Chữ Nôm, Vietnamese script adapted from Chinese characters
Chữ Nôm, escritura vietnamita adaptada de los caracteres chinos
- Date
- c. century XIII (primeros textos conservados) · confidence low
- Place
- Thăng Long (Hanoi), Vietnam
- Credited to
- Đại Việt scholars (tradition: Nguyễn Thuyên)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A writing system combining Chinese characters with others created to record Vietnamese words. It made it possible to write poetry, chronicles and works like the 'Tale of Kiều' in the vernacular, until quốc ngữ replaced it.
Tradition credits Nguyễn Thuyên (1282) with the first poems in nôm; the most secure surviving dated inscriptions are from the 14th century (Bảo Ân stele, 1343), and earlier materials with nôm characters exist. The exact origin is disputed.
What it led to
- Vietnamese literature in the vernacular (15th-19th centuries)
- assertion of cultural identity against Classical Chinese
- recording of Vietnamese names and place names in administrative documents