Zev Handel
@zevhandel.bsky.social
Author of 𝙎𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙮 (2019) & 𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝘼𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝘼𝙨𝙞𝙖 (@uwapress, 2025). Chinese characters, writing systems, historical phonology, etc.
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295753027/chinese-characters-across-asia/
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295753027/chinese-characters-across-asia/
How interesting. The code point is for a digraph of L followed by a raised dot.
The ij digraph is presumably for Dutch?
The ij digraph is presumably for Dutch?
November 5, 2025 at 4:52 PM
How interesting. The code point is for a digraph of L followed by a raised dot.
The ij digraph is presumably for Dutch?
The ij digraph is presumably for Dutch?
I can see why cigarettes and alcohol are 迷惑, but jack-o-lanterns? They seem pretty harmless.
Are you sure that’s what it is an image of? It doesn’t look like much of anything to me.
Are you sure that’s what it is an image of? It doesn’t look like much of anything to me.
October 30, 2025 at 6:29 AM
I can see why cigarettes and alcohol are 迷惑, but jack-o-lanterns? They seem pretty harmless.
Are you sure that’s what it is an image of? It doesn’t look like much of anything to me.
Are you sure that’s what it is an image of? It doesn’t look like much of anything to me.
I can see how it gives that impression.
October 25, 2025 at 7:09 AM
I can see how it gives that impression.
There's also a great set of new digitized Nôm tools here at the Digitizing Vietnam project: www.digitizingvietnam.com/en/tools
/end of references
/end of references
Tools | Digitizing Việt Nam
Digitizing Việt Nam, a central hub for resources about Vietnam Studies.
www.digitizingvietnam.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
There's also a great set of new digitized Nôm tools here at the Digitizing Vietnam project: www.digitizingvietnam.com/en/tools
/end of references
/end of references
You can find variants (like in Tweet #42) yourself using this on-line tool from the Nôm Preservation Foundation: nomfoundation.org/nom-tools/No... .
Try entering trăng in the search box!
Try entering trăng in the search box!
© VNPF 1999 - 2025. Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
nomfoundation.org
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
You can find variants (like in Tweet #42) yourself using this on-line tool from the Nôm Preservation Foundation: nomfoundation.org/nom-tools/No... .
Try entering trăng in the search box!
Try entering trăng in the search box!
Alexandre de Rhodes’ dictionary:
Page images at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Portuguese National Library): purl.pt/961
Digitized on Wikisource: vi.wikisource.org/wiki/T%E1%BB...
Page images at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Portuguese National Library): purl.pt/961
Digitized on Wikisource: vi.wikisource.org/wiki/T%E1%BB...
Dictionarium annamiticum lusitanicum, et latinum ope sacrae congregationis de propaganda fide in lucem editum ab Alexandro de Rhodes e Societati Jesu, eiusdemque Sacra Congregationis Missionario Apost...
Página de acesso à obra Dictionarium annamiticum lusitanicum, et latinum ope sacrae congregationis de propaganda fide in lucem editum ab Alexandro de Rhodes e Societati Jesu, eiusdemque Sacra Congrega...
purl.pt
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Alexandre de Rhodes’ dictionary:
Page images at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Portuguese National Library): purl.pt/961
Digitized on Wikisource: vi.wikisource.org/wiki/T%E1%BB...
Page images at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Portuguese National Library): purl.pt/961
Digitized on Wikisource: vi.wikisource.org/wiki/T%E1%BB...
Huỳnh Sanh Thông translation from Posts #7-8: “Graphemic borrowings from Chinese: The case of chữ nôm--Vietnam’s demotic script” by Nguyễn Đình-Hoà. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 61.2:383–432. (I don’t know where the translation was originally published.)
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Huỳnh Sanh Thông translation from Posts #7-8: “Graphemic borrowings from Chinese: The case of chữ nôm--Vietnam’s demotic script” by Nguyễn Đình-Hoà. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 61.2:383–432. (I don’t know where the translation was originally published.)
Tale of Kieu image from Post #4: nomfoundation.org/nom-project/...
Nôm dictionary page from Post #5: Trần Văn Kiệm 1989. Giúp Đọc Nôm Và Hán Việt. Republished 1999 Huê: Thuân hóa.
Text of Nguyễn Trãi poem Bảo kính cảnh giới #47 from Posts #6, 13: www.nomfoundation.org/nom-tools/QA...
Nôm dictionary page from Post #5: Trần Văn Kiệm 1989. Giúp Đọc Nôm Và Hán Việt. Republished 1999 Huê: Thuân hóa.
