Discussing the eradication of illiteracy in ancient Thai people

Surely those who are interested in Thai culture will not be surprised when reading the book "Geography of Tuong Duong" - published by Vietnam Social Sciences Publishing House in 2003, the author does not mention Lai Pao script - Thai Tuong Duong script, a "specialty" of Vietnamese Thai script that the Northwest does not have.

Sam Thi Hue (grade 9 student of Chau Quang Secondary School - Quy Hop) won first prize in the Thai writing contest at the 2007 Muong Ham Festival.

It's nothing new, in 1912, the French priest and ethnologist Guignard (Ghi-nha) in his French-Lao Dictionary talked about the word Thai Lai Pao - 92 years later we still forgot to write it in our country's books.

According to world statistics, currently every 2 weeks a language is lost - the most terrible speed in human history. It is estimated that in 100 years, only less than half of the 6000 languages ​​​​in the world today will still be used. And so we are guilty of losing humanity's precious evidence of human creativity.

Since the August Revolution of 1945, the Party and Uncle Ho have paid great attention to ethnic policies, including the language and writing of ethnic minorities in the Vietnamese community. This is an issue of preserving national culture to achieve unity in diversity.

However, the issue of writing of the ethnic people has not been actively implemented. In particular, the ancient Thai script has existed since at least the 13th century. It should be noted that the Thai script is also diverse not only in the world but also in Vietnam and the whole Western Nghe An region, there are 3 ancient Thai scripts (the whole country has 4 ancient Thai scripts).

In the early 20th century, Henri MasPêrô (Henri-max-pê-rô), a famous French Orientalist, studied the Thai language in Quy Chau with a system of 5 tones. Then in 1999, the scholar specializing in Thai studies, Ferlus (France), stated that the Thai language in Quy Chau had 6 tones.

Up to now, according to Dr. Tran Tri Doi (Hanoi National University), linguists have agreed that Vietnam still has at least 4 ancient Thai scripts, all of which are phonetic scripts originating from ancient Indian scripts and following Khmer tradition. The 4 ancient Thai scripts currently in Vietnam are scripts with distinct differences.

In that difference, Thai Quy Chau script is separated into a separate group, due to its own writing style and the way it represents vowels. Thai Man Thanh - Nghe An (also exists) and Thai Tay Bac script are closer to each other, while Lai Pao script has many different features from the two above mentioned scripts. We see that although it has the same principle, the appearance of locality in the 4 scripts is quite clear.

Lai Pao script was discovered in 1912, and in 1995 and 1997, two researchers, Ferlus and Tran Tri Doi, continued to go on field trips to Tuong Duong to research and record Lai Pao script - Thai script of Hang Long people in Tuong Duong district thanks to the help of two men, Lo Van Thoai and Lo Manh Lieu in Tuong Duong.

Just think, if there were no two intellectuals Thai Tuong Duong, would the word Lai Pao still exist?

Lai Pao script in Thai Duong area 7 later. I want to say that the thing that should be done immediately is to learn the ancient Thai script of Quy Chau. The old Quy Chau area includes the Thai people in the districts: Quy Chau, Que Phong, Nghia Dan, Quy Hop and Tan Ky. The ancient Thai script of this area needs to be compiled for the Thai people of this area to learn so that they can at least read the texts and documents that are still preserved among the people in the area and contribute to the cultural life of the community.

In Quy Chau today, there are also some people who study Thai script in this area, but there is no information about the formal system. Although there are many elderly people here who still know the ancient Thai script.

During the field trip in 1995 and 1997, Mr. Ferlus and Mr. Tran Tri Doi asked Mr. Lang Van O, who was quite proficient in ancient Thai script in Quy Chau, and Mr. Vi Ngoc Chan, a cadre in Quy Chau, who was knowledgeable, to help the two Thai researchers write and read ancient Thai script documents about the Can Vuong movement led by Lang Van Thiet. In 2000, Tran Tri Doi wrote an article "Tone of Vietnamese origin words in Thai language in Quy Chau".

Nghe An Newspaper, Ethnic and Mountainous Page on January 28, 2007 had an article reporting on the first class of ancient Thai script in Quy Hop held in Chau Cuong Commune by the leaders of Chau Cuong Commune.

Teacher Sam Van Binh was born in 1961, graduated from Maritime University in 1988, could not find a job, returned to his hometown to farm and he tried to learn the ancient Thai script of his hometown. In 2003, Binh read the book Thai customary law by Ngo Duc Thinh and Cam Trong, which was more than 1000 pages long in both Vietnamese and Thai scripts. So he studied and read the documents where he had them and then compiled a book of 21 articles on eradicating illiteracy for his Thai people (as reported in the newspaper). Mr. Binh translated a number of documents in ancient Thai script, including the book "Huyền Thoại Khản Tinh". People in this area are very happy that the ancient Thai script is revived...

It was clear that it was necessary to eliminate illiteracy in the ancient Thai language for the Thai people in the old Quy Chau region, and then research and popularize the ancient Thai language for the Road 7 region.

In our country, the Thai people are most concentrated in Lai Chau province, the second is in Nghe An. Although the number of Thai people is smaller, Thanh Hoa province has drawn on the experience of learning Thai to bring it into schools.

The restoration of the ancient Thai script in the Thai community must have a specific and detailed plan from the authorities. But it does not require perfection to start working. In my opinion, the following should be done first:

Invite Mr. Sam Van Binh, Vi Ngoc Chan, and Mr. Lang Van O (or his knowledgeable family members) and some brothers who know Thai Quy Chau script to meet and basically agree on the need to compile a common curriculum for Thai Quy Chau script (old).

Seeking the opinion of Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Tri Doi, who has in-depth expertise in the Thai language in Western Nghe An.

Organize a workshop in the old Quy Chau region on eliminating ancient Thai illiteracy in the Thai community in the region.

Along with the above work, we are organizing the recording and collection of documents with ancient Thai characters in this area of ​​Highway 48 to avoid increasing losses.

There should be a policy to use Mr. Sam Van Binh and Mr. Vi Ngoc Chan to be in charge of this work for a period of time, as professional collaborators with a passion for ancient Thai script. Then continue to implement the plan to bring ancient Thai script into schools, into cultural and artistic publications...

Cultural, educational, and ethnic agencies should get involved actively and effectively.

Discipline Bean (Provincial Veteran)