Vietnamese literature is literature, both oral and written, created by Vietnamese-speaking people. For much of its history, Vietnam was dominated by China and as a result much of the written work during this period was in Classical Chinese. Chữ nôm, created around the 10th century, allowed writers to compose in Vietnamese using modified Chinese characters. Although regarded as inferior to Chinese, it gradually grew in prestige. It flourished in the 18th century when many notable Vietnamese writers and poets composed their works in chữ nôm and when it briefly became the official written script. While the quốc ngữ script was created in the 17th century, it did not become popular outside of missionary groups until the early 20th century, when the French colonial administration mandated its use in French Indochina. By the mid-20th century, virtually all Vietnamese works of literature were composed in quốc ngữ. ... Vietnamese (tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ), formerly known under the French colonization as Annamite (see Annam) is the national and official language of Vietnam. ... Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of very old forms of Chinese , making it very different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The Vietnamese alphabet, called quốc ngữ (national language), is the current writing system for the Vietnamese language. ... French Indochina was a federation of French colonies and protectorates in Southeast Asia, part of the French colonial empire. ...

Script

Classical Chinese

Many of the official documents in Vietnamese history were written in Classical Chinese. Not only is the Chinese script foreign to modern Vietnamese speakers, these works are mostly unintelligible even when directly transliterated into the modern quốc ngữ script due to their Chinese syntax and vocabulary. As a result, these works must be translated into Vietnamese in order to be understood. These works include official proclamations by Vietnamese kings, royal histories, and declarations of independence from China, as well as poetry. Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

Chữ nôm

Works written in chữ nôm don't suffer the understandability problems that those in Classical Chinese are susceptible to. For the most part, they can be directly transliterated into the modern quốc ngữ script and be readily understood by modern Vietnamese speakers. However, since chữ nôm was never standardized, there are ambiguities as to which words are meant when a writer used certain characters. This resulted in many variations when transliterating works in chữ nôm into quốc ngữ. Some highly regarded works in Vietnamese literature were written in chữ nôm, including Nguyễn Du's Truyện Kiều, Đoàn Thị Điểm's chữ nôm translation of the poem Chinh Phụ Ngâm Khúc (征婦吟曲 - The Song of a War Wife) from the Classical Chinese poem composed by her friend Đặng Trần Côn (famous in its own right), and poems by the reknowned poet Hồ Xuân Hương. Nguyễn Du, 阮攸 (1766–1820), penname Tố Như and Thanh Hi n is a celebrated Vietnamese poet who wrote in Chữ N m, the ancient writing script of Vietnam. ... The first six lines of the poem written in Chữ Nôm The Tale of Kiều is an epic poem in Vietnamese written by the 18th century writer Nguyá»…n Du (1766-1820). ... Hồ Xuân HÆ°Æ¡ng (1772-1822) (胡春香, read as Hú ChÅ«nxiāng in Mandarin) was a Vietnamese poet born at the end of the Later Lê Dynasty who wrote poetry in chữ nôm. ...

Quốc ngữ

While created in the 17th century, quốc ngữ was not widely used outside of missionary circles until the early 20th century, when the French colonial government mandated its use in French Indochina. During the early years of the 20th century, many periodicals in quốc ngữ flourished and their popularity helped popularize quốc ngữ. While some leaders resisted the popularity of quốc ngữ as an imposition from the French, others embraced it as a convenient tool to boost literacy. After declaring independence from the French in 1945, Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh provisional government adopted a policy of increasing literacy with quốc ngữ. Their efforts were hugely successful, as the literacy rate literally jumped overnight. This article is the second in a series of The History of Literature. ... This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, etc. ... Tamil literature is literature in the Tamil language which most prominently includes the contributions of the Tamil country (or Tamizhagam) history, a large part of which constitutes the modern state of Tamil Nadu in India and some parts of Kerala, Karnataka and Andra pradesh. ... Literature in Hindi, the language spoken by the majority of people in India. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Indian English Literature. ... This article is about the Bengali language. ... Literature in Marathi. ... Literature written in Malayalam language. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Literature stubs | Literature of Pakistan ... Urdu literature has a long and colorful history that is inextricably tied to the development of that very language, Urdu, in which it is written. ... Arabic literature refers to all forms of literature written by Arabs or related to Arab culture. ... Japanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia of writing. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... French Indochina was a federation of French colonies and protectorates in Southeast Asia, part of the French colonial empire. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Hồ Chí Minh Hồ Chí Minh (meaning Ho, Enlightened Will) (Chinese : 胡志明) â–¶ (help· info) (May 19, 1890 – September 2, 1969) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman, who later became Prime Minister (1946-1955) and President (1955-1969) of North Vietnam. ... The Viet Minh (abbreviated from Việt Nam ộc Lập ồng Minh Hội, League for the Independence of Vietnam) was formed by Ho Ngoc Lam and Nguyen Hai Than in 1941 to seek independence for Vietnam from France. ...

In those early years, there were many variations in orthography and there was no consensus on how to write certain words. After some conferences, the issues were mostly settled, but some still linger to this day. By the mid-20th century, all Vietnamese works of literature are written in quốc ngữ, while works written in earlier scripts are transliterated into quốc ngữ for accessibility to modern Vietnamese speakers. The use of the earlier scripts is now limited to historical references. The orthography of a language is the set of rules of how to write correctly in the writing system of a language. ...

Genres

Folk literature

Vietnamese folk literature is an intermingling of many forms. It is not only an oral tradition, but a mixing of three media: hidden (only retained in the memory of folk authors), fixed (written), and shown (performed). Folk literature usually exist in many versions, passed down orally, and have unknown authors.

Myths

Myths consist of stories about supernatural beings, heroes, creator gods, and reflect the viewpoint of ancient people about human life. They consist of creation stories, stories about their origins (Lạc Long Quân, Âu Cơ), culture heroes (Sơn Tinh - Thủy Tinh).

Legends

Fairy tales

Humorous stories

Fables

Proverbs

Riddles

Ca dao

Written literature

Legends