Tên chữ (

chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represented by new characters ...

: 𠸛𡨸) are Vietnamese place names of Sino-Vietnamese origin that refer to locations which also have other names that are of vernacular origin. In many cases, these names are literary or formal and are less commonly used than their vernacular counterparts. The reasoning behind the names are for official and historical usage by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

which uses

Hán văn Literary Chinese ( Vietnamese: , ; chữ Hán: 漢文, 文言) was the medium of all formal writing in Vietnam for almost all of the country's history until the early 20th century, when it was replaced by vernacular writing in Vietnamese using t ...

(Literary Chinese) in official documents.

Origin

The name is sometimes called Địa danh chi Hán văn (地名之漢文). It is used in contrast to the tên Nôm (𠸛喃), or vernacular name, which are of native Vietnamese origin.Olga Dror Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liẽu Hạnh in Vietnamese 2007 Page 227 "Many localities, in addition to their official, or Sino- Vietnamese, toponym, had an alternative toponym in the vernacular. For this, see Thái Hoàng "Bàn về tên làng Việt Nam" (Discussion on the Names of Vietnamese Villages), 1982 pp. 54—60; Nguyễn Kiên Trường, " tìm hiểu sự bảo lưu tên Nôm làng xã dưới góc độ ngôn ngữ và văn hóa (1994)," (Toward an Understanding of the Choice of Demotic Names of Villages and Communes from the Grammatical and Cultural Points of ..." In the Red River Delta, the demotic Vietnamese place name often begins with "Kẻ" (仉); for example: Kẻ Mẩy 仉𨊋 (whereas the tên chữ, or Hán Việt name, is 米池), Kẻ Cót 仉榾 (formally Yên Quyết 嫣決), Kẻ Vọng 仉望 ( 懌望). Many, if not most city names in Vietnam are Sino-Vietnamese, but some cities also have earlier Nôm names: *

Hà Nội Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

河內 (Hanoi) is Sino-Vietnamese and has had many Sino-Vietnamese names -

Thăng Long Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the capital and second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red and Black Rivers). As a municipality, Hanoi consists of 12 urban districts, 17 rural d ...

昇龍,

Đông Kinh Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

東京 - but it also had a name in chữ Nôm, Kẻ Chợ 仉𢄂, found on some early Portuguese-made maps as "Cachao". Major cities with Vietnamese demotic names include: *

Huế Huế (formerly Thừa Thiên Huế province) is the southernmost coastal Municipalities of Vietnam, city in the North Central Coast region, the Central Vietnam, Central of Vietnam, approximately in the center of the country. It borders Quảng ...

化 is a fully Vietnamese demotic name: when written in chữ Nho it is named

Thuận Hóa Thuận Hóa (, ) was a historic territory in central Vietnam. It consisted of the modern provinces of southern Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Huế (historically, Thừa Thiên–Thuận Hóa), Da Nang, and northern Quảng Nam. In 1306, the ki ...

順化 or Phú Xuân 富春. * Sài Gòn 柴棍 (Saigon) is also a demotic name: the formal ''tên chữ'' historical name in chữ Nho is

Gia Định ''Gia'' is a 1998 American biographical drama television film about the life and times of one of the first supermodels, Gia Carangi. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Gia and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, with Mercedes Ruehl and Eliza ...

嘉定. * Likewise

Cam Ranh Cam Ranh () is a port-city in Southern Khánh Hòa Province, in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam. History Cam Ranh, known in the ancient Ede language as Kăm Mran, is a land closely associated with the development of the Champa cult ...

Vũng Tàu Vũng Tàu (''Hanoi accent:'' , ''Saigon accent:'' ) is an important port city in southern Vietnam. It serves as the maritime port of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. Vũng Tàu covers of area and consists of 16 urban wards and on ...

Phan Rang Phan may refer to: * Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name * Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand * Phan River The Phan River () is a river of Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam.Vietnam Administrative Atlas, NXB Bản Đồ, 2004 It flo ...

Mỹ Tho Mỹ Tho () is a city in the Tiền Giang province in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam. It has a population of approximately 169,000 in 2006 and 220,000 in 2012. It is the regional center of economics, education and technology. The majori ...

Cần Thơ Cần Thơ () is the List of cities in Vietnam, fourth-largest city in Vietnam, and the largest city along the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam. It is noted for its floating markets, rice paper-making village, and picturesque rural canals. It has ...

Kẻ Sặt Kẻ Sặt is a township () in Bình Giang District, Hải Dương Province Hải Dương was a former province in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. Its name derives from Sino-Vietnamese "ocean sun", though the modern province is in fac ...

Bãi Cháy Bãi Cháy is a ward in Vietnam. It, along with the eastern part known colloquially as Hòn Gai, together make up the city of Hạ Long. Known as the city's "tourism zone", many hotels, beach resorts and other tourism hotspots are located within B� ...

Móng Cái Móng Cái (, /mong:gaai:si/) is a city in Quảng Ninh province in Northeast Vietnam. History Its name Móng Cái (硭街市, /mong:gaai/) originated from Cantonese language, meaning "the mong market". It generalized the situation of the popu ...

Chợ Lớn Chợ Lớn (, zh, 堤岸), usually anglicized as "Cholon" in English sources, is a quarter of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It lies on the west bank of the Saigon River, having Bình Tây Market as its central market. Chợ Lớn consists of the ...

Bến Nghé Bến Nghé is a historic area of Saigon, Vietnam, which is today a ward of District 1. History The Bến Nghé area was developed in the 17th century. At the time the French Empire arrived in Saigon, Bến Nghé was a conglomeration of 40 villag ...

. In these cases later Sino-Vietnamese names were derived by local Vietnamese Confucian administrators with

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

ic phonetic approximations (Cam Ranh; Cam Linh) or semantic translations (Bến Nghé; Ngưu Chử). Some however are completely unrelated (

Sông Cầu Sông Cầu is a town (''thị xã'') of Phú Yên province in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam. After the Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia f ...

; Xuân Đài).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:địa danh Vietnamese language Vietnamese words and phrases