The history of phonetics, the history of vocabulary, and the history of grammar are three indispensable areas in the study of the history of the Vietnamese language. Regarding the history of Vietnamese phonetics, we have achieved great success with works by Professor Dr. Nguyen Tai Can such as: "Textbook on the History of Vietnamese Phonetics (Draft)" (Hanoi, 1995), "The Origin and Formation Process of Sino-Vietnamese Reading" (Hanoi, 1979, 2000)... Regarding the history of Vietnamese vocabulary, we have the work "History of Vietnamese Vocabulary (1858-1945)" by Professor Dr. Le Quang Thiem (Hanoi, 2003), or it is mentioned in works such as: "Understanding Historical Vietnamese" by Professor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc San (Hanoi, 1993); "Textbook on the History of Vietnamese Language (Draft)" by Professor Dr. Tran Tri Doi (Hanoi, 2005), Lectures on the history of the Vietnamese language (20th century) by Prof. Dr. Dinh Van Duc (Hanoi, 2005)... But the work
A brief history of Vietnamese vocabularyThe monograph by Associate Professor Dr. Vu Duc Nghieu, published by Vietnam Education Publishing House in 2011, is the most comprehensive, large-scale, and meticulously researched monograph on this subject.
A brief history of Vietnamese vocabularyThe book is 515 pages long, 16 x 24 cm in size; its content includes: An Introduction that presents the linguistic and historical context of the Vietnamese language and the approach to studying the history of the Vietnamese language; Part 1: The Origins of Vietnamese Vocabulary, comprising four chapters examining four areas: words of Viet-Muong and Mon-Khmer origin; words of Tay-Thai and Austronesian origin; words of Chinese origin; and words of Indo-European origin; Part 2: The Appearance of Vietnamese Vocabulary Through Historical Periods, comprising four chapters examining four issues: the appearance of ancient Vietnamese vocabulary, the appearance of medieval Vietnamese vocabulary, the appearance of modern Vietnamese vocabulary, and the appearance of contemporary Vietnamese vocabulary. In my opinion, this monograph structure is reasonable. In the introduction, the author outlines the historical context of the Vietnamese language and his approach to studying the history of Vietnamese vocabulary. Also in this section, although not the main purpose and task of the monograph, the author has presented very specifically (perhaps with the intention of considering it as a basis for working and exploiting data) some operations of the comparative-historical method when reconstructing/reconstructing the prototypes of words (which almost none of our relevant books in Vietnam have presented in this way), with specific and clear illustrative examples from Vietnamese and many other Mon-Khmer languages. It can be said that this is also a new contribution. Part 1 of the monograph is devoted to in-depth understanding of the origins of Vietnamese vocabulary, where it originated, and what word classes belong to which origins. The author has demonstrated that the core, playing the main role, are words of South Asian origin, specifically words of Mon-Khmer and Viet-Muong (Vietic) origin. This is the most stable and fundamental word class in the entire system. Furthermore, words of Tay-Thai origin have deeply penetrated the Vietnamese language, causing profound changes, abandoning many characteristics of its Mon-Khmer roots to become a monosyllabic, tonal language. Other issues such as: words of Chinese origin and their extremely special role and position in the history of Vietnamese vocabulary; Sino-Vietnamese words and their significant impact and influence on the development of Vietnamese vocabulary in culture, literature, science, and art; words of Indo-European origin borrowed later and their special role in building and developing the scientific terminology system of Vietnamese... have also been discussed and presented quite fully and in detail, helping readers easily visualize the origins of the components that make up the Vietnamese vocabulary. Part 2 of the monograph describes the appearance of Vietnamese vocabulary through specific manifestations in linguistic data from different historical periods, thereby providing a basis for understanding its historical development process. During the period of Old Vietnamese (approximately the 11th-16th centuries), the Nôm script system emerged and developed, the dialect of the region formed, and written literary language and literary vocabulary began to develop. Texts written in Nôm script (such as: Quốc âm thi tập, Hồng Đức quốc âm thi tập, Chỉ Nam ngọc âm, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm's Nôm poems...) along with explanatory texts (such as: Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh, Thiền tông Khóa hư lục giải nghĩa, Truyền kì mạn lục giải âm...) are the first results and manifestations. Medieval Vietnamese vocabulary (17th to the first half of the 19th centuries) reached its peak in literary vocabulary, evidenced by linguistic sources such as the works of Nguyễn Du, Hồ Xuân Hương, Đoàn Thị Điểm..., and numerous anonymous Nôm poems. During this period, the Quốc ngữ script was created, and the Đàng Trong dialect took shape and developed. Numerous prose texts, letters, etc., written in Quốc ngữ script have been studied. To analyze the Vietnamese vocabulary during this period, a prominent feature of modern Vietnamese vocabulary is the Franco-Vietnamese interaction, leading to an increasing number of words of Indo-European origin, primarily of French descent; the development of terminology systems belonging to various scientific fields; and the true formation of Vietnamese prose, with early authors such as Truong Vinh Ki, Ho Bieu Chanh, and Nguyen Chanh Sat... in Southern Vietnam. In the modern period (from the mid-20th century to the present), Vietnamese vocabulary has developed remarkably in the context of Vietnamese assuming its role as the national language. Dictionary sources have been extensively utilized to compare and analyze the vocabulary of this period. In each of the aforementioned historical periods, this monograph examines relevant linguistic sources, providing specific data and their linguistic correlations to outline the vocabulary structure, vocabulary appearance, and its developmental manifestations. I believe that describing a lexical state is crucial. This is reasonable, and the author has achieved results and success.
In the study of linguistic history, the most important factor is the source material. The more new materials that are examined, the more basis there is for hypotheses and conclusions; and the examination of lexical data from the past often requires researchers to have knowledge in many aspects: language, history, culture, literature… while also being extremely careful in facing the complex issues of ancient words, knowing how to appropriately handle the “difficult cases” caused by the Nôm script and Nôm transliteration in ancient texts from a “lexicological perspective”… Therefore, a passion for science, a willingness to overcome difficulties, and meticulous attention to detail in the examination of lexical data are the primary requirements. In this work, in addition to the source materials that the author has meticulously collected, the author has also inherited many valuable materials from the works of foreign scholars. It can be said that the author has paid close attention to the actual linguistic sources of the Vietnamese language, while also keeping up-to-date with relevant research both domestically and internationally; and has made accurate observations on the opinions of previous scholars. Many careful, detailed, and subtle annotations are made in this monograph, demonstrating the author's mastery of his subject matter and his meticulousness in the research process. Therefore, with this monograph, the author has made his own contributions in both documentation and scientific analysis, presented in a concise, clear, and easy-to-follow manner.
A brief history of Vietnamese vocabularyThis work represents another step forward for Vietnamese linguists in their exploration of the history of the Vietnamese language. It cannot be said that this work (and others) fully describes and reflects all the lexical states, lexical events, and lexical history of the Vietnamese language; however, it can be considered a sketch, a preliminary outline with the basic lines and details of a completed picture of the history of Vietnamese vocabulary. What remains unexamined will be further studied and supplemented by other researchers. This monograph serves not only research and training in linguistics and Vietnamese linguistics, but also research and training in Vietnamese studies, literature, and cultural studies. We welcome the Vietnam Education Publishing House's publication of this monograph in its series of "high-quality reference materials" and respectfully introduce it to a wide readership.
(Source(Journal of Linguistics, No. 5/2012, pp. 77-80)
