⁽*⁾ Ở câu “ước bề trả  把  ơn minh chúa” (QÂTT, bài Trần tình). 

GS.TS Lê Văn Quán

Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, Hà Nội

 

English

Analysis of some ancient Vietnamese scripts’ structure maintaining ancient Vietnamese sound

 

Prof. Dr. Lê Văn Quán

University of Social and Human Sciences, Hanoi

Language and scripts are two interrelated signal systems, however the first often changes but the last tends to static state. Language can be so changeable that scripts are no longer corresponding to its assigned phonology. This phenomenon in ancient Vietnamese scripts is expressed significantly, such as vào  읟: bao  包 (sound) + nhập 入 (meaning), of which “bao” reflects vào and this transit was taken place in the stage before the development from b > v in Vietnamese language.

For sËp : lËp  立 (sound) + cù  巨 (meaning), both components are written with phonology : cù + lËp = klËp > sËp, which also reflects the stage before the development of kl > s in Vietnamese language.

For tr¶  把 (or b¶ in Chinese character), since the present sound tr [   ] generates from the consonant sounds with b (bl, tl, tr), writer of ancient Vietnamese scripts use initial syllable b- to express “tr¶” (*). Then there is a transform from tr [   ] into gi [ z  ] in Vietnamese language, by which besides tr¶ ¬n, tr¨ng, trêi, tro, etc. we can see gi¶ ¬n, gi¨ng, giêi, gio, etc. Thus gi¶ ( 者) used to indicate its sound in ancient Vietnamese scripts is as nearly same as pronounciation in modern Vietnamese language. Here there are two issues to be addressed:

1.1. In the system of ancient Vietnamese scripts, some are structured with two identical symbols of writing system. For example : in ancient Vietnamese scripts  덂 ch÷, in ancient Vietnamese scripts   띒gi÷. It is rare in the system of ancient Vietnamese scripts. At the first sight, we deem this is a type of ancient Vietnamese scripts structured with two meaning-expressed components. We are likely to consider that they are connected with meaning + meaning. La Minh Hang calls it meaning-setting (1, p. 101) and same as characters :  뜾  trêi,  얫trïm,  헺seo,  烣tro....

If the  덂is intensively studied, we will consider it a type of sound, i.e. this ancient Vietnamese script is comprised of two components : phonetic symbol and meaning symbol.

First of all, it is necessary to determine whether the character tù  字   in Han scripts can be used as phonetic symbol component in the ancient Vietnamese scripts. In fact, the ancients used tù in Han scripts as phonetic symbol in the structural system of ancient Vietnamese scripts. For instance: gi÷ 첢 (  덁)  in ancient Vietnamese scripts : tù (sound) + tr÷ (meaning); appeared in the sentence : ë ®µi c¸c gi÷ lßng Bao Ch­ëng (living in rich life but the heart is as pure as Bao Chung) (Nguyen Trai, QATT, b.62).