The Chinese Latin Alphabet: A Revolutionary Script in the Global Information Age

This article rethinks the history of Chinese script reforms and proposes a new genealogy for the Chinese Latin Alphabet (CLA), invented in 1931 by Chinese and Russian revolutionaries in the Soviet Union. Situating script reforms within a global information age that emerged out of the nineteenth-century communications revolution, the article historicizes the CLA within a technologically and ideologically contrived Sino-Soviet space. In particular, it shows the intimate links between the CLA and the Unified New Turkic Alphabet (UNTA), which grew out of a latinization movement based in Baku, Azerbaijan. The primary purpose of the UNTA was to latinize the Arabic script of the Turkic people living in Soviet Central Asia, but it was immediately exported to the non-Turkic world as well in an effort to latinize languages across Eurasia and ignite revolutionary internationalism. This article investigates the forgotten figures involved in carrying the Latin alphabet from Baku to Shanghai and offers a new framework to scrutinize the history of language, scripts, and knowledge production across Eurasia.

Exploring the relationships between Nôm characters by comparing forms, sounds, and meanings

This article identifies and distinguishes Nôm characters by comparing their forms, sounds, and meanings. In this light, the relationships between Nôm characters can be classified into eight specific cases. This article provides examples, in-depth analysis, and a discussion of issues related to each specific case. The corpus this article draws on includes the Nôm characters in Quốc Âm Thi Tập (National language poetry collection) by Nguyễn Trãi (1380–1442) and Truyện Kiều (The tale of Kieu) by Nguyễn Du (1766–1820). The research results of this article can carry implications for the identification of Nôm characters, the studies of authors and their works, phonetics research, as well as the investigation into other scripts adapted from the Chinese script.

Analyzing graphic structure of phono-semantic characters: A Vietnamese method of teaching and learning Chinese characters

From the perspective of graphological structure, this article examines Vietnamese methods of teaching and learning Chinese characters by analyzing their phonetic and semantic elements. The selected sample for the survey is taken from characters collected from Thiều Chửu’s Dictionary of Chinese Script with Sino-Vietnamese Reading—the most useful dictionary in Vietnam in nearly 100 years. The resulting statistics reveal that, out of the 14,950 characters in this dictionary, there are 931 phonetic elements in which 455 are strong ones, producing 10–20 phono-semantic characters. This article argues that analyzing the relationship between the characters and their phonetic elements read in Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation is a good method for Vietnamese people to teach and learn Chinese characters. The method of learning Chinese characters has been applied in teaching Chinese characters for more than 1000 monks and nuns at the Vietnam Buddhist Academy in Hanoi. The experimental results show that students were able to improve their vocabulary very quickly, and could apply this to learning and teaching Chinese characters.

Influence of Si Addition on the Microstructure and Mechanical Behaviour of Mg-5sn-3zn-1mn Alloy

The microstructural, mechanical behaviour of Mg-5Sn-3Zn-1Mn alloy with different Si additions (0.5, 1, 1.5 wt. % Si) are investigated and morphological changes of Mg-5Sn are observed with the addition of each element like 3Zn and 1Mn. Si added Mg-5Sn-3Zn-1Mn alloy exhibits two different phases namely Mg 2 Sn and Mg 2 Si. Two distinct phases observed are rod like Mg 2 Sn phase and Chinese script Mg 2 Si upto 1wt%. When Si addition exceeds 1.5% polygonal shaped primary Mg 2 Si particles are formed. In Mg-5Sn-3Zn-1Mn alloy addition of Si up to 1wt% enhances the mechanical properties adequately. Above 1 wt% of Si addition, a slight reduction on tensile property is noticed, which is due to the formation of hard, brittle polygonal primary and coarse Chinese script phases.

