The problem of distinguishing between writing i (short) and y (long)

Currently, in Vietnamese spelling (Quoc Ngu script), people are still confused about choosingshort iandlong yin some cases. Specifically, when the sound /i/ stands as the main sound in an open syllable (without a final rhyme) after the consonants /h, k, l, m, s, t/. And therefore, there are still two ways of writing.

In fact, to discuss this issue thoroughly, we must mention a broader scope, which is the problem of spelling of the Vietnamese language in general. But that would make the article too long, so we will only mention the general problem briefly, mainly what is related to the way of writing.short i/ long y, revolves around the principlerecordgoodNote.

Those who favor a phonetic perspective believe that both lettersshort iandlong yIn both cases, the sound /i/ is recorded, so there is essentially no difference, so it is best to combine the two spellings into one for consistency and simplicity.Linguistics and Vietnamesewrite:“In current spelling, there are cases where the same phoneme is written arbitrarily in two different ways. That is the haphazard way of writing i/y and d/gi.”⁽¹⁾. And the author suggests:“Unify the writing of vowels – the main sound /i/ with the letter “i”, for example: theory, technique, fine arts,…” ⁽²⁾. Not only the author of the above textbook but also the general trend of linguistics for many years is like that.

But society does not easily accept the above proposals, even though there are certain reasonable reasons. Although the vast majority do not have a theory of linguistics, but with native language perception, people also realize that writing in a seriesshort ilike loss, lack of something, so the way of writinglong ystill maintained here and there. For example:

– At 20 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, there are two largest “literary” institutes in our country – the Institute of Literature (with the magazine as its mouthpiece)Literature) and the Language Institute (with the magazineLanguage) – then while on the other sideLanguagewriteshort i, besideLiteraturestill writinglong y.

– The Education Publishing House stipulates that the above cases must be written in unison.short i. However, when the publisher's subsidiaries were born, the company names were initially written asti(short i), but then people found it more and more inconvenient, so they gradually changed to writingcompany(long y).

– Some authors write books for the Education Publishing House, while accepting to write in seriesshort iFor textbooks, other books still recommend writing differently.short i/ long y

Linguistic and cultural researcher Tran Ngoc Them, at first also unanimously supported writingshort i, but later he himself realized that, just from a cultural perspective, it was not okay. Giving comments on the new 4th grade textbook (2005), he pointed out the practice of writingshort iis an extreme and inappropriate policy, especially when it comes to proper names, because there must be respect for tradition and personal freedom. And the following year, the Education Publishing House revised the way proper names are written in this direction. (WrittenChuong My, Ly Tu Tronginstead ofChuong My, Ly Tu Trong)

In particular, scholar Cao Xuan Hao, for a long period, single-handedly opposed the merger policy.short iandlong y, as well as the policy of improving the Vietnamese script in general. What most linguists consider the recording system1 on 1(1 sound - 1 letter and vice versa) is the advantage of Quoc Ngu script - then he evaluates the opposite:“The weakness of the Vietnamese script is not that it is not truly a phonetic transcription system, but that it is purely phonetic, and is completely incapable of the task of expressing meaning that it should undertake, and this weakness is most obvious and most harmful in the case of homonyms, which are very abundant in Vietnamese. However, just like English and French, the places that people consider unreasonable are the places that make it distinguish the meaning and origin of homonyms such as skin and family, reason and reason(in a low voice). etc. Unfortunately, there aren't many places like that.” ⁽³⁾.

Below we will further analyze the shortcomings of the policy of writing uniformly.short iand the rationale for preserving distinctionshort i/long y.

If we thoroughly apply the principle of phonetics in the style1 – 1between sound and letter, then outsideshort i/ long yIn the above open syllable, a series of other cases will have to be handled “consistently”. For example:

• i/yindependent syllable:medical, approval, meaning, rely on, request, weak and fragile,...→reality, standard, meaning, requirement,...Andi/yin rhyming combination:erudite, advise, donate, explain,…→erudite, advise, donate, explain,...
• c/k/q(with the pronunciation of “flag”):national anthem, national salvation, winding road,… → kuốc ka, kuu kuốc, kon đường kuanh ko,…
• d/gi(recorded with "do"):family education → family educationorfamily education
• g/gh(recording the sound “gờ”):rugged, jealous → rugged, jealous
• ng/ngh(recorded with "doubt"):arrogant, haughty → arrogant, haughty

There are also many other “unreasonable” cases: writinguandowhen recording the /u/ sound together:quyouoOlder brother; writeuandowhen recording the final sound /u/:dominateu/battleo; writeaandawhen recording the short /a/ sound together:San/sau(children still spell)“Ouch, oops, oops.””. etc.

