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Dictionary Project

The Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation has embarked on publishing the first Chữ Nôm dictionary, both in true type print and computer accessible. Each entry in the dictionary will be assigned a unique ISO code that will allow Chữ Nôm electronic display on computers worldwide. With the transfer of Chữ Nôm via computers (and the internet) through a free electronic dictionary, the entire corpus of Nôm texts in the world’s libraries can at last be identified. Chữ Nôm texts buried in the world’s major libraries can finally be described and posted. Scholars will be able to share their research into Việtnam’s 1000-year history in literature, medicine, religion, music, philosophy, court affairs, and ancient court documents. Việtnam’s cultural past will be directly accessible once again.

Our dictionary project (both printed and electronic) will be the key to opening Việtnam’s entire inheritance written in Chữ Nôm. It will lead to the publication in true type print of Nôm texts, which until now have only been printed by woodcut or photocopy reproduction. Indeed, an estimated 90% of Nôm texts have never been transliterated into modern Vietnamese Quốc-ngữ.

The expertise of our Foundation volunteers, which provided the technical support for an historic printing of Nôm characters (in Spring Essence: The Poetry of Hồ Xuân Hương (Copper Canyon Press, 2000), puts the goal of this Nôm dictionary in our technical grasp for the first time. We have identified altogether four dictionaries (two of them from ancient times) that we wish to publish either in book form and/or electronically. To produce all of them would cost about $100,000. The first—which would settle the basic electronic technical issues for the others—would cost about $45,000.

Giúp đọc Nôm và Hán Việt [Guide to pronunciation of Nôm and Hán-Việt characters], 4th Edition. ISBN 1-881608-06-9, September 2004.

The dictionary we have chosen to do first is that of Father Anthony Trần Văn Kiệm. Father Anthony is an 83-year-old Roman Catholic priest and scholar retired to Texas*. His dictionary research is now complete after 20 years of work. We plan to publish it in book form as well as digitally, on CD-ROM. His dictionary will set the standard for future Nôm publications. It will be done under the guidance of the most qualified linguists, computer experts, and mathematicians in Việtnam, Europe, and the United States. They will see that each entry in the dictionary will be accurate, and will be assigned a unique ISO code that will allow Nôm display on computers worldwide. After publishing Father Anthony’s dictionary, we plan to move on to publishing other Nôm dictionaries and seminal texts.

*The Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation has no religious or political affiliation.

Scholarship Programs

Besides providing computer tools to investigate the Vietnamese literary history written in Nôm characters, The Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation also offers scholarships to students with defined interests in studying Chữ Nôm script. So far we have funded several Ph.D. candidates who will use Nôm in their research projects as well as a young Vietnamese-American undergraduate with a knowledge of classical Chinese and classical Greek. In each case, we arrange contact between the student and a Nôm scholar in Việtnam. The stipends for American-based students have averaged $1200. The stipends sometimes defray travel and living expenses, but primarily go to pay for tutoring in Chữ Nôm script.

The values of this scholarship program are several: it increases Nôm literacy and participation in the vast, 1000-year heritage of writing in Chữ Nôm script while enhancing the cohort of scholars with knowledge of the Nôm tradition in poetry, medicine, government, history, religion, and medicine. At the same time, it provides some financial support to the remaining scholars who are the carriers of this heritage.

Thirty $100 Scholarships for Students in Vietnam
Through the generous donation of Thu Lê and Phùng Liên Đoàn, a nuclear physicist who has funded many charitable projects in Vietnam, the Nôm Foundation continues to offer $100 Nôm Study Scholarships to college and high school students in Hanoi, Huế, and Hồ Chí Minh City."

(2003 recipients)

David Lane Gitelson Scholarships
David Gitelson was a young, refugee relief worker in Việtnam with the International Voluntary Services, a Peace Corps-like organization that operated during the war. He was killed in January of 1968 while bringing supplies to villagers who had recently been bombed. David had a vision of a Việtnam at peace and alive in its cultural heritage. Donors may wish to contribute to the Nôm Scholarship Fund in his name.

To make a donation click here.