CHỮ NÔM or the Former Vietnamese Script and Its Past Contributions to Vietnamese Literature – Section 3

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Nguyễn Khắc Kham

… be continued for section 2:

II. Chinese characters used in combination for representation in Chữ nôm

    Whenever a single Chinese character could not represent a Chữ Nôm with its Sino-Vietnamese reading or sound similarities of its Sino-Vietnamese reading, two Chinese characters were used, the one as signific, the other as phonetic.

   The choice of the Chinese character to be used as phonetic was based upon the twelve rules given above by Hồ Ngọc Cẩn about sound similarities. As to the signific, it used to be represented either by a Chinese character or a Chinese radical.

Ex.: +  Nôm character 𠀧 (ba, three) is made up of the phonetic 巴 (read ba) and the signific meaning three.
+  Nôm character 𢬣 (tay, hand) is made up of the signific 手 (hand) and the phonetic 西 (read tây). 
+  Nôm character 啉 (trăm, hundred) is made up of the signific 百 (hundred) and the phonetic 林 (read lâm). 
+  Nôm character 𪡔 (ra, to go out) is made up of the phonetic 出 (read la) and the signific  (to go out).

     These examples show that the signific does not have a fixed position. In principle, it is placed on the left hand side. Such is the case with the above second example. However, for reason of esthetics, the signific may change its position.

    Thus it is placed on the right side in the first example, on the top in the third one and at the bottom in the fourth one. In this last one, always for the same reason, it may also be placed on the right side as follows. In case it is constituted by one of the 214 radicals of the Chinese lexicon, its position is the same as would have normally a radical in the Chinese character concerned.

Ex.:  + Nôm character 吶 nói (to speak) where the radical 口 is on the left side.
+  Nôm character 𩾷 quạ (raven, crow) where the radical 鳥 is on the right side. 
+  Nôm character 𥵛 nong (flat, large winowing basket) where the radical 竹 is on the top. 
+ Nôm character 峼lòng (entrails, heart) where the radical 心is at the bottom.²¹

    Exceptionally, in a few Chữ Nôm made up of two Chinese characters used in combination, both of their components may indicat the meaning. We then have a pure Chữ Nôm. Thus Vietnamese morpheme giời or trời (sky, heaven) is represented by the Chữ Nôm 𡗶, itself a combination of two Chinese characters 天 and 上. There is not even a most remote hint on pronunciation.²²

    Some Chữ Nôm may also consist of a signific from Chữ Nho or Chinese character with a Sino-Vietnamese reading and a phonetic compound from Chữ Nôm. Thus Vietnamese morpheme lời (word, speech, statement) is represented in Nôm 口𡗶 by the complicated grapheme which consists of the Chinese radical 口 used as signific and of Chữ Nôm (giời or trời) used as phonetic.²³

    With these few exceptions, Chữ Nôm of this second type are made up of signific and a phonetic, both being taken from Chinese characters.²⁴ However some texts in Chữ Nôm especially those of Catholic missionaries and those reproduced by copyists reveal a tendency to retain only the phonetic by suppression the signific.

    Here is an example quoted by Hồ Ngọc Cẩn.

   The phrase: Có xưa nay (There exists before and now) was represented in Nôm 𣎏 固 初 尼 by Catholic missionaries as follows: while it would have been transcribed normally in Nôm as follows: 有 固 汖 今 尼 according to Hồ Ngọc Cẩn or as follows: 固  有  汖 哰 according to Prof. Nguyễn Quang Xỹ and Prof. Vũ Văn Kính²⁵.

    This simplification of Chữ Nôm may be generally accounted for by the necessity for the copyists of Nôm texts to save time. According to Dương Quảng Hàm, the same motivation might have underlain some specifically Vietnamese abbreviated forms of Chinese characters used for representation in Chữ Nôm.

Ex.: + Vietnamese morpheme làm (to do) is represented in Nôm by 爫, abbreviated form of Chinese character 為. 
+ Vietnamese morpheme là (to be) is represented in Nôm by 罗, abbreviated form of Chinese character 羅.²⁶

    In addition to the above types of Chữ Nôm, namely that of Chữ Nôm transcribed by a single Chinese character and that of Chữ Nôm transcribed by a combination of several Chinese characters, a special mention should be made of the following Chữ Nôm 𠀫 𠀪 (khề-khà, [of voice] to be drawling and hoarse) and 乒 乓 (khệnh-khạng, to be awkward; to walk slowly like an important person, put on airs).²⁷ These Chữ Nôm of a unique type were found by Prof. Nguyễn Quang Xỹ and Prof. Vũ Văn Kính in a poem in Chữ Nôm by Cao Bá Quát, a poet scholar under Emperor Tự Ðức. According to the authors of Tự-Ðiển Chữ Nôm (Dictionary of Chữ nôm), these two Chữ Nôm would defy any analysis as to their structure. Personally we wonder whether they were created by the Vietnamese on the basis of the same principle of construction as the modern Chinese character ping pàng or ping pong or whether such is only a mere case of pure coincidence.²⁸

… continue in section 4 …

SEE MORE:
◊  CHỮ NÔM or the Former Vietnamese Script and Its Past Contributions to Vietnamese Literature – Section 2.
◊  CHỮ NÔM or the Former Vietnamese Script and Its Past Contributions to Vietnamese Literature – Section 1.
◊  CHỮ NÔM or the Former Vietnamese Script and Its Past Contributions to Vietnamese Literature – Section 4.

