Vietnamese Nom Preservation Foundation

Nom, is the "vernacular script." After Vietnamese independence from China in 939 CE, scholars began their creation of nom, an ideographic script that represents Vietnamese speech. For the next 1000 years-from the 10th century and into the 20th - much of Vietnamese literature, philosophy, history, law, medicine, religion, and government policy was written in nom. Indeed, during the 24 years of the Tay-Son emperors (1788-1802), all administrative documents were written in nom. In other words, approximately 1000 years of Vietnamese cultural heritage is recorded in this unique system.

This heritage is now nearly lost. With the 17th century advent of quoc-ngu--the modern roman-style script-nom literacy gradually died out.

Today, only about 30 scholars world-wide can read nom.

Most of Vietnam's vast, written history sits in a dilapidated library in Hanoi, in effect, unreachable and unreadable to the 75 million speakers of the language.

Our project will establish a foundation to preserve nom texts and provide nom access to all readers of modern Vietnamese, thereby opening the doors to Vietnam's cultural past. Our initial goals-described in more detail in the attached---include computer reading of nom texts, publishing of nom documents and research, and providing a computer-based, bibliographic service to world libraries which currently cannot post or even identify their holdings because nom has never been printed except by woodblock. This service would address major holdings at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the Vatican Library, and other major institutions in the United States, China, Japan, Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands. For the first time, the literate world would know what it possesses in the way of nom documents, both in Vietnam and abroad.

We are in the initial stages of establishing a nonprofit, U.S.-based foundation for these various projects. If you are interested in helping in any way, please contact either John Balaban or Ngo Thanh Nhan, addresses and bios below*.

Projects of the Vietnamese Nom Preservation Foundation

1. An international conference on nom, to take place in Vietnam in the year 2000. The first major step in the preservation of nom texts is their printing, display and document exchanges through the internet. Once the computer can receive and display nom characters, nom can be printed. Nom scholars, mathematicians, and computational linguists in Vietnam, China, Japan, and the United States have been working on this problem for the past five years, and have reached some success. They should be brought together to assess, compare results, and solve the problem. Travel funds would be made available to participants without institutional help.

2. A nom dictionary. Once computer access to nom is established, nom can be printed. Once nom is printed, a dictionary will be needed to extend nom literacy. Professor Nguyen Quang Hong of the Han-Nom Institute in Hanoi has completed a 24,000-entry nom/quoc-ngu dictionary. We would provide funding for the publication of his dictionary.

3. Technological assistance to nom researchers at the Linguistics Society of Vietnam and the Vietnam Lexicography Centre. Currently, interested scholars in Vietnam are working with little or no funding. The Vietnam government simply does not have funds for this kind of research. We would provide adequate computer equipment (initially two PC Windows NT @$2000 each), internet accounts, and some compensation for the preparation of nom texts.

4. An internet bibliographic service. Besides the nom holdings at the National Library in Vietnam and those of the Han-Nom Institute, many nom texts are held in libraries in France, the United States, Great Britain, China, Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands. No library really knows what it holds or what other libraries hold. These libraries currently cannot identify or post their holdings. One self-supporting function of the Vietnam Nom Preservation Foundation would be to provide a bibliographic service to these libraries so that world-wide holdings in nom can finally be known. This project, once set up, will bring in revenue.

5. Publications of nom research. Besides the nom dictionary mentioned above, many important Vietnamese texts are unavailable in the original, including the classic Truyen Kieu by Nguyen Du, along with hundreds of philosophical and religious texts. The Foundation would subsidize publication of essential cultural texts.

6. Restoration of the Han-Nom Institute. A long-term goal would be the physical restoration of this Institute so that existing texts can be properly preserved.

7. Extend nom learning. Provide technical assistance for nom literacy in Vietnam and abroad. In Vietnam, nom can become part of the curriculum in high schools and universities. The Foundation would assist Vietnamese living abroad who wish to learn nom