But it is a big of strange that Asia country using Latin letters for their language.
I am not sure if there is old Vietnam writing system before French
There were Nom, which is actually Chinese. Many minor VN ethics have their own languages, but no writing systems. Normally, they used to hire those knowing how to write and read to write documents for them, like receipts or family trees, of course in mandarin.
I would like to add that learning how to write or having a formal education was reserved only for the elites and scholars in feudal Asia. Some may only have a few years of education or may pick up a few commonly used scripts through their life, just enough for everyday use, but not enough to write a formal letter and document.
While Nôm script was well developed by scholars, one must first learn the Confucian script in order to use Nôm script. This is because Nôm script is both phonetic and semantic at the same time. Most people did not have the luxury to learn and remember either script.
Latin Alphabet, in the other hand, only have twenty something letters to remember and is based on phonetic rather than semantic. Most commoner can pick this up easily as the Jesuit missionaries provided free schooling for children.
Alexander the Rhodes was the French Jesuit who wrote the first Vietnamese Catechism. He spent 10 years in Vietnam from 1620 to 1630 and published the first Portuguese-Latin-Vietnamese dictionary while serving in the court of the Trịnh Lords.
I was told that there once was a monument to commemorate his achievements in Vietnam, however, it was unknowingly destroyed during the climax of the Vietnam war. The existence of a monument for him is now just a rumor.
Be that as it may, as quality of life and cost of living improves, we will definitely see more people gazing their interest in learning the old Nôm script and Confucian script on their free time as evidenced in this forum.
Base on Family Tree of Trần clan in Vietnam, who are direct descent of Tran Dynasty Emperor, It stated that the ancestor of Tran clan was named Tran Minh he has been came to Vietnam from period of Qin invasion before time of Zhao Tuo founded Nan Yue Guo.
In the same case of Barack Obama.
Very interesting.
Giao Chỉ is one of 15 province of Văn Lang nation of the Lạc Việt during the Hùng Vương era of Hồng Bàng Dynasty (2879 to 258 BC), which predate Qin. Although, I didn't know that the House of Trần could trace their ancestry to the time of Qin as you stated. I thought they could only trace their lineage back to Trần Lý, the head of the Trần clan in Lưu Gia village, of Giao Chỉ province, which is Hưng Hà District, Thái Bình, in Việt Nam today.
Would you be able to share the source for this with me? I find it very hard to believe. With exposer to the open elements and handling, most pages in any record will suffer from abiotic and biotic decomposition.
