The most peaceful Miss Chau

1. In 1962, after graduating with a degree in Literature from Lomonosov University (Soviet Union) and returning to Vietnam to teach at the Faculty of Literature - Hanoi University, teacher Hoang Thi Chau established her position as a linguistics researcher with an article in the field of Toponymy, which after half a century is still a valuable work that seems to have become a legend -Relationship aboutlanguageancient in Southeast Asiasomeriver name(1964/1966). From the restoration of the ancient form “*khloong” of the word “sông” in modern Vietnamese, the author has affirmed the role of participation as a constituent element of many river names in Vietnam, even the connection between the names of rivers has gone beyond the administrative border of Vietnam to include a large cultural area located between the Truong Giang River of China and the Saluen River of Myanmar. However, the article does not simply stop at the title to limit the scope of the survey of river names in the Southeast Asian region, but also through that to present some basic issues in the study of place names. From very early on, she tried to escape the tendency to explain place names in the style of local records, folk etymology and approached place names from the historical linguistic method. Are these theoretical and methodological issues the basis for her subsequent studies in the diachronic direction, such as studyingEtymology of the name Bach Dang River(1995),Learn the etymology of words referring to water transport vehicles(2013). However, Hoang Thi Chau is not a scientist who likes to use academic terms. After important sketches of the research direction of place names, she focused on an urgent research issue in modern life - Standardization of place names. This is an article that summarizes the issue as follows:Foreign place names on world maps: concepts, terminology and methods of importing place names(2007); overview article to establish solutions asTowards standardizing the writing of place names of ethnic minority areas in Vietnam(2004) to the “technical” article in spelling such as explaining the limitations of the national alphabet on the richness of place namesCentral Highlands Place Names on the Map: A Bridge Between Vietnamese Place Names and the World(1994), to determineThe role of F, J, W, Z in the transcription of foreign place names(2007). It seems that the viewpoint of keeping the original language is consistent to become the content throughout her articles related to the issue of standardizing place names in our country. However, that does not mean that the articles are boring repetitions, each article is actually a place of brilliant discoveries. In the articleCharacteristics of the way of recording place names in the Central Highlands on some topographic maps(1992), She helped us understand clearly that the place names of the Central Highlands on French maps are not in French as previously thought by scholars, but are the scripts of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands (a script created in the late 19th century - early 20th century on the basis of the national script with additions and improvements). And that script is more carefully identified as part of the process of encoding place names in Vietnam, which she presented in the article.The process of encoding place names in the past and standardizing the way of writing place names in ethnic minority languages ​​today(2002/2003). All of these reflections, from long articles presenting rigorous scientific arguments to short articles, are even just an “appeal” to use the original language when writing the names of the two famous rivers Danube and Don inGive the rivers their names back(2006), we can all see a persistent effort to apply linguistic knowledge to serve life, specifically and first of all, making maps, and then aiming for unity in the whole society.

