Language rights and factors affecting the written choice of ethnic minorities: The case of H’mong script in Vietnam

Abstract

The article outlines and discusses aspects of language rights as a component of human rights. The article affirms that the Party and the Government of Vietnam always support the rights of all ethnic groups in preserving and promoting their cultural identity, which is reflected in the Constitutions and Laws (such as the Law of Education), Decrees and Circulars, ensuring the harmonious development of each ethnic group in the sustainable development of the country, ensuring the rights and obligations of each ethnic group in a multi-ethnic and multi-language country, ensuring unity in diversity. The article also introduces several core points in the linguistic rights of ethnic minorities, aiming to preserve languages in danger and create conditions for ethnic minorities to promote their values in preserving national identity and cultural values. In the language right, there is the right to choose the script. Based on the approach of P. Unseth (2005) [1] to factors affecting script choice when more than one script exists, the paper discusses the case of Hmong script choice in Vietnam as a case study.