If everything is revised to be consistent, so that the national language becomes a “perfect, flawless recording system”, there will certainly be a “modern” national language that is very different from the current one. The consequence is that in a few decades, our descendants will not be able to read the national language from before our time!

But more importantly, if we thoroughly apply the above phonetic principles, although we get a fewconvenientdefinitely lose a lotprofitother.

The first, it loses its clarity. For example, if the same is writtenfamilyfamilyasskinmeat,reasontheasreasonkidwill lose semantic distinction and also lose etymological marking.

Monday, it loses its richness. For example, in a proper name, one has the choice to express a certain meaning. Between the name isTinywith the meaning "baby" is different fromRatmeaning "year of the Rat". Most of the given names people chooselong y(Chinese origin) to express formality: chooseHy(hope), no choiceHi(laughs), choosePeriod(expect), not selectPeriod(bargaining), etc.

In addition, in some cases, it loses its cultural beauty. For example, between “company” and “company”, people find it better to write “company”. Why is that? Because the word “ti” is written in “ti trôn”, and “ti” also means “breast” (touching ti). Writing “company” is more formal than “company” for that reason.

That is why for the past half century, with many calls from many linguists, with a series of textbooks pointing out the "irrationality", the "irrationality" still exists!Life always has wise choices, against dogma and voluntarism.

Where does this voluntarism come from? In my opinion, it is the mechanical application of the theory of phonetic writing, considering letters as mere symbols of sounds:“Phonetic Alphabet regardless of the content or meaning of the wordbut only records the sound sequence of that word. Phonetic script is represents phonetics rather than meaning. Relationship between letter and ideahere is a relationship indirectwhich sound is intermediate: letter - sound - meaning”⁽⁴⁾(Emphasis added by the quote).

The above statement is actually only correct on the general principle of the phonetic script, in relation to the opposite category of ideographic script. The principle has theoretical value, helping to generalize perception, but when it comes to specific phenomena, it must be considered specifically. Reality is always richer than theory. In reality in the world, according to many linguists, there is no purely phonetic script, nor is there a purely ideographic script. In our opinion, it is true that the National Language script is a phonetic script, but that is on the general principle, the rest,note propertiesits not small either. In addition to symbols and abbreviations like m, m², m³, kg, kw, kb, D, ^, %, <, >, &, @, etc., XHCN, UBNN,… obviously that isNotethenThe current “hyperdialectal” orthography is a vivid expression of the ideographic nature of. The current orthography is called “superdialect” because it is not “faithful” to the pronunciation of any dialect region. The North does not distinguish the initial sounds /ch – tr/, /x – s/, /d/gi – r/ when speaking, but still distinguishes them when writing, so the form (fruit)lemon– (fight)painting,pretty(Pretty) -born(sông),… are forms of notation; the South does not distinguish between final sounds /n – ng/, t – c/, rising and falling tones, initial sounds /v – d/,… so (ánh)moon– (child)python,catch(hand) -north(bridge),invite(ball) -droop(down),… are forms of notation. So even if the forms are merged,short i/ long y, d/ giit would not add much, and it would be impossible to turn the national language into a completely phonetic script. If we were to stick to the principle of “phonetics” (say it like you write it), Vietnamese would be broken into at least two parts: the southern dialect and the northern dialect. But Vietnamese people from Mong Cai to Ha Tien have no difficulty in spelling, even though many words are pronounced one way and written another, pronounced the same but written differently. Why is that? Firstly, becauseWriting is a system, relatively independent of the phonetic system. In the early days of the formation of the national language, it may have been a system of characters.1 on 1for the phonetic system, that is quite “reasonable”. But in the process of development, phonetics and writing have changed in their own separate ways, not completely dependent on each other, finally reaching a form as it is today. Second, due to that relative independence, writing has become aother communication channelsSpoken language is acquired byhearing, while written language is received byvisionAccording to Cao Xuan Hao: “When a writing system has been in use for several centuries, it becomes a cultural tradition. Each word gradually acquires a particular appearance. A gestalt with which people have become so accustomed that it is no longer possible to change it. And the visual gestalt created by the writing is associated with the meaning of the word regardless of its pronunciation, and thus the reader distinguishes homonyms without the help of dialogic situations or the presence of an interlocutor…” ⁽⁵⁾