Text of Nguyễn Trãi poem Bảo kính cảnh giới #47 from Posts #6, 13: www.nomfoundation.org/nom-tools/QA...
© VNPF 1999 - 2025. Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
nomfoundation.org
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Tale of Kieu image from Post #4: nomfoundation.org/nom-project/...
Nôm dictionary page from Post #5: Trần Văn Kiệm 1989. Giúp Đọc Nôm Và Hán Việt. Republished 1999 Huê: Thuân hóa.
Text of Nguyễn Trãi poem Bảo kính cảnh giới #47 from Posts #6, 13: www.nomfoundation.org/nom-tools/QA...
Nôm dictionary page from Post #5: Trần Văn Kiệm 1989. Giúp Đọc Nôm Và Hán Việt. Republished 1999 Huê: Thuân hóa.
Text of Nguyễn Trãi poem Bảo kính cảnh giới #47 from Posts #6, 13: www.nomfoundation.org/nom-tools/QA...
50/ References follow for those interested.
/end
/end
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
50/ References follow for those interested.
/end
/end
49/ ... from writing a word for a giant snake and the name of an ancient Chinese state over 2,000 years ago and 1,500 km to the north, to humbly representing the consonant sound [b] in 17th-century Vietnamese Chữ Nôm writing!
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
49/ ... from writing a word for a giant snake and the name of an ancient Chinese state over 2,000 years ago and 1,500 km to the north, to humbly representing the consonant sound [b] in 17th-century Vietnamese Chữ Nôm writing!
48/ Next time you look up at the full moon, spare a thought for the incredible journey of the Chinese character 巴 ...
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
48/ Next time you look up at the full moon, spare a thought for the incredible journey of the Chinese character 巴 ...
47/ Here, for example, is the page from the bl- section of the Dictionarium with the entry for ‘fruit’ (trái in modern Vietnamese), along with one of the Nôm graphs that writes it.
𢁑 trái ‘fruit’: 巴 (b-) + 賴 (lại) for earlier blái
𢁑 trái ‘fruit’: 巴 (b-) + 賴 (lại) for earlier blái
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
47/ Here, for example, is the page from the bl- section of the Dictionarium with the entry for ‘fruit’ (trái in modern Vietnamese), along with one of the Nôm graphs that writes it.
𢁑 trái ‘fruit’: 巴 (b-) + 賴 (lại) for earlier blái
𢁑 trái ‘fruit’: 巴 (b-) + 賴 (lại) for earlier blái
46/ This isn’t a one-off. There are enough other examples of 巴 used in this way that we can be quite confident about its function.
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
46/ This isn’t a one-off. There are enough other examples of 巴 used in this way that we can be quite confident about its function.
45/ It’s effectively an alphabetic letter representing the sound /b/, the first sound of a consonant cluster.
巴 (b-) + 陵 (lăng) → blang
巴 (b-) + 陵 (lăng) → blang
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
45/ It’s effectively an alphabetic letter representing the sound /b/, the first sound of a consonant cluster.
巴 (b-) + 陵 (lăng) → blang
巴 (b-) + 陵 (lăng) → blang
44/ In 𠀧 ‘three’, the 巴 is a syllabic phonetic component, indicating the sound of the Vietnamese word being written. But in the Nôm graph for ‘moon’, it’s one of two phonetic components, and it’s not syllabic!
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
44/ In 𠀧 ‘three’, the 巴 is a syllabic phonetic component, indicating the sound of the Vietnamese word being written. But in the Nôm graph for ‘moon’, it’s one of two phonetic components, and it’s not syllabic!
43/ Three of these Nôm graphs writing blang ‘moon’ contain 巴.
The 巴 in these graphs is functioning quite differently from the one in this Nôm graph for the Vietnamese word ba ‘three’ that we saw earlier.
3 𠀧 ba ‘three’: 巴 (ba) + 三 (‘three’)
The 巴 in these graphs is functioning quite differently from the one in this Nôm graph for the Vietnamese word ba ‘three’ that we saw earlier.
3 𠀧 ba ‘three’: 巴 (ba) + 三 (‘three’)
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
43/ Three of these Nôm graphs writing blang ‘moon’ contain 巴.
The 巴 in these graphs is functioning quite differently from the one in this Nôm graph for the Vietnamese word ba ‘three’ that we saw earlier.
3 𠀧 ba ‘three’: 巴 (ba) + 三 (‘three’)
The 巴 in these graphs is functioning quite differently from the one in this Nôm graph for the Vietnamese word ba ‘three’ that we saw earlier.
3 𠀧 ba ‘three’: 巴 (ba) + 三 (‘three’)
42/ Among the variant forms of Nôm graphs writing ‘moon’ that are attested are:
⿰巴夌
𪩮
𣎞
𦝄 (Note the semantic component 月!)
