Graphemic borrowings and transformations from Sinitic: The case of Qu？c ？m Thi T？p

Abstract This essay studies Vietnamese demotic N？m characters used to transcribe Sinitic loanwords in the text of Qu？c ？m Thi T？p [Poetry Collection in the National Language] by Nguy？n Tr？i (1380–1442) using an interdisciplinary approach that combines graphology, historical phonetics, and etymology. The text under study (with 11,067 unique instances of N？m characters) has 1434 N？m characters used to transcribe Sinitic loanwords, with 8040 instances of recurrence. These N？m characters are divided into 10 categories, along two principal groups: (A) N？m characters that are borrowed from Sinitic; and (B) N？m characters that are self-generated. Statistics shows that the major trend of N？m characters used to transcribed Sinitic loanwords is from borrowing (93.3%), while the minor trend is from self-generation (6.7%). Group (A) of N？m characters mainly uses the method of graphemic borrowing from Sinitic, while group (B) uses two principal methods of graphemic creation: phono-semantic compound and phono-equivalent compound. The results show that basically the system of N？m characters used to transcribe Sinitic loanwords inherits the graphological tradition of Sinitic as expressed on the following levels: (a) graphemic components from radicals and existing Sinitic characters; (b) methods of graphemic creation including phonetic loan and phono-semantic compound. However, the methods of graphemic creation and the evolution of the graphic form of N？m characters all follow the common trends of the histories of N？m characters and the Vietnamese language