The process of forming the national language script lasted more than three hundred years, from the day the first Western missionaries set foot on Vietnamese soil to interact with the natives until the first Vietnamese newspaper was born with the printed script. has its own signature European parceled bar.
According to historians, the first Portuguese merchant fleet arrived in Da Nang Bay in 1516, just five years after they invaded Malacca (the Malay Strait). In Tonkin, it seems to be much later, and comes from Macau (China) which they also colonized before. Of course, as we know, it was not until 1651 that the Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin Dictionary was published in Rome, but in order to have this dictionary (who is the real author is still in doubt), it must be there must be many missionaries when they set foot on Vietnamese soil who tried to use the Latin alphabet to record pronunciation and learn the native language. However, even after it has been shaped in a relatively systematic way, the word quoc quoc is still confined to the scope of the Catholic church. It was not until the day Gia Dinh newspaper, the first newspaper printed in the national language script, was introduced to readers (1865), then it entered the public relatively wide; and after that, the schools that taught the national language were opened one by one, and the quoc quoc script really entered the life of Vietnamese society.
Gia Dinh newspaper, the first newspaper printed in the national language script.
Who are the pioneers and pioneers in shaping the national language script? This problem has consumed a lot of paper and ink. Some people believe that the great credit belongs to two Portuguese missionaries, Gaspar do Amiral and Antonio Barbosa . It has also been suggested that the first authors were three Italian missionaries Francesco Buzumi and his two younger colleagues, Francesco de Pina and Cristoforo Borri . Missionary Francesco Buzumi and a Portuguese missionary named Diego Carvalho came to South Vietnam in 1615. At this time Western missionaries were strictly chased away by the shoguns who were in power in Japan. The Jesuit Congregation (Jésuites) headed to Cochinchina of Vietnam, where Japanese merchants established a prosperous trading base in Hoi An. Nine years later, in 1624, Alexandre de Rhodes was sent along with five other missionaries to dock in Hoi An.
The vast majority of Western as well as Vietnamese researchers so far have not attributed the credit to a single author, but have all affirmed that the national language script is a collective creation, each contributing a little; those who went before paved the way, those who followed perfected and enhanced. Forming the national language script is a process. Perfecting it is also a process that can only be paused but not finished, since it is a living organism in development.
The credit for laying the foundation certainly belongs to the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch… and Vietnamese Catholics and missionaries – why not? ? Because, in our opinion, the Vietnamese people taught the Vietnamese language to foreign missionaries, and once there were some native believers, albeit rare, accessing Latin, they certainly contributed to the recording of the national language script in that alphabet. Westerners going abroad, especially during the expansion of colonialism, rarely avoid the tendency to discriminate against indigenous people. If we believe the words of cleric Alexandre de Rhodes himself, the Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish missionaries did not want to elevate some Vietnamese believers to the rank of dignitaries. A historian put in his mouth the sentence: “Indigenous people can be martyrs, why can’t they become missionaries?”. Anyway, the first Vietnamese believer, Philippo Binh, was ordained a priest in 1820 in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital.
Why is it that among the group of other authors, one of the most mentioned and honored names is the French cleric Alexandre de Rhodes ? According to prestigious researchers such as Léopold Cadière, Paul Mus or later, Jean Lacouture, not only because he was credited with publishing the Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin Dictionary and writing the first Vietnamese Grammar book, but mainly because “Alexandre de Rhodes, if not the creator, was the first to use and strongly promote the national language script” (Jean Lacouture). And Paul Mus assessed that Alexandre de Rhodes, who was qualified as a linguist fluent in twelve languages, had “approached the national language script on a scientific basis. He had the merit of perfecting the way of writing the national language script” (3). There is a point here that nonetheless requires us to be more or less cautious. The three people mentioned above, profound researchers, are all French. Which, to say the least, the French, even if they do science, still seem to have the “blood of the Fa” in them, and always seek to honor their compatriots first; especially from the so-called “light” century, the century of brilliant thinkers, cultures, and scientists, the century when the light of the French Revolution of 1789 really shone on the earth, and later. That is not to mention the cases with obvious political significance.
