Viet-Country

Nguyen-Du (1765-1820) "Nothing better reflects the soul of a nation than its heroes and poets. If the Vietnamese do not all agree in their choice of a national hero, they unanimously consider Nguyen-Du, the author of Kim-Van-Kieu ", a 3,254 line poem composed in the early 19th century, as their national poet. With this masterpiece, Nguyen-Du consecrated his mother tongue as a poetical language of an extraordinary...

Nguyet Cam Classical eastern poetry took on a popular flavor at the hands of Vietnamese scholars, write Nguyet Cam Heels muddied in the pursuit of wealth and fame Weather-beaten face revealing life's cataclysmus Thoughts of drifting fate brings pain Bubbles in the ocean of misery Duckweed at the edge of the dark shore The taste of life numbs the bitter tongue The journey through...

Vietnamese is the language spoken by some 77 million people inside and outside Vietnam. Origin of the Vietnamese Language The origin of the Vietnamese language is the subject of debate among linguists. It is usually put in a language family by itself along with Muong, a language spoken by a group of highlanders in North Viet Nam. Although it is evident that Vietnamese did not have its origins in Chinese, the influence...

More than once, I have been asked to write my name in "real Vietnamese" and not in "English". Most Americans expect the written Vietnamese to look like the Chinese characters, or the written Korean, or the Japanese Hira-gana and Kata-gana. My "English" name is actually written in the modern romanized Vietnamese - the Japanese equivalent is Romaji - without the diacritical marks above, under or by the side of the vowels. In...

Did the Vietnamese people have their own system of writing before their cultural contact with China? This is a question which archaeology and linguistics have also so far been unable to answer. During the centuries of Chinese occupation, Chinese was in Vietnam, as Latin in medieval France, the only written language, used in official documents as well as literary works. The Chinese characters were called "Chu Nho", which...