vietnamese) from the 13th century to 20th century. Chữ Hán were introduced to Vietnam during the thousand year period of Chinese rule from 111 BC to 939 AD. Texts in Vietnam were written using chữ Hán by the 10th century at the latest. Chữ Hán continued to be used as the official administrative script until the 19th century with the exception of two brief periods under the Hồ (1400–1407) and Tây Sơn (1778–1802) dynasties when chữ Nôm was promoted. Chữ Nôm is a blend of chữ Hán and unique Vietnamese characters to write the Vietnamese language. It may have been used as early as the 8th century but concrete textual evidence dates to the 13th century. Chữ Nôm never supplanted chữ Hán as the primary writing system and less than five percent of the Vietnamese population used it, primarily as a learning aid for chữ Hán and writing folk literature. Due to its unofficial nature, chữ Nôm was used as a medium for social protest, leading to several bans during the Lê dynasty (1428–1789). In spite of this, a sizable body of literature in chữ Nôm had accumulated by the 19th century, and these texts could be orally disseminated by individuals in villages. The two concurrent scripts existed until the era of French Indochina when chữ Quốc ngữ, the Latin alphabet, gradually became the current written medium of literature. In the past, Sanskrit and Indic texts also contributed to Vietnamese literature either from religious ideas from Mahayana Buddhism, or from historical influence of Champa and Khmer.

Chữ Hán (Chinese characters), also known as chữ nho (Confucian script), were introduced to Vietnam during the thousand year period of Chinese rule from 111 BC to 939 AD. Although the earliest extant texts written in chữ Hán appeared in Vietnam by the 10th century, chữ Hán was the only known writing system in Vietnam at the time, and had likely been used in prior times. Chữ Hán continued to be used in Vietnam after the end of Chinese rule in the 10th century and was instated as the official court script in 1010 and 1174. The Confucian examination system in Vietnam was written in chữ Hán. It remained the official writing system of Vietnam until the 19th century with the exception of two brief periods under the Hồ (1400–1407) and Tây Sơn (1778–1802) dynasties when chữ Nôm gained ascendance. Chữ Nôm is the adaptation of chữ Hán and creation of unique Vietnamese characters to transcribe the Vietnamese language based on approximations of Middle Chinese pronunciations. It is speculated that chữ Nôm appeared as early as the 8th century using chữ Hán to record elements of the Vietnamese language, however the earliest extant textual evidence of chữ Nôm dates to the 13th century. Chữ Nôm includes thousands of characters unique to Vietnamese not found in Chinese. Due to social circumstances and linguistic inefficiencies, chữ Nôm never replaced chữ Hán as the primary writing system in Vietnam and was only promoted during the short lived Hồ (1400–1407) and Tây Sơn (1778–1802) dynasties. Less than five percent of the Vietnamese population used chữ Nôm and only did so as a learning aid for chữ Hán or writing folk literature. As a result of its marginalized nature and lack of institutional backing, chữ Nôm was used as a medium for social protest during the Lê dynasty (1428–1789), leading to its ban in 1663, 1718, and 1760. Gia Long, founder of the Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945), supported chữ Nôm until he became emperor and immediately reverted to chữ Hán. Despite its limited usage, a sizable body of literature in chữ Nôm had accumulated by the 19th century, and served as a written medium for oral dissemination by individuals in villages. The two concurrent scripts existed until the era of French Indochina when chữ Quốc ngữ, the Latin alphabet, gradually became the current written medium of literature. In the past, Sanskrit and Indic texts also contributed to Vietnamese literature either from religious ideas from Mahayana Buddhism, or from historical influence of Champa and Khmer.

During ancient times, the ancestors of the Vietnamese were considered to have been Proto Austroasiatic (also called Proto Mon–Khmer) speaking people, possibly traced to the ancient Dong Son culture. Modern linguists describe Vietnamese as having lost some Proto Austroasiatic phonological and morphological features that the original Vietnamese language had. This was noted in the linguistic separation of Vietnamese from Vietnamese Muong roughly one thousand years ago.

