The history of phonetics, the history of vocabulary and the history of grammar are three indispensable areas in the study of the history of Vietnamese. Regarding the history of Vietnamese phonetics, we have had great achievements with the works of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tai Can such as: Textbook on the history of Vietnamese phonetics (Draft) (Hanoi, 1995), 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 (period 1858-1945) by Prof. Dr. Le Quang Thiem (Hanoi, 2003), or mentioned in works such as: Studying historical Vietnamese by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc San (Hanoi, 1993); Textbook on the history of Vietnamese language (Draft) by Prof. Dr. Tran Tri Doi (Hanoi, 2005), Lectures on the history of Vietnamese language (20th century) by Professor Dinh Van Duc (Hanoi, 2005)... But the work
A brief history of Vietnamese vocabularyby Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Duc Nghieu, just published by Vietnam Education Publishing House in 2011, is the most complete, largest-scale, and most meticulously and carefully done monograph on this issue.
A brief history of Vietnamese vocabulary515 pages, 16 x 24; content includes: Introduction introduces the linguistic and historical context of Vietnamese and the approach to studying the history of Vietnamese; Part 1: Origin of Vietnamese vocabulary includes 4 chapters examining four areas: the word layer of Vietnamese Muong, Mon Khmer origin; the word layer of Tay Thai and Austronesian origin; the word layer of Chinese origin; the word layer of Indo-European origin; Part 2: Appearance of Vietnamese vocabulary through historical periods includes 4 chapters, examining 4 issues: the appearance of ancient Vietnamese vocabulary, the appearance of medieval Vietnamese vocabulary, the appearance of modern Vietnamese vocabulary, the appearance of modern Vietnamese vocabulary. In my opinion, this monograph structure is reasonable. In the introduction, the author outlines the historical context of Vietnamese and his approach to studying the history of Vietnamese vocabulary. Also in this part, there is one thing, although it is not the main purpose and task of the monograph, but the author has presented very specifically (perhaps with the intention of considering it as a basis for working and exploiting documents) some operations of the comparative - historical method when re-establishing / restoring the prototypes (pre-language forms) of words (which most of our relevant books in Vietnam have not presented like that), with specific and clear illustrative materials of Vietnamese itself 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 deeply understanding the origin of Vietnamese vocabulary, where it was formed, and what word classes it includes. The author has proven that the core, playing the main nuclear role, is 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. In addition, words of Tay-Thai origin have also penetrated extremely deeply into Vietnamese, causing Vietnamese to change profoundly, abandoning many inherent characteristics of its Mon-Khmer roots to become a monosyllabic, tonal language. Other issues such as: words of Chinese origin with their very special role and position in the history of Vietnamese vocabulary, Sino-Vietnamese words with their great impact and influence on the development of cultural, literary, scientific and artistic vocabulary of Vietnamese; words of Indo-European origin that were borrowed later and have a special role in the construction and development of the scientific terminology system of Vietnamese... have also been discussed and presented quite fully and in detail, helping readers easily visualize the origin of the components that make up Vietnamese vocabulary. Part 2 of the monograph describes the appearance of Vietnamese vocabulary through specific manifestations on documents belonging to different historical periods, on that basis, to visualize its historical development process. In the period of ancient Vietnamese (around the 11th - 16th centuries), the Nom script system was born and developed, the four regional dialects were formed, the written literary language and literary vocabulary began to form and develop, and the creative texts written in Nom script (such as: Quoc am thi tap, Hong Duc quoc am thi tap, Chi Nam ngoc am, Nguyen Binh Khiem's Nom poetry... along with the interpreted texts (such as: Phat thuyet dai bao phu mau an trong kinh, Thien tong Khoa hu luc giai nghia, Truyen ky man luc giai am...) were the first results and manifestations. The medieval Vietnamese vocabulary (17th century to the first half of the 19th century) had the peak development of literary vocabulary, shown in the sources of materials such as the works of Nguyen Du, Ho Xuan Huong, Doan Thi Diem..., a series of anonymous Nom poems. During this period, the National language was born and the Dang Trong dialect was shaped and developed. A series of prose texts, letters... written in the National language have been surveyed. to analyze Vietnamese vocabulary in this period. The highlight of modern Vietnamese vocabulary is the contact between French and Vietnamese, so the word class of Indo-European origin, mainly French origin, has appeared more and more; the terminology systems belonging to different scientific fields began to develop; Vietnamese prose began to truly take shape, with the first authors such as Truong Vinh Ki, Ho Bieu Chanh, Nguyen Chanh Sat... in Nam Ky. In the modern period (from the mid-20th century to the present), Vietnamese vocabulary has developed remarkably in the context of Vietnamese assuming the role of its national language. Dictionary sources have been mobilized to the maximum to compare and analyze the vocabulary of this period. In each historical period mentioned above, this monograph examines relevant sources, provides specific data and their linguistic correlations to thereby outline the vocabulary structure, vocabulary appearance, along with their development manifestations. I think that the way of describing such a lexical state is reasonable and the author has achieved results and successes.
In the study of the history of language, the most important factor is the source of documents. The more new documents are examined, the more basis there is for hypotheses and conclusions; and examining lexical documents in the past often requires researchers to have an understanding of many aspects: language, history, culture, literature... at the same time, they must be very careful when facing the complex problems of ancient words, knowing how to handle appropriately from a "lexicological perspective" the "difficult cases" caused by the problem of Nom characters and Nom transcriptions in ancient texts..., so a passion for science, not afraid of difficulties and meticulousness and detail in examining lexical documents are the first requirements. In this work, in addition to the sources of documents that the author himself has painstakingly collected, the author also inherits many valuable documents from the works of foreign scholars. It can be said that the author has paid close attention to the real sources of Vietnamese language, and at the same time updated the relevant research situation at home and abroad; and has made correct comments on the opinions of predecessors. Many careful, detailed and sophisticated annotations made in the monograph prove that the author has mastered his issues and has been very careful in the process of research and investigation... Therefore, with this monograph, the author has made his own contributions in both materials and scientific comments, presented concisely, clearly and easily followed. With
A brief history of Vietnamese vocabulary, the Vietnamese linguistics community has made another step forward in the path of exploring the history of the Vietnamese language. It cannot be said that this work (and other works) describes and reflects completely all the lexical states, lexical events and lexical history of Vietnamese; however, with this work, it can be considered a sketch, a sketch with basic lines and details of the completed picture of the history of Vietnamese vocabulary. What has not been fully studied will be continued to be researched and supplemented by other researchers. This monograph serves not only research and training in linguistics, Vietnamese linguistics, but also research and training in Vietnamese studies, literature and cultural studies. We welcome the Vietnam Education Publishing House for publishing this monograph in the series of "high-quality reference materials"; and would like to respectfully introduce it to a wide range of readers.
(Source: Language Magazine, No. 5/2012, pp. 77-80)