2. If Toponymy is the starting point for a career in linguistics, Dialectology is the research direction that has made many people know Hoang Thi Chau as a leading expert in our country over the past many years. Before her, there were L. Cardière, H. Maspéro, MV Gordina and LS Bystrov in the research on languages ​​in the regions of this small strip of land, there were Phan Ke Binh, Nguyen Bat Tuy and then Hoang Phe. But it was not until 1989, whenVietnamese in all regions of the country(Social Sciences Publishing House 1989, 284 pages) by Hoang Thi Chau was born, the new Dialectology sub-field officially became widely known in Vietnamese linguistics. The book has surpassed the limits of an introductory textbook introducing a sub-field of Modern Linguistics specializing in the study of dialects of languages ​​by defining the research object, generalizing the nature, introducing methods, techniques and providing basic concepts of the sub-field, etc. to become a monograph on the dialects of Vietnamese. It may not be difficult to realize that the book is the crystallization of the thoughts and concerns of more than 30 years of interest in this research field from articles introducing dialects through the most visible aspect, which is the local word.Some comments on the process of standardizing Vietnamese language as shown through the use of local words in books and newspapers before and after the August Revolution(1970), to more technical articles introducing concepts such asVietnamese dialects and villages(1978) or define and distinguish the concept asReview of the perception of some linguistic concepts(1979), to articles studying the characteristics of some dialects such asSome features of the current change in Vietnamese phonetics in rural areas (through the results of a survey of dialects in Vinh Linh and Thai Binh)(1972),On the remaining four yotatic consonants in the Vietnamese language of the northern region of Binh Tri Thien(1988). As the title of the book in the first edition, Vietnamese in all regions of the Fatherland is described systematically and accurately. But Hoang Thi Chau did not describe just for the sake of describing. She was very scientific when dividing the three dialects of North - Central - South with two transitional buffer zones of Thanh Hoa and Thua Thien - Hue to come to the conclusion that the Central dialect is the oldest, the Northern dialect is a modernization step of the Central dialect and finally the Southern dialect is built on the Northern dialect mixed with Chinese, Khmer and Cham. She was very subtle when looking at the differences of Vietnamese in geographical regions to see the changes of Vietnamese in historical time. With this broad and deep vision, she contributed to Vietnamese linguistics a new direction that had not been defined before her and perhaps after her, will there be anyone? It seemed that after decades of perseverance and passion to build the first foundations of a new branch, it was time for her to rest, but it seemed that her heart that loved Vietnamese urged her sharp mind to not rest. After the "birth" of dialectology, she continued her work of providing general knowledge about this branch through summary articles. She presentedVietnamese Dialectology Yesterday and Today(1991) to summarize the Vietnamese Dialects Conference held in June 1989 at the Faculty of Philology - Hanoi University of Science and to introduce the work Vietnamese in different regions of the country which had just been published at that time - two events that had a special position in the development process of dialectology in our country. She wrote50 years of integrating dialects and local languages ​​into the national language(1995) to contribute a professional voice to the standardization of Vietnamese. And somewhere, articles about the characteristics of a local language were researched and published by her.On a hybrid language (lingua-franca) in Hoi An – Da Nang in the 18th century(1991) has helped us understand more about a linguistic characteristic of the commercial port area, which was a place of exchange between Vietnamese and many foreign languages ​​in the past.The formation of a dialect outside the national territory(2000) introduced a very special phenomenon of the Kinh people in Dong Hung (Guangxi, China) who have preserved and developed the language of their Vietnamese ancestors after nearly five centuries of exile. Especially, with her homeland Hue, she devoted much effort to the report.Which dialect does Hue belong to?in the Scientific Conference Hue Language - Hue People - Hue Culture (held on the occasion of Hue Festival 2004). With only about 6 pages, the article has tried to identify the basic characteristics through the sketches of the historical development of Hue language, to prove the conclusion about the stepping stone position, the transition zone between the Central dialect and the Southern dialect that was mentioned 15 years ago in Vietnamese in different regions of the country. The book is not simply a summary of the author's in-depth research over 30 years. There are still many regions of the country that preserve their own characteristics in their language, somewhere under the pure white pages of the reprints are suggestions and hopes for those who come after.

