Lingua scritta e identità nazionale nel Vietnam coloniale francese: il caso del vietnamita romanizzato

Abstract

Nationalism, colonialism and language are often closely intertwined, as one language can be adopted as a national symbol and/or be utilised as a means to spread and defend nationalist sentiments and actions with the aim of liberating a colonised nation. Similarly, the colonisers may
implement a linguistic policy, involving local languages, in order to support their colonial agenda. In the case of Vietnam, the Vietnamese language, especially in its written form, played a crucial role in the ambitions of both the colonisers and the local nationalists during the French colonial period (1858-1945). This article claims, through the analysis of historical documents, that the French colonial regime aimed to establish the Vietnamese language written in the romanised script as a national language to subtract the local people from the Chinese cultural influence and draw them closer to the French and European civilisation. Such a script is known as quốc ngữ (national language/script) and had been devised by Jesuit missionaries. Nevertheless, the success of this policy gave birth to a generation of modern Vietnamese intellectuals, imbibed with Western liberal ideas, as well as a capitalistic enterprise of the press in quốc ngữ dominated by writings exploring a wide range of topics. Quốc ngữ was thus used for diverse and even contrasting purposes: initially used as a tool to modernise the country, it then became a symbol of the national identity to be defended. Romanised Vietnamese has since played a fundamental role within Vietnamese nationalism in constructing an independentist conscience, which then contributed to the liberation from French colonialism and the gradual independence of the Vietnamese people, even from the Chinese cultural influence.

Keywords: Nationalism, colonisation, Vietnam, quốc ngữ, romanised Vietnamese