TTLA: Survey on the phenomenon of Vietnamese - Sino-Vietnamese village place names in the Northern Delta

1. Full name of PhD student: TRUONG NHAT VINH 2. Gender: Male

3. Date of birth: December 18, 1988 4. Place of birth: Hanoi

5. Decision on recognition of PhD students No. 3684/2015/QD-XHNV dated December 31, 2015 of the President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU

6. Changes in the training process

- Extend training period by 1 year from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019

- Adjust the thesis topic name according to the request of the Grassroots Council on December 30, 2019.

Original thesis title:“Survey on the Sino-Vietnamese transformation of village place names in the Northern Delta”.

Thesis topic name later changed: “Survey on the phenomenon of Vietnamese - Sino-Vietnamese village place names in the Northern Delta"

7. Thesis topic name:Survey of the phenomenon of Vietnamese - Sino-Vietnamese village place names in the Northern Delta

8. Major:Languages ​​of Vietnam's ethnic minorities9. Code:62 22 01 09

10. Scientific guidance officer

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khang

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thi Hong Hanh

11. Summary of new results of the thesis

- The thesis compiles and identifies 794 villages in the Northern Delta that still retain their Vietnamese names and corresponding Sino-Vietnamese names. At the same time, the thesis determines the linguistic origin of some village place names by historical phonetic comparison. The results show that there are place names bearing the mark of linguistic contact between Vietnamese and Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Tai-Kadai languages. Among them, there are names originating from ethnic minority languages ​​of Vietnam.

- Regarding structural characteristics: Vietnamese names and Sino-Vietnamese names both have a complex structure consisting of common elements and specific elements. The common elements in both types of names have a simple structure. The specific elements in Vietnamese names have a simple structure while the specific elements in Sino-Vietnamese names have a compound structure.

- Regarding the meaning: The meaning of Vietnamese names is often unclear. Sino-Vietnamese names are generally easier to determine the meaning, but special attention must be paid to the correlation between the letters and phonetics of the name.

- Regarding the relationship between the two types of Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese names: The phonetic relationship is much more dominant than the semantic relationship.

- From the above descriptions, the thesis initially comes to the conclusion that the phonetic aspect is the aspect that receives special attention in the process of Sino-Vietnameseizing Vietnamese village names. From the phonetic aspect, the process of Sino-Vietnameseizing Vietnamese village names reflects a number of principles:The firstThere are two main methods used in the process of Sino-Vietnameseizing Vietnamese names: the method of completely preserving the phonetic form and the phonetic correspondence method;Monday, with the phonetic correspondence method, both syllables or/or one of the two syllables in the Sino-Vietnamese name will reflect this correspondence;Tuesday, Sino-Vietnamese syllables and Vietnamese syllables have a phonetic relationship that mostly overlaps in the initial consonant part and corresponds to each other in the rhyme part of the syllable. In general, the phonetic correspondence between the names of Northern villages and communes not only provides knowledge about the process of Sino-Vietnameseization of village names in particular and Vietnamese place names in general, but also reflects the process of change of Vietnamese historical phonetics over time.

12. Practical application

The thesis materials serve research on historical linguistics and cultural language contact.

13. Future research directions: place-names, language-cultural contact, comparative-historical linguistics

14. Scientific works related to the thesis

- Truong Nhat Vinh (2018),“On some pairs of Nom names and Sino-Vietnamese names of village place names that have semantic relationships", Language & Life Magazine (2), pp. 69-75.

- Truong Nhat Vinh (2019),“On some pairs of Nom - Sino-Vietnamese names of Northern village names with phonetic relationships”, Language & Life Magazine(3), pp.15-27.

                                                                    INFORMATION ON DOCTORAL THESIS

1.Full name: TRUONG NHAT VINH 2. Sex: Male

3. Date of birth: December 18, 1988 4. Place of birth: Hanoi

5. Admission decision number: 3684/2015/QD –XHNV dated December 31, 2015

6. Changes in academic process:

- Training period was extended from 01 January 2018 to 31 December 2019

- Thesis title was revised from:An investigation into the way to Sino-Vietnamise typonyms in Northern Delta villagesbigAn investigation of Vietnamese & Sino-Vietnamised typonyms of Northern Delta villages

7. Official thesis title:An investigation of Vietnamese & Sino-Vietnamised typonyms of Northern Delta villages

8. Major: Language of Vietnamese ethnic areas. 9. Code: 62 22 01 09

10. Supervisors:

Prof. Nguyen Van Khang. PhD

Assoc Prof. Tran Thi Hong Hanh. PhD

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

- The thesis identifies 794 typonyms of villages in Northern Delta that have both Vietnamese and corresponding Sino-Vietnamese names. Based on historical-comparative method, the origin of some toponyms was phonologically reconstructed. The results show that there are toponyms which reflect the language contact of Vietnamese and other Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Tai-Kadai languages. Among them, many toponyms were analyzed to be originated from the languages ​​of ethnic minorities in Vietnam.

- In terms of grammar: both Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese names have complex structure with general name and proper name. The general name of both kinds has simple form. The proper name of Vietnamese is simple while that of Sino-Vietnamese is compound.

- In terms of semantics: Vietnamese names do not usually have clear meaning. By and large, it is easier to identify the meaning of Sino-Vietnamese names but the correlation between characters and pronunciation should be well aware.

- In terms of the relationship between Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese names: phonetic relationship is significantly more dominant than semantic relationship.

- The findings of this study indicate that the process of converting Vietnamese village names into Sino-Vietnamese mainly focuses on phonetic features. Semantic features are less emphasized. From the phonetic perspective, the integration of Vietnamese words into Sino-Vietnamese relfects the following rules. First, there are two main ways of changing Vietnamese names into Sino-Vietnamese: conserving pronunciation and correspondence pronuciation. Second, with regard to pronunciation correspondence, both syllables and/or one of the two syllables of Sino-Vietnamese names reflect pronunciation correlation. Third, Sino-Vietnamese and Vietnamese syllables which are in the phonetic relationship mostly have identical head vowels and corresponding rhyme. By and large, pronunciation correspondence of geographical names of villages in Northern Delta does not only provide knowledge of the process of changing village names in specific, geographical names in Vietnam in general into Sino-Vietnamese but is also an evidence of changes in Vietnamese pronunciation over time.

12. Practical applicability:

The thesis's materials serve for the studies of historical linguistics and cultural-linguistic exposure.

13. Further research directions: place name, contact language – culture, historical - comparative linguistics

14. Theses related publications:

- Truong Nhat Vinh (2018), “A study on the semantic relation between pairs of Nom – Sino – Vietnamese names of villages”,Journal Language&Life.Vol 2 (269), pp.69-75.

- Truong Nhat Vinh (2019), “A study on the phonetic relation between pairs of Nom & Sino –Vietnamese name of villages in the Northern Delta Vietnam”,Journal Language&Life. Vol 3(283), pp.15-27.