First codification of Vietnamese by 17th-century missionaries: the description of tones and the influence of Portuguese on Vietnamese orthography

Author:

Assunção, Carlos

Fernandes, Gonçalo

Format:

Journal Article

Year:

2017

Journal Title:

Histoire Épistémologie Langage

Volume:

39

Issue:

1

Language:

English

Abstract:

We analyze the work of the first pioneer missionaries of the Portuguese Patronage in Vietnam in the first half of the 17th century and their metalinguistic texts. The paper is structured as follows: first, we describe the historical background of the Portuguese discoveries, the constitution of the Portuguese Patronage or the Ius Patronatus [ Right of Patronage] given by various papal bulls and their importance for the evangelization of South East Asia, particularly Macau, which became the center of Christianity in China, Japan and nearby territories, although it was “ only” a Vice-Province. Then, we will describe the activities of pioneer missionaries at the service of the Portuguese Patronage, mainly the Portuguese Jesuits Francisco de Pina, S. J. (1585/ 1586– 1625), Gaspar do Amaral, S. J. (1594– 1646) and António Barbosa, S. J. (1594– 1647), and the French Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes, S. J. (1593– 1660). We describe the first published metalinguistic works on Vietnamese, i. e., the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum and the Linguae Annamiticae seu Tunchinensis Brevis Declaratio (Rome 1651) by Alexandre de Rhodes and their main sources. This chapter is divided into two sections. In the first section, we will analyze the implementation of the Romanization system called currently Quốc ngữ [ national language] and Portuguese orthography in Vietnamese, namely the representation of the phoneme / ɲ/ by the Portuguese digraph. In the second section we will explicitly analyze the influence of Francisco de Pina in de Rhodes’s description of the six Tonkinese tones, comparing Pina’s manuscript Manuductio ad linguam Tunchinensem (ca. 1745 [ante 1623]) and de Rhodes’s Linguae Annamiticae seu Tunchinensis Brevis Declaratio (Rome 1651).

Who (Jesuits):

Rhodes, Alexandre de, 1591–1660

Amaral, Gaspar do, 1594–1646

Pina, Francisco de, 1585–1625

Barbosa, António, 1594–1647

What (Subjects):

Missions -- Patronage

Linguistics -- Historiography

Missions -- Linguistics -- Orality

Where (Locations):

Asia -- Vietnam

Asia -- China -- Macau

Europe -- Portugal

When (Centuries):

17th century

Publisher URL:

http://www.persee.fr/doc/hel_0750-8069_2017_num_39_1_3592

Other link:

https://www.academia.edu/33897778/First_codification_of_Vietnamese_by_17th_century_missionaries_the_description_of_tones_and_the_influence_of_Portuguese_on_Vietnamese_orthography?email_work_card=view-paper

Page Range:

155-176

ISSN:

1638-1580