3. When looking at the publication time of the list of scientific works, it is very possible to think that Professor Hoang Thi Chau's research on the languages ​​of ethnic minorities is a sideline, suddenly coming up during the research on place names as well as on field trips to learn about dialects. Reality is sometimes not like what we usually see and can infer in the usual way. Who would have thought that a female student of Dong Khanh was a staunch revolutionary soldier, so much so that before her third arrest, she was hastily transferred to the North by the Organization and then sent to study in the Soviet Union. The days of studying at the famous Lomonosov University were the days when she had many thoughts. Her Russian friends would later become teachers of Russian language and literature in high schools. And what would she do? Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country and there are still many ethnic minorities that are not yet known. She understood that her responsibility was to learn the languages ​​of ethnic minorities in Vietnam to help them preserve their own culture. Perhaps, because of that initial goal, she later gradually concretized each step to finally move towards building a useful writing system for ethnic minorities in our country. Having determined her research direction, she immersed herself in the academic yet vibrant learning environment, in the basic yet in-depth research atmosphere of one of the world's leading scientific institutions at that time. She seriously listened to lectures on ancient Greek, ancient Latin, ancient Slavic and their "intricate" kinship, then diligently transcribed strange languages ​​belonging to all three branches of the Eastern, Western and Southern Slavic languages. Every week, a female student of Asian origin would be seen striding across the large yard to the Oriental Institute to attend classes on Thai and Burmese. Even without enough time to attend classes, she had a Russian friend, who later became a respected Vietnamese linguist - Professor Lekomtsev, go to class for her and then teach each lesson about Indonesian. Those lectures on languages ​​from East to West prepared her with both theory and method to study the languages ​​of Vietnamese ethnic minorities later on. Unlike her colleagues, who only focused on fieldwork to get results describing each ethnic minority language, Hoang Thi Chau had a more general view. Starting from the analysis of about 40 phonetic systems of ethnic minority languages ​​that had been surveyed and described (by linguists at home and abroad), Hoang Thi Chau compared to classifyPhonetic types of languages ​​in Vietnam(1997). Based on the phonetic system with supra-segmental units (tones), segmental units (vowels, semi-vowels, initial consonants, final consonants), she divided the types of ethnic minority languages ​​into different distinct systems: tones/tone generation, basic vowels/"dichotomous" vowels (the author used "dichotomous" but I think it should be "divided"), basic initial consonants/complex initial consonants, final consonants consisting of two series/final consonants consisting of one system/final consonants having only one or two units. It can be said that determining the types of languages ​​based on phonetics has provided us with a brief handbook on ethnic minority languages ​​in Vietnam. After all, the most important thing in studying ethnic minority languages ​​is description, but it must be a description in the correlation between languages ​​to see the differences and use them. The differences in the correlation are shown in the classification of Prof. Hoang Thi Chau is completely economical. She has connected all the languages ​​of Vietnam in a large framework with fixed positions for each language. If linguistic typology defines the task of classifying different languages ​​according to the nature of each language, then this article has excellently completed the top task of this branch. However, Hoang Thi Chau is a person who always wants to erase the gray concept so that the theory will always be green. She classified the typology of languages ​​in Vietnam to aim at building a set of characters for ethnic minority languages. From the late 80s, she thought a lot about the language policy in Vietnam at that time and analyzed the implementation that was effective and what needed to be supplemented from the approach of a linguistic researcher.Some thoughts on language policy in Vietnam and its implementation(1988). She was troubled.Why are there still many ethnic groups that do not have a written language?(1992), to analyze the role of writing in the social life of residents.On the establishment and introduction of ethnic minority writing into the lives of mountainous residents in our country(1993). And she started researching to build an alphabet for Vietnamese ethnic minorities with an affirmation of the approach and solution to this problem.It is possible to build a common writing system for many ethnic groups.(1993). Perhaps sharing the same view as a modern Western philosopher who advocated “Small is beautiful”, Hoang Thi Chau also tends towards the simplest things possible - a simple, economical common alphabet that perhaps goes hand in hand with science. Based on research to classify the types of languages ​​in Vietnam, she published a substantial work with the titleBuilding a phonetic alphabet for ethnic minorities in Vietnam(National Culture Publishing House 2001, 233 pages). This monograph can be imagined as the author's important summaries of phonetic characteristics aimed at popularizing the phonetic alphabet for ethnic minorities in our country. She advocates determining a system of additional symbols to supplement the basic letters to have a rich writing system that can meet the recording needs of many different languages. The importance of this alphabet for the preservation and promotion of the cultural values ​​of ethnic groups is indisputable, but bringing them into life is a long story that made a heavy-hearted person like her in 2004 submit a paper to the 6th Pan-Asian Linguistics Conference with the titleCurrent situation and policies for building and popularizing writing systems for ethnic minorities(2005). This article provides a generalized summary of the writing situation for ethnic minorities as well as recommendations for macro-level solutions to language policy. It seems that this woman always has a view that escapes the narrowness of the "hair-splitting" way of thinking, but is broad and open in all issues and fields. However, that does not mean that Professor Hoang Thi Chau refuses to study the characteristics of specific ethnic minority languages. For example, with the Cham language, she has devoted a lot of effort to studying the formation of the tone system of the Cham language. As a result, the reportThe process of monosyllabicization and tone formation in Cham language(1976, Russian) which she presented at the international scientific conference on tone languages ​​in Leipzig and more than 10 years later Vietnamese Studies translated and reprinted (1989). She observed and analyzed Cham in association with Vietnamese. The process of forming Vietnamese tones was proven by AG Haudricourt in 1954, but that proof was entirely theoretical because in reality the development of Vietnamese tones is a story of the past. Cham tones are forming before our eyes. In the 20th century, Cham has transformed from a non-tone polysyllabic language to a tone monosyllabic language. After many years of thinking and collecting more data, she wroteCham tone system and notation(1986) not only confirmed the existence of the tone system, but also proposed a way to notate those tones in writing. And recently, when the first decade of the 21st century has passed, she was excited to share her thoughts with a student who was using experimental phonetics to study the Cham language. It seems that the orientation of the Lomonosov University student who had been quietly and persistently researching ethnic minority languages ​​for a long time has become even more passionate with the role of a person who spread the fire.

