Editing Vietnamese language (section)

==Writing systems==
{{Main|History of writing in Vietnam|Vietnamese Braille}}
[[File:Tale of Kieu parallel text.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|The first two lines of the classic Vietnamese epic poem ''[[The Tale of Kieu|The Tale of Kiều]]'', written in the [[Chữ Nôm|Nôm script]] and the modern Vietnamese alphabet. Chinese characters representing Sino-Vietnamese words are shown in {{color|#1b9e77|green}}, characters borrowed for similar-sounding native Vietnamese words in {{color|#7570b3|purple}}, and invented characters in {{color|#d95f02|brown}}.]]
[[File:Nhật dụng thường đàm, p. 38.jpg|thumb|In the [[bilingual]] dictionary ''Nhật dụng thường đàm'' (1851), Chinese characters ({{lang|vi|chữ Nho}}) are explained in {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}}.]]
[[File:Taberd dictionary.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Louis Taberd]]'s dictionary ''Dictionarium anamitico-latinum'' (1838) represents Vietnamese (then Annamese) words in the Latin alphabet and {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}}.]]
[[File:HoaloHaNoi070720091321.jpg|thumb|A sign at the [[Hỏa Lò Prison]] museum in Hanoi lists rules for visitors in both Vietnamese and English.]]

After ending a millennium of [[Vietnam under Chinese rule|Chinese rule]] in 939, the Vietnamese state adopted [[Literary Chinese]] (called {{lang|vi|văn ngôn}} {{linktext|lang=zh|文言}} or {{lang|vi|Hán văn}} {{linktext|lang=zh|漢文}} in Vietnamese) for official purposes.<ref>{{cite book | title = Asia's Orthographic Dilemma | surname = Hannas | given = Wm. C. | publisher = University of Hawaii Press | year = 1997 | isbn = 978-0-8248-1892-0 | pages = 78–79, 82 }}</ref>
Up to the late 19th century (except for two brief interludes), all formal writing, including government business, scholarship and formal literature, was done in Literary Chinese, written with [[Chinese characters]] ({{lang|vi|[[chữ Hán]]}}).{{sfn|Marr|1984|p=141}} Although the writing system is now mostly in [[Chữ Quốc ngữ|''chữ'' ''Quốc ngữ'']] ([[Latin script]]), Chinese script known as chữ Hán in Vietnamese as well as chữ Nôm (together, Hán-Nôm) is still present in such activities such as [[Vietnamese calligraphy]].

=== Chữ Nôm ===
{{main|Chữ Nôm}}
From around the 13th century, Vietnamese scholars used their knowledge of the Chinese script to develop the {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}} ({{literal translation|Southern characters}}) script to record folk literature in Vietnamese. The script used Chinese characters to represent both borrowed [[Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary]] and native words with similar pronunciation or meaning. In addition, thousands of new compound characters were created to write Vietnamese words using a variety of methods, including [[phono-semantic compound]]s.{{sfn|DeFrancis|1977|p=24–26}}
For example, in the opening lines of the classic poem ''[[The Tale of Kieu|The Tale of Kiều]]'',
* the Sino-Vietnamese word {{lang|vi|mệnh}} 'destiny' was written with its original character {{linktext|lang=zh|命}};
* the native Vietnamese word {{lang|vi|ta}} 'our' was written with the character {{linktext|lang=zh|些}} of the homophonous Sino-Vietnamese word {{lang|vi|ta}} 'little, few; rather, somewhat';
* the native Vietnamese word {{lang|vi|năm}} 'year' was written with a new character 𢆥 that is compounded from {{linktext|lang=zh|南}} {{lang|vi|nam}} and {{linktext|lang=zh|年}} 'year'.
The oldest example of an early form of the {{lang|vi|Nôm}} is found in a list of names in the Tháp Miếu Temple Inscription, dating from the early 13th century AD.<ref name=Holcombe>{{Cite book |last=Holcombe |first=Charles |title=A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century|publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1107544895 |page=207}}</ref><ref name=Kornicki>{{Cite book |last=Kornicki |first=Peter |title=Languages, Scripts, and Chinese Texts in East Asia |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-192-51869-9|page=63}}</ref>
{{lang|vi|Nôm}} writing reached its zenith in the 18th century when many Vietnamese writers and poets composed their works in {{lang|vi|Nôm}}, most notably [[Nguyễn Du]] and [[Hồ Xuân Hương]] (dubbed "the Queen of Nôm poetry"). However, it was only used for official purposes during the brief [[Hồ dynasty|Hồ]] and [[Tây Sơn dynasty|Tây Sơn]] dynasties (1400–1406 and 1778–1802 respectively).{{sfn|DeFrancis|1977|pp=32, 38}}

A [[Catholic Church in Vietnam|Vietnamese Catholic]], [[Nguyễn Trường Tộ]], unsuccessfully petitioned the Court suggesting the adoption of a script for Vietnamese based on Chinese characters.{{sfn|DeFrancis|1977|pp=101–105}}{{sfn|Marr|1984|p=145}}

