Associate Professor Bui Hien rewrote "The Tale of Kieu" in improved script

After completing the research on improving the "Tiew Viet" writing system and publishing part 2, Associate Professor Bui Hien - former Vice Principal of Hanoi University of Foreign Languages, former Vice Director of the Institute of General Education Content and Teaching Methods - tested his work in practice with the work "Truyen Kieu" by the great poet Nguyen Du.

The opening verses of the work are written in "new script" as follows:

"I hate the cows of other people,

Talent and destiny are opposites.

The cabbage is a big one,

Those kites are so painful.

"Translating" more than 3,000 sentences from the Tale of Kieu into 99 pages, Mr. Hien said this was a way to test how long it would take him to master his writing skills.

At the beginning of the translation, Associate Professor Bui Hien introduced that it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to memorize the new letters of the following 10 phonemes to read the improved version of Truyen Kieu.

That is: Ch, tr = c /chở/; đ = d /đờ/; ph = f /phờ/; c,k,q = k /cờ/; nh = nh /nhờ/ (temporary); th = q /thở/; s, x = s /sờ/; ng, ngh = w /ngờ/; kh = x /khờ/; d, gi, r = z /đờ.

Associate Professor Bui Hien shared that Nguyen Du's Tale of Kieu is one of the classic works of Vietnamese literature. He and many generations of people are fond of and love this work.

He did not want to popularize the Tale of Kieu in the improved script, but only considered it a practice method, proving that the conversion to the new script did not encounter any difficulties.

Associate Professor Bui Hien writes the improved script next to the national script for comparison. Photo: Quyen Quyen

"The skill of writing by hand is different from typing, so it took me until the second day to get used to the writing I created myself," Associate Professor Hien said.

He affirmed that the new writing accurately conveys the content of the Tale of Kieu, without destroying the original value and aesthetic ideology of the story.

“The Tale of Kieu was originally written in Nom script, then later changed to the national script as it is today. I want to change it to a modern script, while the content and artistic values ​​of the work remain unchanged,” Associate Professor Hien said.

He said he would print 20 copies of The Tale of Kieu to send to relatives and friends, to get their opinions on whether the text has practical value to put into use or not?

To complete this document, he wrote continuously for 10 days, 10 hours each day.

Associate Professor Bui Hien shared when he was criticized by public opinion for his proposal to improve the writing system. Graphics: Chau Chau

Previously, at the end of 2017, Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hien published two research parts on improving the national language.

Part one proposes to improve consonants, remove the letter Đ from the current Vietnamese alphabet and add some Latin letters such as F, J, W, Z.

In addition, change the phonemic values ​​of the 11 existing letters in the table above, specifically: C = Ch, Tr; D = Đ; G = G, Gh; F = Ph; K = C, Q, K; Q = Ng, Ngh; R = R; S = S; X = Kh; W = Th; Z = d, gi, r.

Because the sound "nhờ" (nh) does not have a new character to replace it, the above text temporarily uses the compound character n' to express it.

New alphabet according to the reform of Associate Professor Bui Hien. Graphics: Minh Tri

The second part about vowels, the new alphabet still keeps the order a - b - c. Some letters will completely change in pronunciation such as: C (wait), f (fờ), j (jờ), k (cờ), q (thờ), w (ngờ), x (khờ), z (dờ).

His research has received mixed reviews on social media.

Associate Professor Dr. Pham Van Tinh - General Secretary of the Vietnam Linguistics Association - said that the improvement of the Vietnamese writing system is the opinion of a linguist, not the viewpoint of the linguists. Associate Professor Bui Hien's research has its own arguments, we should acknowledge his spirit and attitude towards the Vietnamese language. He is a serious and dedicated teacher and scientist.

Associate Professor Bui Hien: I don't improve writing just 'for fun'.According to Associate Professor Bui Hien, improving writing is a lifelong passion, not just for... fun.