People's Teacher Hoang Thi Chau and colleagues from University of Social Sciences and Humanities

4. Indeed, for decades, thanks to the lectures of Professor Hoang Thi Chau, countless students of the Faculty of Literature - Hanoi University of Science (now the two Faculties of Linguistics and Literature - University of Social Sciences and Humanities) have grown up, established themselves and started their careers. Throughout her life, she has always been the beloved Ms. Chau of generations of students, even those who are not Vietnamese. Recently, on a commemorative occasion, Professor Shimizu of Osaka University (Japan) had beautiful memories of his teacher Hoang Thi Chau: "...Actually, at that time, I felt like I was being held in the warm arms of my mother...". From her knowledge of linguistics and Vietnamese, Professor Hoang Thi Chau became one of the first experts in Vietnam to teach Vietnamese abroad. Was it luck or was it her tireless efforts? The scientific reports published after teaching abroad are probably the most complete answer. During his years as an expert in Germany, in addition to successfully defending his doctoral thesis at Humboldt University with the topicPhonetic system in Vietnamese dialectsShe also wrote the Vietnamese Basic Textbook in German.Group Vietnamese(1982, reprinted 1990; 212 pp.). And alsoLinguistics in the German Democratic Republic(1983) a general scientific report introducing the achievements of linguistic research in this country. The summary is a genre whose prerequisite is to collect documents and ponder over documents. Perhaps she read a lot and then with the practical mind in scientific research, which she proudly admitted to learning from her German colleagues, the knowledge of linguistic research in the homeland of K. Marx is presented richly but clearly in each stage with research trends as well as each specific research area. With the same line of thinking, after half a year of teaching Vietnamese language and literature at Beijing University, she wroteVietnam studies in China(1998) with the aim of introducing teaching and research facilities about Vietnam throughout this vast country. However, it seems that it does not stop at just introducing, although the list of works related to Vietnam by Chinese Vietnam scholars in the bibliography and footnotes at the end of the article is already a rich source of information, not to mention the main content of the text, the article also shares experiences in teaching Vietnamese to Chinese people. Regarding learning Vietnamese in Japan, in the face of the situation of many Japanese people coming to Vietnam to invest economically and exchange culture in the 90s, she compiled documents to writeLearning Vietnamese is trendy in Japan(1998) as a prediction for a cultural trend that is worth paying attention to and has a role in promoting friendship between the two countries. With a time lag of more than 15 years, we understand the value of that article even more. Besides the articles that are introductory and provide information, Professor Hoang Thi Chau is still a teacher. With her experience in the field of Teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language, she has had in-depth academic research articles participating in conferences on teaching Vietnamese.The issue of standard pronunciation and dialect pronunciation in teaching Vietnamese to foreigners(1996) is a report presenting an overview of the situation of Vietnamese pronunciation, which she believes that everyone is using the dialect of their birthplace for social communication, as a challenge for teaching foreigners to learn Vietnamese. From determining standard pronunciation using linguistic knowledge, she proposed specific solutions to those difficulties in two directions: standard level and standard operation. Still struggling with teaching Vietnamese pronunciation, after 15 years, she wroteUsing Phonetics to Teach Pronunciation and Spelling (for Students and Foreigners)(2011). In this article, she used phonetic knowledge such as the vowel trapezoid with the distinction of 3 jaw elevations and 3 tongue positions to teach vowels; or distinguish consonants into opposite pairs so that the practice of combining sounds does not cause confusion. For the teaching of tones, she provided "tips" to help children and foreigners understand and use correctly the 6 tones of Vietnamese. Pronunciation is one of the prerequisite lessons when wanting to learn and be good at any foreign language, with only two articles based on phonetics, Professor Hoang Thi Chau has made contributions, although simple, very accurate, meticulous and very useful, on the method of teaching Vietnamese.

