CJKV Information Processing, 2nd Edition

Ideographs

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Ideographs in Vietnam—ch Hán

Vietnam also adopted ideographs for their language, but in a unique way. ere are two

ways to represent Vietnamese using ideographs. One way is equivalent to Chinese it-

self (but with approximated readings when pronounced in Vietnamese) and uses char-

acters called chữ Hán (genuine ideographs). e other way involves characters that look

and feel like ideographs, but were created by the Vietnamese. ese are called chữ Nôm

(𡨸喃). ese methods of writing Vietnamese are unique in that they are never used

together in the same text: you write using either ch Hán (Chinese) or ch Nôm

(Vietnamese). More details about ch Nôm are provided at the end of this chapter.

Both ch Hán and ch Nôm were replaced by Quc ng in 1920. Today, ch Hán and ch

Nôm are still being used—not for the purpose of common or everyday communication,

but rather for specialized, religious, or historical purposes.

Ideograph Simplication

Over time, frequently used and complex ideographs tend to simplify. Simplied ideo-

graphs are a class of variant. Such simplications have been dierent depending on the

locale using them. For example, ideographs in their traditional form are still being used in

Taiwan. e same holds true for Korea. Also, ideographs in an even more simplied form

than that found in Japanese are being used in China and Singapore, ...