Some examples of NÔM script

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     Here are some examples of Nôm script with reference to the Vietnamese national script written by some authors in the world who love Nôm and Vietnamese culture.

Nôm calligraphy and Nôm script¹

   “All in all, to the untrained eyes, the “Chữ Nôm /字 喃” created by Vietnamese has the same look to “ 漢 字 /Hanzi” of Chinese. But to Chinese, it is totally unreadable and incomprehensible. Here below are two samples of Chữ Nôm‘s calligraphy. They are not mine.

Nom callygraphy: Viet People – Duc, Tran Quang realize

    This is the calligraphy written by Hán Nôm researcher Trần Quang Đức. The two characters below corresponds to “Người Việt” (Viet people) in Quốc Ngữ.

    Here are the two verses of Nôm poem written by calligraphy artist Lâm Hán Thành.

    It is read above to below, right to left.

“Trời còn để có hôm nay Tan sương đầu ngõ vén mây giữa trời”

“Thank heaven we are here today. To see the sun through parting fog and clouds.”

(Quote from Truyện Kiều /The Tale of Kieu by Nguyễn Du)  (by Thien Luan Le)²

A modern Vietnamese text in Nôm script

   The answer by Judith Watson was right. But I think a particular text would be needed for showing a visual example. So, here is the first paragraph from The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Hiến Pháp Nước Cộng Hòa Xã Hội Chủ Nghĩa Việt Nam

憲 法 渃 共 和 社 會 主 義 越 南

Vietnamese in Quốc Ngữ

“Lời nói đầu.

    Trải qua mấy nghìn năm lịch sử, Nhân dân Việt Nam lao động cần cù, sáng tạo, đấu tranh anh dũng để dựng nước và giữ nước, đã hun đúc nên truyền thống yêu nước, đoàn kết, nhân nghĩa, kiên cường, bất khuất và xây dựng nên nền văn hiến Việt Nam.”

Vietnamese in chữ Nôm /字 喃

English translation:

“Preamble

    Throughout their millennia-old history, the Vietnamese People, working diligently and creatively and fighting courageously to build and defend their country, have forged a tradition of patriotism, solidarity, humanity, justice, resilience and indomitableness, and have created the civilisation and culture of Vietnam.”

    “There is a Wikipedia page that uses only Chu Nom and only use Quoc Ngu for furigana-styled annotations on really complex words. You can check that out.

韋 那 威 箕 /VINA UYKI /委 班 復 生 漢 喃 越 南

(http://www.hannom-rcv.org/wi/index.php?title=%E5%BC%B5%E6%AD%A3)

An article about Ham Nghi was written in Nôm script on Vina Wiki website – Source: hannom-rcv.org

    In general, it looks exactly like Chinese to the naked eye, but when reading it, it’s gibberish to Chinese.”  (by Tim Tran)³

… updating …

BAN TU THU
03 /2020

NOTES:
¹  Titles has been set by Ban Tu Thu – thanhdiavietnamhoc.com
² Thien Luan Le: a linguaphile, Dynamic System Operator at Southern Rubber Company, studied Electrical Engineering, graduated in 2012. Source: Quora Inc., Mountain View, California, United States.
³ Tim Tran: a Chinese-Vietnamese American born in Chinese – an enthusiast that really loves the Sinsopheric cultures, studied at Brooklyn Technical High School, lives in New York City.