Gestaltis a psychological theory. The meaning of this word in Vietnamese is equivalent to the words "body", "shape", "form", "general appearance". The gestalt theory is applied in many fields. In terms of cognition, it holds that human perception is not individual, sequential but synthetic, comprehensive, and instantaneous (so some people translate it as "complete form" theory). For example, we recognize an acquaintance not by each separate feature (eyes, nose, posture, etc.) and then add them together, but by recognizing the entire appearance simultaneously. The same is true in reading, not by "spelling" each sound, combining the sounds and then deducing the meaning, but the meaning comes immediately when perceiving the entire "face of the word", without needing to "sound out" any sound. In other words, from the word, the idea (meaning) comes directly, without going through the intermediate "bridge" of sound.

In short, maintaining two formsshort i/ long yThere are deep reasons for this in many ways. As for the difficulty of writing, it is completely possible to overcome it. In fact, most of them have rules.⁽⁶⁾, leaving only the case when they make open syllables after consonants/h, k, l, m, s, t/will say below.

The case after the 6 consonants /h, k, l, m, s, t/, basically, has also formed a habit: writingshort iwhen is the wordPure Vietnamese; writelong ywhen is the wordSino-Vietnamese. Now just standardize that habit. The table below lists some cases in matching homonyms (in cases where there are no homonyms, use the symbol X; for synonymous Sino-Vietnamese elements, only 1 or 2 cases are listed, for example:glass– “separate”: divorce).

Some people may wonder: how to recognize Sino-Vietnamese words and pure Vietnamese words? Actually, with native language sense, in general, everyone can recognize them, just like knowing when to use words.madam, when to use the wordwife, when to usewomen, when to usewoman. Regarding the distinction between Sino-Vietnamese and pure Vietnamese, we will discuss it on another occasion. Here, we will only state the most common rule: Pure Vietnamese elements can be used independently, while most Sino-Vietnamese elements cannot. For example, saytwo countriesnot to saytwo countries.

But the issue of recognizing Sino-Vietnamese/pure Vietnamese is not very important. If it is standardized and books and newspapers set an example, then the way of writingigoodywill gradually becomegesturein everyone's mind, and correct writing has beenautomation, just like everyone has always written correctlymedical/ (class) i sheet, rely on/ lean on, meaning/ í ớiwithout having to think about it.

For foreign-origin terms and foreign proper names, this word should be left as in the original language. For example: hydrogenium -> hy-đrô; histamine -> hi-xta-min; Myanmar -> Myanmar; Midway -> Mít-guay.

For a nation, in a few centuries, each word will gradually have its own appearance, agesture, for a person, at most only five to seven years (assuming finishing 9th grade) is enough to form agesturevisual for each letter – meaning, and correct spellingi/yis not difficult

This issue needs to be standardized soon. Because ifshort iBeing "uniformized" like some press and publishing agencies today will create conditions for arbitrary writing, regardless of meaning. Over time, thegestureIt is shaped, wanting to go back to distinguish (meaning) is also not possible anymore.

_____________

⁽¹⁾ Mai Ngoc Chu, Vu Duc Nghieu, Hoang Trong Phien.Linguistics and Vietnamese. Education Publishing House, 2003, p.123.

⁽²⁾ Mai Ngoc Chu, Vu Duc Nghieu, Hoang Trong Phien. Ibid, p.123.

⁽³⁾ Cao Xuan Hao.Vietnamese language - Vietnamese literature - Vietnamese people. Tre Publishing House, 2003, p.113.

⁽⁴⁾ Mai Ngoc Chu, Vu Duc Nghieu, Hoang Trong Phien. Ibid, p.120.

⁽⁵⁾ Cao Xuan Hao. Ibid, p.110.

This article was presented by the author atNational Linguistics Conference 2010, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, April 18, 2010 and published in The World in Us magazine, special issue 3 + 4 (2010).