In the 40s of the 20th century, when French colonialism in Vietnam was really shaken by the rising revolutionary movement and the expansion of Japan raising their demagoguest Great East Asian flag, many Seniors of this generation called 2X, 3X more or less read the works published with the generous budget spent by the colonial authorities to build the “Alexandre de Rhodes Bookcase” . In that context, it is easy to understand why the two most honored missionaries in Indochina are Alexandre de Rhodes (A Lich Son Dac Lo) and bishop D’Adran, whose real name is Pigneau de Béhaine (Belgian Nhu Ba Da Loc). ), who had the merit of supporting Prince Canh to go to Paris to ask for help, to help Nguyen Anh defeat the Nguyen Tay Son dynasty, “unify the mountain” so that more than a hundred and fifty years later, the whole mountain would be under French domination. .
Rabbi Alexandre de Rhodes.
This problem has also consumed a lot of paper and ink. Someone said the Vietnamese should build a bronze statue of stele for him. Some people blamed – perhaps not unjustly – Alexandre de Rhodes as a sinner to the Vietnamese people, because this cleric was the first to campaign fiercely with the court of King Louis 14 to clear the way for the French colonialists to come. invaded distant Indochina. Moreover, in terms of qualifications, Alexandre de Rhodes is a “plagiarist” , because he brought the manuscript of the Vietnamese – Portuguese – Latin Dictionary by two Portuguese missionaries when he left Macau and left the San Pauli church to return to the Vatican for publication. and put your name on it. Moreover, he blatantly authored a memoir of another person, etc.. Due to improper conduct, when French missionaries were sent to the Far East by the king with the approval of the Roman Church. , there was no name Alexandre de Rhodes in that group. On the contrary, he was almost exiled to Persia only to die there.
Those judgments must have more or less historical basis. Considering Alexandre de Rhodes’ accounts of his Far Eastern voyages, today’s readers will all find the author so exaggerated about his merits that even his fellow historians have It’s hard to hold back a half smile.
Alexandre de Rhodes was born in 1591 in the city of Avignon, southern France , from a Jewish family specializing in silk trading to the Far East. Italian mother. From a young age he dreamed of the promised land of the East rich in rare and precious resources such as India, China… Becoming a missionary, he went to Macau on a Portuguese merchant ship. At that time, Portugal’s merchant fleet was the strongest in the world. The Portuguese still boast: “No Portuguese merchant ships, no Portuguese groceries, no Jesuits!” . He first came to Cochinchina at the age of 33 and lived here for the first time after seven years, before permanently leaving the Far East. He has the personality and knowledge of a linguist. As a missionary, in addition to his mother’s Italian, before boarding the ship to the Far East, he also spent time studying Portuguese. At the end of his life, being “half-exile” to Persia, he also learned to master the 13th language, Persian. That allows us to partly explain why Alexandre de Rhodes is often cited – in addition to the reasons mentioned above – when scholars discuss who are the creators of the national language script.
As to why Alexandre de Rhodes was not allowed to return to the Far East with the French missionary group he was instrumental in establishing, some historians explain the rivalry between Portuguese colonialism and realism. French people.
In the early period, with the discovery of the Philippine archipelago by the Portuguese navigator Magellan in the Far East (1521), the Portuguese navigator Christophe Colomb (Colombus) discovered the Americas (1492), which can be considered Portuguese. Portugal temporarily dominates the oceans. However, this time did not last long. Competition among European countries is getting fiercer. The Indonesian archipelago was first discovered by the Portuguese, and fell into the hands of the Dutch. Spanish and French colonialism also arose, competing with each other and wresting with Portugal, lowering Portugal’s supremacy. In that context, “Alexandre de Rhodes did not forget that he was French” (in the words of historian Jean Lacouture). He lobbied vigorously for an early French presence in the Far East. Despite being indebted to the Portuguese, he dared to surpass his superiors in the congregation and sought to contact the Vatican directly, etc. For these reasons, “he was regarded by the Portuguese court as a villain. enemies of this country ” (Jean Lacouture).
Well, let the historians, linguists… continue to argue and explain. To us Vietnamese, anyone who has contributed to the development of the Vietnamese nation, we are grateful and posterity honors foreigners who have made such contributions according to their merits and contributions. , no matter what kind of person they are. The fact that some places in the North have a temple to worship the imperial beast Si Niep (2nd century BC), who spread Confucianism to Giao Chau, is the earliest example. I think it is no coincidence that the city named after Ho Chi Minh today still has two parallel streets, one named after the Confucian Han Thuyen and the other named after the missionary Alexandre de Rhodes. It is also not without a symbolic meaning, when in the middle of those two parallel roads there is a longer and wider avenue named Le Duan; Three parallel roads cross Nam Ky Khoi Nghia street to properly enter the monumental main gate of the Reunification Hall – Independence Palace before 1975.
Author: Phan Quang.