Chinese characters are specifically called chữ Hán (𡨸漢), chữ Nho (𡨸儒) or Hán tự (漢字, ) in Vietnamese. Chữ Hoa or tiếng Hoa is commonly used to describe Mandarin Chinese, as well as tiếng Tàu for Chinese in general. Possibly even a thousand years earlier, in the late first millennium BC, Yuè elites in what is now southern China may have already adopted a form of writing based on Chinese characters to record terms from their own languages. During the Chinese rule from 111 BC to 905 AD, Chinese characters had been used as the official writing of the region. Local texts written in Chinese probably also included some characters adapted to represent Proto Viet Mường sounds, usually personal names or Vietic toponyms that had no Chinese equivalent. Even after the invention of chữ Nôm, the adaptation of chữ Hán to write vernacular Vietnamese, educated men were still expected to have a good understanding of chữ Hán and to be able to compose poetry in it. Nguyễn Trãi (1380–1442) composed poetry in both writing systems. This familiarity with poetry in chữ Hán enabled Vietnamese envoys to communicate with envoys from as far away as Korea. Chữ Hán became the official writing script of the court in 1010 and 1174. It was mainly used by the administration and literati. It continued to serve this role until the mid 19th century during French colonial rule when the traditional writing system was abolished in favour of transliterated chữ quốc ngữ.

In Vietnam, chữ Hán texts were read with the vocalization of Chinese text, called Hán văn (漢文), similar to Chinese on yomi in Japanese [[kambun (漢文), or the assimilated vocalizations in Korean hanmun (한문/漢文). This occurred alongside the diffusion of Sino Vietnamese vocabulary into vernacular Vietnamese, and created a Sinoxenic dialect. The Sinologist Edwin G. Pulleyblank was one of the first linguists to actively employ "Sino Vietnamese" to recover earlier histories of China.

From the 13th century, the dominance of Chinese characters began to be challenged by chữ Nôm, a different writing system based on the Chinese script to transcribe native Vietnamese words. These were even more difficult than Chinese characters themselves. Nôm script borrowed Chinese characters in their phonetic and semantic values to create new characters. Whilst designed for native Vietnamese words, Nôm required the user to have a fair knowledge of chữ Hán, and thus Nôm was used primarily for literary writings by cultural elites (such as the poetry of Nguyễn Du and Hồ Xuân Hương), while almost all other official writings and documents continued to be written in classical Chinese until the 20th century. While chữ Nôm had emerged by the 13th century, very few extant vernacular texts in Nôm predate the 15th century, and even later many texts in Nôm were translations or rewritings of works in chữ Hán. During the 15th and 16th centuries, reformist governments translated Chinese Classics into Nôm, but these translations have not survived due to being seen as subversive by successive governments. The Tây Sơn dynasty (1778–1802) mandated the use of Nôm in both government business and civil service examinations but their policy was reverted after the dynasty's collapse. In contrast, Minh Mạng (r. 1820–1841), the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945), prohibited the use of Nôm in both areas. Poetry in Nôm was pioneered by Nguyễn Trãi (1380–1442). He wrote Vietnamese poetry in Nôm using the Chinese seven syllable pattern. Later in the 17th century, Vietnamese poetry shifted towards a native pattern of alternating lines in six and eight syllables. The epic poem, The Tale of Kieu by Nguyễn Du (1765–1820), was written in Nôm. While Nôm never replaced chữ Hán as the primary writing system, a growing number of Buddhist, Confucian, and moral texts had added vernacular explanations in Nôm by the 17th century. Some 19th century editions of Chinese classics also included translations in Nôm, later editions of Chinese fiction started including notes or translations in Nôm, while medical writers had to use Nôm to describe local plants not found in China. As a result of its marginalized nature and lack of institutional backing, chữ Nôm was used as a medium for social protest during the Lê dynasty (1428–1789), leading to its ban in 1663, 1718, and 1760. Gia Long (r. 1802–1820), founder of the Nguyễn dynasty, supported chữ Nôm until he became emperor and immediately reverted to chữ Hán. Despite its limited usage, a sizable body of literature in chữ Nôm had accumulated by the 19th century, and served as a written medium for oral dissemination by individuals in villages.

