nôm

noun

• Chinese-transcribed Vietnamese
  • thơ nôm: poetry in Chinese-transcribed Vietnamese

adj

• Prose-like, simple, easy to understand
  • câu văn nôm lắm: a very simple sentence

• In opposition to the Chinese's Hán language, Nôm (slantingly pronounced from "Nam") language belonged to Việt ethnic group. It borrowed the Hán hieroglyphic scripts to transcribe the Vietnamese language. Nôm language might appear in the 8th century. The memorable poems in Nôm language belonged to Hàn Thuyên and Nguyễn Sĩ Cố (in the late 13th century) The birth of Nôm language not only marked the Việt people's mature national consciousness, but also brought a brilliant development to the Vietnamese literature between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. For complication and imperfection, Nôm language was replaced by quốc ngữ (national language)