How to improve Vietnamese writing?

(Baonghean.vn) - In recent days, society has been abuzz with the improvement of Vietnamese writing. There are opinions in support, there are doubts, and there are even extreme opinions that compete to "throw stones".

It is just an idea, but from idea to detailed design, from design to implementation are very far distances but the heat is already very high. Will we ever reach a consensus, even if only in principle?

Regarding this issue, I would like to make the following comments:

- First, let's go back to the basic, original issue, which is the function of writing and the relationship between writing and language. Everyone knows that language comes before writing, language exists in the form of sounds, symbols and even images. Writing appeared to overcome the limitations of language-sound such as the transmission of information over time and space.

There are many ethnic groups in history as well as today that have a sound language to communicate with each other but still do not have a written language. And this limits the preservation of information of that ethnic group.

Examples of Vietnamese improvement - Illustration

That is to say, writing is born to express sounds according to the syllabic logic of each language. That is, how the pronunciation is, the writing must be designed accordingly. If the pronunciation has not changed, does the writing need to be different? And if it does change, how?

- Second, the current Vietnamese alphabet is indeed complicated, the problem lies in the design of double consonants, for example: ph or in the pronunciation of the letters "gi with d", "g with gh", "ng with ngh"... In reality, most people's pronunciation is not distinguishable between the two pairs of letters just mentioned. Therefore, while writing, many people fall into the situation that we call "spelling errors".

The consequences of spelling mistakes are not only in terms of characters but also lead to mistakes in the meaning of words. We have encountered a few situations in the process of solving criminal cases where when transcribing foreign languages ​​into Vietnamese, each person expressed them in Vietnamese in a different way, resulting in completely different results when compared with the text, leading to the cancellation of the issued judgment or procedural decision;

- Third, from the above situation, we see that the idea of ​​changing the Vietnamese alphabet is not necessarily a far-fetched thought, far from reality. What needs to be discussed here is if there is to be improvement, to what extent, not conservative but also not too shockingly innovative, but should adhere to the principles mentioned in the first point and the current shortcomings of the Vietnamese language as mentioned in the second point above;

- Finally, we respect ideas, because with ideas come innovations, inventions, and creations. Ideas may be right, inappropriate, or even absurd, but if we suppress ideas, I'm afraid that is not the right way to nurture creativity.

Nguyen Phuc Nam Dan