Vietnamese in Latin script, called Chữ Quốc ngữ, is the currently used script. It was first developed by Portuguese missionaries in the 17th century, based on the pronunciation of Portuguese language and alphabet. For 200 years, Chữ Quốc Ngữ was mainly used within the Catholic community. However, during French administration, the alphabet was further modified and then later made a part of compulsory education in 1910. Meanwhile, the use of chu Hán and chữ Nôm started to decline. At this time there were briefly four competing writing systems in Vietnam; chữ Hán, chữ Nôm, chữ Quốc ngữ, and French. Although Gia Định Báo, the first Vietnamese newspaper in chữ Quốc ngữ, was founded in 1865, Vietnamese nationalists continued to use chữ Nôm until after the First World War. After French rule, chữ Quốc ngữ became the favored written language of the Vietnamese independence movement. BBC journalist Nguyễn Giang noted that while the early Christian missionaries are credited with creating the Vietnamese alphabet, what they did was not unique or difficult and would have been done later without them had they not created it. Giang further stated that the main reason for the popularisation of the Latin alphabet in the Nguyễn dynasty (the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin) was because of the pioneering efforts by intellectuals from French Cochinchina combined with the progressive and scientific policies of the French government in French Indochina, that created the momentum for the usage of chữ Quốc ngữ to spread. The Võ Cạnh inscription is also the oldest Sanskrit inscription ever found in Southeast Asia, a legacy of Lâm Ấp, Champa, and Funan kingdoms. The most well known modern Vietnamese phrase with Sanskrit phrase is from common religious Buddhist mantra नमोऽमिताभाय/ Namo Amitābhāya (Nam mô A Di Đà Phật / 南無阿彌陀佛), meaning, "Hail Buddha of Infinite Light" (translated directly from Sanskrit) or "I pay homage to the Enlightened One immeasurable" / "I turn to rely on the Enlightened One immeasurable". Additionally, many sites in Vietnam have names that are Khmer in origin, from when the land was under Funan and Chenla reign, etc. For example, ស្រុកឃ្លាំង Srok Khleang is written as Sóc Trăng in Vietnamese. Hence, there is some Khmer influence in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

The Tai Viet script is the abugida used by the Tai Dam people and other Southwest Tai speaking peoples in Northern Vietnam, from 16th century to present day, derived from the Fakkham script of Tai Lanna people.

From the onset of the 18th century, Cham communities in the Mekong Delta began adopting the Arabic derived Jawi script. Today, the Western Cham (Cambodian and Mekong Delta Cham whom majority are Sunni Muslims) use both Jawi and Latin alphabets to write their language, compared to the Eastern Cham who are mostly Bani Muslims and Balamon and still using Akhar Thrah (traditional) script and Latin alphabets.

Individual chữ Hán are still written by calligraphers for special occasions such as the Vietnamese New Year, Tết. They are still present outside Buddhist temples and are still studied for scholarly and religious purposes. Vietnamese calligraphy (Thư pháp chữ Việt) has enjoyed tremendous success at the expense of chữ Hán calligraphy since its introduction in the 1950s. Since the mid 1990s there has been a noticeable resurgence in the teaching of Chinese characters, both for chữ Hán and the additional characters used in chữ Nôm. This is to enable the study of Vietnam's long history as well as cultural synthesis and unification. For linguists, the Sino Vietnamese readings of Chinese characters provide data for the study of historical Chinese phonology and reconstruction of the Old Chinese language. Additionally, many Vietnamese may study Chinese characters as part of learning Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (since Japanese and Korean have a high concentration of Chinese cognate words). In the process, they also end up with some measure of fluency with Hán–Nôm characters. The significance of chữ Hán and chữ Nôm has occasionally entered Western depiction of Vietnam, especially since French rule. Novelist E. M. Nathanson, for example, mentions chu Hán in A Dirty Distant War (1987).