=== Vietnamese alphabet ===
{{main|Vietnamese alphabet}}
A [[romanization|romanisation]] of Vietnamese was codified in the 17th century by the Avignonese [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] missionary [[Alexandre de Rhodes]] (1591–1660), based on works of earlier [[Portuguese discoveries|Portuguese missionaries]], particularly [[Francisco de Pina]], Gaspar do Amaral and Antonio Barbosa.<ref name="Jacques 2002">{{cite book|last1=Jacques|first1=Roland|title=Portuguese Pioneers of Vietnamese Linguistics Prior to 1650 – Pionniers Portugais de la Linguistique Vietnamienne Jusqu'en 1650|date=2002|publisher=Orchid Press|location=Bangkok, Thailand|isbn=974-8304-77-9|language=en, fr}}</ref><ref name="Tran 2019">{{cite conference |url = https://www.academia.edu/41197889 |title = Từ Nước Mặn đến Roma: Những đóng góp của các giáo sĩ Dòng Tên trong quá trình La tinh hoá tiếng Việt ở thế kỷ 17 |last1 = Trần | first1 = Quốc Anh| last2 = Phạm | first2 = Thị Kiều Ly | date = October 2019 |publisher = Committee on Culture, [[Catholic Bishops' Conference of Vietnam]] |conference= Conference ''400 năm hình thành và phát triển chữ Quốc ngữ trong lịch sử loan báo Tin Mừng tại Việt Nam'' |location = Hochiminh City}}</ref>
It reflects a "Middle Vietnamese" dialect close to the Hanoi variety as spoken in the 17th century. Its vowels and final consonants correspond most closely to northern dialects while its initial consonants are most similar to southern dialects. (This is not unlike how [[English orthography]] is based on the Chancery Standard of [[Middle English#Late Middle English|Late Middle English]], with many spellings retained even after the [[Great Vowel Shift]].)

The Vietnamese alphabet contains 29 letters, supplementing the Latin alphabet with an additional consonant letter (''[[D with stroke|đ]]'') and 6 additional vowel letters (''ă'', ''â/ê/ô'', ''ơ'', ''ư'') formed with [[diacritic]]s. The Latin letters ''f'', ''j'', ''w'' and ''z'' are not used.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Alphabet {{!}} Vietnamese Typography |url=https://vietnamesetypography.com/alphabet/ |access-date=2023-06-24 |website=vietnamesetypography.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=admin|date=2014-02-05|title=Vietnamese Language History|url=https://www.vietnam-culture.com/vietnamese-language-history.aspx|access-date=2021-01-30|website=Vietnamese Culture and Tradition|language=en-US}}</ref>
The script also represents additional [[phoneme]]s using ten [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] (''ch'', ''gh'', ''gi'', ''kh'', ''ng'', ''nh'', ''ph'', ''qu'', ''th'', and ''tr'') and a single [[Trigraph (orthography)|trigraph]] (''ngh'').
Further diacritics are used to indicate the [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]] of each syllable:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Diacritic
! Vietnamese name and meaning
|-
| align="center" | <small>(no mark)</small>
| {{lang|vi|ngang}} 'level'
|-
| align="center" | {{IPA|◌̀}} ([[grave accent]])
| {{lang|vi|huyền}} 'deep'
|-
| align="center" | {{IPA|◌́}} ([[acute accent]])
| {{lang|vi|sắc}} 'sharp'
|-
| align="center" | {{IPA|◌̉}} ([[hook above]])
| {{lang|vi|hỏi}} 'questioning'
|-
| align="center" | {{IPA|◌̃}} ([[tilde]])
| {{lang|vi|ngã}} 'tumbling'
|-
| align="center" | {{IPA|◌̣}} ([[dot (diacritic)|dot below]])
| {{lang|vi|nặng}} 'heavy'
|}

Thus, it is possible for diacritics to be stacked e.g. ể, combining letter with diacritic, ê, with diacritic for tone, ẻ, to make ể.

Despite the missionaries' creation of the alphabetic script, {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}} remained the dominant script in [[Catholic Church in Vietnam|Vietnamese Catholic]] literature for more than 200 years.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ostrowski |first=Brian Eugene |editor-last=Wilcox |editor-first=Wynn |title=Vietnam and the West: New Approaches |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cornell Southeast Asia Program#SEAP Publications|SEAP Publications]], Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, New York |isbn=978-0-87727-782-8 |chapter= The Rise of Christian Nôm Literature in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam: Fusing European Content and Local Expression |pages=23, 38 }}</ref> Starting from the late 19th century, the Vietnamese alphabet ({{lang|vi|chữ Quốc ngữ}} or 'national language script') gradually expanded from its initial usage in Christian writing to become more popular among the general public.

