Vietnam

Abstract

Abstract Vietnam is a country which has lived through extended periods of foreign influence and occupation, significant internal conflict and upheaval, and yet emerged from this into the late twentieth century with a distinct and vigorous national identity, and a remarkable sense of independence. At the centre of this identity, forming one of its critical, distinguishing components, is language, a broadly-shared national language (Vietnamese) that is now fully widespread in all domains of formal and informal life. This study of language and national identity in Vietnam is divided into six major sections. Section 19.2 provides basic information on the country of Vietnam and the languages spoken within its borders. Section 19.3 then considers language in Vietnam from an early historical perspective and how the majority ‘Kinh’ ethnic group and the Vietnamese language came into existence and spread throughout the territory of modern-day Vietnam following a long period of Chinese dominance of what eventually became the northern and central parts of the modern country. Section 19.4 subsequently focuses on the important competition which occurred between different written forms of language in Vietnam during the time of French colonial rule, and how the eventual triumph of a form of Romanized vernacular Vietnamese known as quocngu over previous systems based on Chinese characters reflected the development of nationalism in Vietnam and struggles within the country both against the French and older Confucianist traditions and the institutions and elites which maintained these as mechanisms of power. In section 19.5 the chapter turns to consider the energetic development of Vietnamese in post-WWII and independent Vietnam, and its expansion into a language that could be used in all areas of life, while section 19.6 reflects on language policy in Vietnam towards the country’s ethnic minority groups. The chapter is then closed in section 19.7 with a brief overview of the status of Vietnamese and its contribution to national identity in the present day.