Influence of Copper Addition in AlSi7MgCu Alloy on Microstructure Development and Tensile Strength Improvement

Commercial AlSi7Mg alloy represents the usual choice for complex geometry casting production. The market imperative to improve mechanical properties imposed the design of new chemical composition of AlSi7MgCu alloy with high content of Cu (up to 1.435 wt.%). This represents a challenge in order to achieve advanced properties. The interaction of a number of alloying (Si, Mg, Cu) and trace elements (Fe, Mn) influenced a wide range of complex reactions occurring and therefore leading to intermetallic phase precipitation. The characterization of novel chemical composition interaction and its solidification sequence was achieved by modelling an equilibrium phase diagram, simultaneously performing both thermal analysis and metallographic investigations. Copper influence was indicated in the whole solidification process starting with infiltration in modified Chinese script phase Al15(Fe,Mn,Cu)3Si2, beside common intermetallic Al5FeSi. Copper addition encourages formation of compact complex intermetallic phases Al5Cu2Mg8Si6 and Al8(Fe,Mn,Cu)Mg3Si6. Solidification ended with secondary eutectic αAl + Al2Cu + βSi. Microstructure investigation allows volume reconstruction of the microstructure and distribution of particular phases. Chemical compositions enriched in copper content and developed microstructural constituent through solidification sequence of AlSi7MgCu alloy contribute to a significant increase in mechanical properties already in an as-cast state.

Analyzing graphic structure of phono-semantic characters: A Vietnamese method of teaching and learning Chinese characters

From the perspective of graphological structure, this article examines Vietnamese methods of teaching and learning Chinese characters by analyzing their phonetic and semantic elements. The selected sample for the survey is taken from characters collected from Thiều Chửu’s Dictionary of Chinese Script with Sino-Vietnamese Reading—the most useful dictionary in Vietnam in nearly 100 years. The resulting statistics reveal that, out of the 14,950 characters in this dictionary, there are 931 phonetic elements in which 455 are strong ones, producing 10–20 phono-semantic characters. This article argues that analyzing the relationship between the characters and their phonetic elements read in Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation is a good method for Vietnamese people to teach and learn Chinese characters. The method of learning Chinese characters has been applied in teaching Chinese characters for more than 1000 monks and nuns at the Vietnam Buddhist Academy in Hanoi. The experimental results show that students were able to improve their vocabulary very quickly, and could apply this to learning and teaching Chinese characters.

The Chinese script, Confucian script, and Nôm script: Some reflections on writing and politics in monarchical Vietnam

“Confucian script” 儒字 (chữ Nho) has become a unique name used to refer to the “Chinese script” 漢字 (chữ Hán) in Vietnamese. The integration between Chinese script and Confucianism had progressed through monarchical centuries, motivated by Vietnam’s political tradition. Supported by rulers of the country, Chinese script overwhelmed the difference of languages, became the official writing system, and therefore held great influence on important activities of government such as administration, diplomacy, education, and employment. By looking carefully at how Vietnamese monarchs managed to manipulate the Chinese script, Nôm script, and Confucianism to serve their political purposes, we stress that it was Confucianism that served as the link tying the Chinese script with Vietnamese rulers. This link was so strong that the Chinese script remained the dominant form of writing even with the invention of the “Nôm script” 喃字 (chữ Nôm), which was a vernacular system developed to write the Vietnamese language. Furthermore, because Confucianism itself was the spiritual core of the Chinese monarchical structure, Vietnamese rulers learned from the Chinese model by way of the Chinese script when building their own independent state. Confucianism was viewed as the core of Chinese culture.

Exploring the relationships between Nôm characters by comparing forms, sounds, and meanings

This article identifies and distinguishes Nôm characters by comparing their forms, sounds, and meanings. In this light, the relationships between Nôm characters can be classified into eight specific cases. This article provides examples, in-depth analysis, and a discussion of issues related to each specific case. The corpus this article draws on includes the Nôm characters in Quốc Âm Thi Tập (National language poetry collection) by Nguyễn Trãi (1380–1442) and Truyện Kiều (The tale of Kieu) by Nguyễn Du (1766–1820). The research results of this article can carry implications for the identification of Nôm characters, the studies of authors and their works, phonetics research, as well as the investigation into other scripts adapted from the Chinese script.