5. Social sciences and humanities, more than any other field of study, require erudition as a prerequisite. Erudition means depth and breadth. Breadth represents a spectrum of knowledge covering many related fields, while depth is the certainty and understanding of the source of all issues mentioned. In modern education, we often discuss interdisciplinary approaches. However, without discussing the esoteric and difficult-to-understand academic approach, nearly half a century ago, Hoang Thi Chau wrote articles connecting linguistics with history. First of all, there was an article published in the Journal of Historical Research that served as an outline of a direction that suggested many remarkable ideas -On finding historical data in ethnic languages(1967). In the Vietnamese corpus, there are many components that preserve ancient elements and these components are extremely rich sources of historical materials. Although up to now and even today, historians have paid much attention to and made the most of linguistic materials exploited from ancient books, according to Professor Hoang Thi Chau, there are two particularly important sources of linguistic materials that can become historical materials: local languages ​​and place names. After that orienting article, she collected linguistic materials to write a series of articles related to the early historical period to contribute to erasing the mythical dust about the first Van Lang state in the history of the nation. Historian Professor Tran Quoc Vuong agreed and quoted her explanation of the word "tutoring".[1]. With the techniques of comparative linguistics and historical phonetics, Professor Hoang Thi ChauLearn about the word "tutoring" in the Hung King legend(1967) to prove that “phu dao” is not a Chinese word as previously conceived, but an ancient Vietnamese word that is phonetically related to pơ tao, mơ tao, pa tao, bà tao, pa dao, tạo, đạo of the current Vietnamese ethnic minority languages ​​in terms of phonetics and has the same meaning as chieftain, supreme leader. Next are the analyses of the ethnic name “Lang”, of the names of villages and communes starting with “Kẻ, Cổ” to determineVan Lang country and its territory through linguistic documents(1968) included part of Liangguang and the North of our country today. The article also attended the Hung King Historical Period Research Conference that year -Some features of the social organization of Van Lang country through linguistic documents(1968) provided a systematic view of a completely isolated and somewhat “fragmented” Asian-style commune among residential areas in Northern Vietnam provided by the Ke name system and a dense network of dialects, along with a clearly stratified society by legendary titles that still exist today among ethnic groups with a language close to the Vietnamese language. After reflecting on the Hung King era as a verification operation of the application of linguistics to explain a specific historical issue, Professor Hoang Thi Chau made general conclusions about the necessary close relationship betweenLinguistics and History(1971).