NOTES: 
²¹  Dương Quảng Hàm, op. cited, pp. 279-279b. – 三根谷徹, 安南語 [Tiếng An Nam], 世界言語概說下卷, 研究社, 1955. 三根谷徹, 漢字ガら口一マ字へ [Từ chữ Hán chuyển sang chữ Latin], 月刊百科, 7 No 70, 1968, pp.15, 16, 25. 
²²  Dương Quảng Hàm, page 103. Nguyễn Ðình Hoà, op. cited, page 272. 
²³  Dương Quảng Hàm, op. cited. page 103. Mineya Toru, ops. cited. 
²⁴  According to Prof. Hoàng Xuân Hãn, Chữ nôm was originally based on phonetic principle. Later only, it became ideographic by joining together two elements: a phonetic and a signific, but prior to this last stage, it had made use of few peculiar signs which, added to the phonetic, indicated that the Chinese character employed as phonetic was different in meaning from the Vietnamese morpheme to be represented by it in nôm. 
    Here is an excerpt from his study on Girolamo Maiorica’s nôm works concerning the matter: “Les Vietnamiens ont cherché à améliorer le système en distinguant la deuxième catégorie de caractères de la première catégorie par l’accolement aux caractères “phonétiques” d’un signe particulier dont le sens nous reste encore mystérieux. Enfin la dernière amélioration consiste à remplacer ce signe par une partie idéographique qui est un caractère chinois ayant le même sens que le mot Vietnamien qu’on veut transcrire ou ayant un sens générique se rapportant à ce mot Vietnamien. Voici quelques exemples illustrant cette méthode. Le sud se dit nam 𠄼 en Vietnamien, mot provenant du caractère Chinois qui se prononce nan en Chinois actuel. Les Vietnamiens utilisent ce caractère pour transcrire le son et le mot nam. Or il existe en Vietnamien des sons voisins de ce dernier, par exemples nam qui a deux sens: cinq et année. Les Vietnamiens ont trancrit ce son par le même caractère Chinois qui veut dire Sud, parfois en lui accolant un signe particulier. C’est la méthode purement phonétique. Pour faciliter la lecture et la compréhension du texte, souvent ils adjoignent au caractère précédent, soit le caractère Chinois qui veut dire cinq pour le sens cinq, soit le caractère Chinois qui veut dire année pour le sens année.” Concerning the peculiar sign above, Prof. Hoàng Xuân Hãn has added the following foot-note “J’ai décelé sept de ces signes, dont deux semblent se retrouver dans les caractère de Si-Hia pays qui existait au Nord-ouest de la Chine de l’époque des T’ang jus-qu’à la fin des Song, ce qui me fait penser que les écritures locales des pays limitrophes de la Chine du temps des T’ang pourraient avoir une origine commune d’ordre administratif”. 
    Hoàng Xuân Hãn, “Giroloam Maiorica, ses oeuvres en langue Vietnamienne conservées à la Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris”. Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu Extractum e vol. XXII, 1953. Institutum Historicum S.I. Roma, Borgo Santo Spirito, 5 page 206. 
²⁵  Hồ Ngọc Cẩn, op. cited page 166. Nguyễn Quang Xỹ, Vũ Văn Kính, op. cited, pp. 165, 508, 859. 
²⁶  According to Prof. Kono Rokuro, the Vietnamese abbreviated form 爫 resembles the abbreviated form of the character for the Korean verb 為 {ha “to do”} in the socalled tho in Ancient Korea. The chữ Nôm character , he added, is an abbreviated form of the character which was used for the word 羅 {là “to be”}. This also reminds us the similar abbreviation in the Korean tho (). Kono Rokuro, op. cited page 101. See also Mineya Toru, Annango, page 860. 
²⁷  Nguyễn Quang Xỹ, Vũ Văn Kính, op. cited, Lời Nói đầu (foreword) page viii. 
²⁸  Kanagae Nobumitsu, 鐘ヶ江信光: 中國語辭典 – Zhonguo yu cidian [Từ điển tiếng Trung Quốc], 大學書林, 昭和四十七年 [1972], pp.612.

NOTES:
** The title of sections, bold textes and featured sepia image has been set by Ban Tu Thu – thanhdiavietnamoc.com.
◊  Source: Institute of Sino-Nom studies.

BAN TU THƯ
03 /2020