菱
[I put these in an image below in case they don't render for you.]
⿰巴夌
𪩮
𣎞
𦝄 (Note the semantic component 月!)
菱
[I put these in an image below in case they don't render for you.]
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
42/ Among the variant forms of Nôm graphs writing ‘moon’ that are attested are:
⿰巴夌
𪩮
𣎞
𦝄 (Note the semantic component 月!)
菱
[I put these in an image below in case they don't render for you.]
⿰巴夌
𪩮
𣎞
𦝄 (Note the semantic component 月!)
菱
[I put these in an image below in case they don't render for you.]
41/ Take a look at the SV pronunciations of the two parts again, with the older blang pronunciation of 'moon' in mind:
巴 (ba) + 陵 (lăng) writing blang ‘moon’.
巴 (ba) + 陵 (lăng) writing blang ‘moon’.
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
41/ Take a look at the SV pronunciations of the two parts again, with the older blang pronunciation of 'moon' in mind:
巴 (ba) + 陵 (lăng) writing blang ‘moon’.
巴 (ba) + 陵 (lăng) writing blang ‘moon’.
40/ The word for ‘moon’ is undoubtedly blang in the 17th-century dialect that de Rhodes is recording.
🥳 So now we have the answer to our puzzle about how the Nôm graph is structured.
🥳 So now we have the answer to our puzzle about how the Nôm graph is structured.
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
40/ The word for ‘moon’ is undoubtedly blang in the 17th-century dialect that de Rhodes is recording.
🥳 So now we have the answer to our puzzle about how the Nôm graph is structured.
🥳 So now we have the answer to our puzzle about how the Nôm graph is structured.
39/ So take a look at that page again with the entry for ‘moon’. The text reads:
blang mạt blang: a lua: luna, æ.
blang tlòn: lua chea: pleniluniū, ij.
blang khuiét; mingoante ou quando não he chea: luna non rotunda extra plenilunium.
blang mạt blang: a lua: luna, æ.
blang tlòn: lua chea: pleniluniū, ij.
blang khuiét; mingoante ou quando não he chea: luna non rotunda extra plenilunium.
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
39/ So take a look at that page again with the entry for ‘moon’. The text reads:
blang mạt blang: a lua: luna, æ.
blang tlòn: lua chea: pleniluniū, ij.
blang khuiét; mingoante ou quando não he chea: luna non rotunda extra plenilunium.
blang mạt blang: a lua: luna, æ.
blang tlòn: lua chea: pleniluniū, ij.
blang khuiét; mingoante ou quando não he chea: luna non rotunda extra plenilunium.
38/ That means 17th-century Vietnamese had these pronunciations. Not too long after de Rhodes compiled his dictionary, these clusters started to simplify. tl- and bl- both changed into the single consonant sound tr-.
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
38/ That means 17th-century Vietnamese had these pronunciations. Not too long after de Rhodes compiled his dictionary, these clusters started to simplify. tl- and bl- both changed into the single consonant sound tr-.
37/ The Dictionarium contains words starting with bl-, ml-, mnh-, and tl-, and plenty of them.
Here’s a page from the ml- section.
Here’s a page from the ml- section.
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
37/ The Dictionarium contains words starting with bl-, ml-, mnh-, and tl-, and plenty of them.
Here’s a page from the ml- section.
Here’s a page from the ml- section.
36/ Modern Vietnamese doesn’t have bl- clusters. Indeed, Modern Vietnamese doesn’t have any clusters at all. (Sure, tr- looks like a cluster, but it’s not. It spells a single consonant, pronounced [c] or [ʈ] depending on dialect/accent.)
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
36/ Modern Vietnamese doesn’t have bl- clusters. Indeed, Modern Vietnamese doesn’t have any clusters at all. (Sure, tr- looks like a cluster, but it’s not. It spells a single consonant, pronounced [c] or [ʈ] depending on dialect/accent.)
35/ Yep, the entry is right there in the ... in the …
bl- section ?!?!? 🤯
That’s a head-scratcher!
bl- section ?!?!? 🤯
That’s a head-scratcher!
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
35/ Yep, the entry is right there in the ... in the …
bl- section ?!?!? 🤯
That’s a head-scratcher!
bl- section ?!?!? 🤯
That’s a head-scratcher!
34/ Check out the dictionary’s entry for ‘moon’, glossed as Portuguese lua, Latin luna.
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 AM
34/ Check out the dictionary’s entry for ‘moon’, glossed as Portuguese lua, Latin luna.