If history gives us a comprehensive view of the past, present and future, then geographical space provides a comprehensive vision, or in other words, a broad perspective in the interaction between elements. After her contributions to historical materials, Professor Hoang Thi Chau returns to the issues of the Vietnamese language itself in relation to the linguistic system and the dialect from the perspective of different dimensions – history and geography.Some features of geography and linguistics in Indochina(1985) can be seen as her declaration of the close relationship between language and geographical regions throughout history. The survey of languages ​​in Indochina shows that there are two clear regions: some phenomena are only found in the north (in Lao, Thai Tay Bac, Tay Nung, Muong and Northern dialects) and some phenomena only appear in the south (Thai and Southern dialects). The article ends with a suggestion "That difference may originate from the stratum" that has oriented the task of exploring the origin of the languages ​​present in the region in their kinship and contact relationships. At the Soviet-Vietnamese Linguistics Conference, Professor Hoang Thi Chau wrote aboutA common word for pointing in many Southeast Asian languages(1983) to determine the origin of the pointer word “ni” of many languages ​​in the region. Using the same method, using analytical linguistic techniques, she pointed outKinship of Indochinese languages ​​through grammatical characteristics and word structure(1983, German). Then she continued.Reviewing the relationship between Vietnamese and the Tai branch through some ethnic words(1998). Based on the similarity between Vietnamese and some languages ​​belonging to the Tai branch in terms of ethnic words, groups of words that are both related in meaning and related in terms of phonetics, the author has put forward her own opinion on the type of Vietnamese language. She believes that the long-term contact in the Red River and Ma River deltas with the Thai languages ​​and then the Chinese language has changed the type of Vietnamese from the Mon-Khmer base to a language belonging to the Sino-Thai family. Her thoughts seem to share the classification of H. Maspéro. And recently, on the path of always searching without stopping, she discovered an extremely rich source of material, which is the number system of languages. In 2009, when she was 75 years old, Professor Hoang Thi Chau still presented a reportWord structure of number systems in languages(2009) at the plenary session of the International Conference on Research and Teaching of Vietnamese and Chinese Languages ​​and Cultures. The article is a decoding of the number system in languages ​​spanning across different language families from East to West to explore the universal way of thinking of all mankind as well as the national characteristics of the owners of each number system reflected in language. And the number system once again provides the material to resolve a topic that has long been controversial, Ms.Try to explain the division of South Asian languages ​​based on the number system data.(2011). Although modestly titled “Try”, the article has actually clarified the residential areas of the ethnic groups belonging to the South Asian language family. The “familiar” area that she outlined in her first article researching river names about 50 years ago. Hoang Thi Chau has always been a scientist with “wisdom eyes”. She always generalizes vast issues from simple yet unique data that has surprised many scholars.

6. The five research directions in the scientific career of Professor Hoang Thi Chau (Place names, Dialects, Ethnic minority languages, Teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language and Historical and geographical linguistics) seem to be separate pieces, parallel lines in each aspect that can never meet each other, but in reality they are harmoniously connected by Phonetics. Phonetics is like a key that helps her discover new problems, examine old problems in the long journey of study and research. Phonetics provides the basis for decoding place names in Vietnam and the region. Dialects are also concretized from phonetic distinctions. Without a basis for describing the phonetics of ethnic minority languages, it is impossible to generalize the phonetic types and even more impossible to move towards building a suitable phonetic alphabet. For the field of teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language, teaching pronunciation is even more important but has not received due attention for a long time, so her instructions on applying phonetics to teaching have become even more valuable. In particular, phonetics and research techniques have opened up interdisciplinary research between linguistic research and historical and geographical research. Phonetic rules help restore the ancient forms of Vietnamese words that have been written down, and some historical issues of the ancient period are explained. It is also through similar phonetic analyses that we can see the distribution areas of related languages. It seems that phonetics with its requirements for precision and meticulousness will influence the style of linguists who use phonetics as an approach, but perhaps Professor Hoang Thi Chau is a special case. She always overcomes the limitations of petty analysis and aims at general issues, bearing the shadow of a pioneer. Indeed, throughout her life, she has been as persistent as a boat carrying heavy linguistic knowledge to life.

And perhaps from now on, “Miss Chau” will no longer be a lonely boat in the midst of the waves. Her colleagues and friends appreciate her work, her true students always keep in their hearts the image of their respected teacher, and society has its own way to honor her. The title of Professor, the degree of Doctor, the title of People's Teacher, the State Prize for Science and Technology. But it seems that all of these titles pale in comparison to the only thing she left behind, which is her thoughts on linguistics, on the Vietnamese language, and on applying them to life.

In this life, each person will choose a stream for themselves. There are streams that want to reach out to show their outstanding talent to shine under the sunlight, but there are also exceptions that gently hide themselves as underground streams to deposit sediments and also to silently water the young seedlings. Hoang Thi Chau is one of those pure underground streams./.