Bilingual dictionary sheds light on distant past
by Huu Ngoc
An ancient bilingual dictionary that will be of great use for linguists researching Vietnamese as it was written and spoken centuries ago, has been given a new lease on life.
The Dictinarium Anamatico-Latinum (Nam Viet Duong Hiep Tu Vi), compiled by a French missionary in the 18th century was reprinted last year for the first time, under the aegis of the Trung Tam Nghien Cuu Quoc Hoc (Centre for National Culture Studies ).
The value of this major lexicographic work lies with nom, ideograms created by the Vietnamese for the transcription of their language, long before the adoption of the current romanised form of writing.
Viet Nam, as a nation, came into being some three thousand years ago, in the basin of the Hong (Red) River. From 179 B.C. to 938 A.D., China occupied this country. In their long struggle for independence, the Vietnamese strengthened their national conscience by stressing the difference between the Southern Country (Viet Nam) and the Northern Country (China) and by proving that the South did not lack in things that constituted the grandeur of the North.
“Over the Southern mountains and rivers,
Reigns the Emperor of the South;
So it was decided forever in the Heavenly Book”. [Poem by General Ly Thuong Kiet, 11th century].
Nguyen Trai, poet and strategist in the 15th century wrote: “Our Fatherland, the Great Viet, has always been a land of culture.
Land of