Chữ Nôm

Chữ Nôm is a writing system that used Chinese characters and newly devised character forms to represent the Vietnamese language.

Chinese characters: Logographic characters used to write Chinese and adapted for other languages. Chữ Nôm borrowed these forms and conventions as its visual and structural foundation.
Chinese domination of Vietnam: Periods of rule over northern Vietnam by Chinese dynasties, lasting intermittently from 111 BCE to 939 CE. Chinese administration and literacy introduced the characters later adapted for Vietnamese.
Truyện Kiều: A Vietnamese narrative poem by Nguyễn Du, composed in the early nineteenth century in 3,254 lục bát lines. It became the best-known literary work written in Chữ Nôm.
French Indochina: A French colonial federation in Southeast Asia that included Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos from 1887 to 1954. Colonial institutions expanded Quốc ngữ while reducing the practical role of older scripts.
Hán tự: The Vietnamese name for Chinese characters used in classical Chinese texts and Vietnamese writing. Chữ Nôm reused many Hán tự directly, sometimes assigning them Vietnamese readings.
Vietnamese independence: The establishment of autonomous Vietnamese rule after centuries of Chinese imperial domination. Independent courts created settings in which written Vietnamese could gain official and literary use.
Hồ Xuân Hương: An eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century Vietnamese poet known for poems composed in Chữ Nôm. Her poetry demonstrates the script's expressive range and wordplay.
Tonkin Free School: A reformist school founded in Hanoi in 1907 that promoted modern education and Quốc ngữ. Its curriculum embodied a shift toward Quốc ngữ and away from classical literacy.
Phono-semantic compound: A character formed from one component suggesting meaning and another suggesting pronunciation. Many Chữ Nôm characters combine a semantic element with a phonetic clue.
Ly dynasty: A Vietnamese dynasty that ruled from 1009 to 1225 and strengthened the institutions of an independent state. Chữ Nôm emerged in the medieval period as Vietnamese court culture developed.

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