The romanised script became predominant over the course of the early 20th century, when education became widespread and a simpler writing system was found to be more expedient for teaching and communication with the general population. The [[French Indochina|French colonial administration]] sought to eliminate Chinese writing, Confucianism, and other Chinese influences from Vietnam.{{sfn|Marr|1984|p=145}} French superseded Literary Chinese in administration. Vietnamese written with the alphabet became required for all public documents in 1910 by issue of a decree by the French Résident Supérieur of the protectorate of [[Tonkin]]. In turn, Vietnamese reformists and nationalists themselves encouraged and popularized the use of {{lang|vi|chữ Quốc ngữ}}. By the middle of the 20th century, most writing was done in {{lang|vi|chữ Quốc ngữ}}, which became the official script on independence.

Nevertheless, {{lang|vi|chữ Hán}} was still in use during the French colonial period and as late as [[World War II]] was still featured on banknotes,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://art-hanoi.com/collection/icpaper/p83.html |title=French Indochina 500 Piastres 1951 |website=art-hanoi.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://art-hanoi.com/collection/vnpaper/ho5d.html |title=North Vietnam 5 Dong 1946 |website=art-hanoi.com}}</ref> but fell out of official and mainstream use shortly thereafter. The education reform by [[North Vietnam]] in 1950 eliminated the use of {{lang|vi|chữ Hán}} and {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}}.<ref>Vũ Thế Khôi (2009). [https://web.archive.org/web/20160914180432/http://www.vusta.vn/vi/news/Thong-tin-Su-kien-Thanh-tuu-KH-CN/Ai-buc-tu-chu-Han-Nom-31759.html "Ai “bức tử” chữ Hán-Nôm?"].</ref> Today, only a few scholars and some extremely elderly people are able to read {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}} or use it in [[Vietnamese calligraphy]]. Priests of the [[Gin people|Jing]] minority in China (descendants of 16th-century migrants from Vietnam) use songbooks and scriptures written in {{lang|vi|chữ Nôm}} in their ceremonies.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of World Cultures, volume 6: Russia and Eurasia / China |editor1-given=Paul |editor1-surname=Friedrich |editor2-given=Norma |editor2-surname=Diamond |chapter=Jing |page=454 | publisher=G.K. Hall |location=New York |year=1994 |isbn=0-8161-1810-8 }}</ref>

===Computer support===
{{main|Vietnamese language and computers}}

The [[Unicode]] character set contains all Vietnamese characters and the Vietnamese currency symbol. On systems that do not support Unicode, many 8-bit Vietnamese [[code page]]s are available such as [[Vietnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange]] (VSCII) or [[Windows-1258]]. Where [[ASCII]] must be used, Vietnamese letters are often typed using the [[Vietnamese Quoted-Readable|VIQR]] convention, though this is largely unnecessary with the increasing ubiquity of Unicode. There are many software tools that help type Roman-script Vietnamese on English keyboards, such as [http://winvnkey.sf.net WinVNKey] and [https://www.unikey.org/ Unikey] on Windows, or [http://macvnkey.sf.net MacVNKey] on Macintosh, with popular methods of [https://tipsmake.com/encoding-of-vietnamese-typing-methods-telex-vni-and-viqr-on-unikey encoding] Vietnamese using Telex, VNI or VIQR input methods all included. [[Telex (input method)|Telex]] input method is often set as the default for many devices. Besides third-party software tools, operating systems such as [[Windows]] or [[macOS]] can also be installed with Vietnamese and Vietnamese keyboard, e.g. ''Vietnamese Telex'' in Microsoft Windows.

===Dates and numbers writing formats===
Vietnamese speak date in the format "[[day]] [[month]] [[year]]". Each month's name is just the ordinal of that month appended after the word ''tháng'', which means "month". Traditional Vietnamese, however, assigns other names to some months; these names are mostly used in the [[lunar calendar]] and in poetry.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | English month name !! colspan="2" | Vietnamese month name
|-
! Gregorian calendar !! Traditional [[Vietnamese calendar|lunar calendar]]
|-
| January || Tháng một (1) || Tháng giêng
|-
| February || colspan="2" | Tháng hai (2)
|-
| March || colspan="2" | Tháng ba (3)
|-
| April || colspan="2" | Tháng tư (4)
|-
| May || colspan="2" | Tháng năm (5)
|-
| June || colspan="2" | Tháng sáu (6)
|-
| July || colspan="2" | Tháng bảy (7)
|-
| August || colspan="2" | Tháng tám (8)
|-
| September || colspan="2" | Tháng chín (9)
|-
| October || colspan="2" | Tháng mười (10)
|-
| November || Tháng mười một (11)
|Tháng một
|-
| December || Tháng mười hai (12) || Tháng chạp
|}

When written in the short form, "DD/MM/YYYY" is preferred.

''Example:''
*'''English:''' 28 March 2018
*'''Vietnamese long form:''' Ngày 28 tháng 3 năm 2018
*'''Vietnamese short form:''' 28/3/2018

The Vietnamese prefer writing numbers with a [[comma]] as the decimal separator in lieu of dots, and either spaces or dots to group the digits. An example is 1 629,15 (one thousand six hundred twenty-nine point one five). Because a comma is used as the decimal separator, a [[semicolon]] is used to separate two numbers instead.