Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Vietnamese)

Main page: Wikipedia:Naming conventions

The Vietnamese alphabet is a form of the Latin alphabet that features diacritics both over and under the vowels and a space between every syllable, for example [Hà Nội] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Hanoi) or [Việt Nam] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Vietnam). English-language sources, including sources such as Encyclopædia Britannica or National Geographic that give diacritics for other languages, generally drop Vietnamese diacritics. Information is lost when the diacritics are removed and the word often becomes unrecognizable to a Vietnamese speaker. If there is an established common usage anglicized form, this should be used.

Anglicized vs. Vietnamese forms

Main page: Wikipedia:diacritics

If an anglicized name is used, give the Vietnamese name as an initial gloss in the article lead, using the {{lang-vi}} template. The use of diacritics in article should follow the style of the article title. Diacritics should be used in category titles, following the style for article titles. When creating an article containing diacritics in its title, create a redirect from a title without diacritics.

Article titles

Factors to consider:

• Wikipedia policy is that, "the choice between anglicized and local spellings should follow English-language usage", per WP:UE.
• The title should tell the reader the English-language name of the subject, so it should be a form that is in common use in the reliable sources.
• As diacritics are not typeable, they make a title more difficult to input and more difficult to search for. They also make the article's URL more difficult to input, whether represented in its diacritical form (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Âu_Lạc) or ASCII-compatible form (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%82u_L%E1%BA%A1c).
• "National Geographic Style Manual" recommends omitting Vietnamese diacritics as "distracting" for readers due to the large number of marks the language uses.
• Preservation of meanings. Removing diacritical marks makes it hard to discern the original meaning of the word.

Sources to consult

For the spelling and forms of names, consult sources such as the following:

• Encyclopedias: Britannica, Encyclopedia of Modern Asia (2002), and Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia (2004).
• Standard histories: Justin J. Corfield's The History of Vietnam (2008), William J. Duiker's Historical Dictionary of Vietnam (2006), Nicholas Tarling's Cambridge History of Southeast Asia (1991), Keith Weller Taylor's The Birth of Vietnam (1991), and Shelton Woods' Vietnam: An Illustrated History (2002).
• Media: Viet Nam News, VietnamNet Bridge, and VOV Online.

Names of people

Short forms

Vietnamese names are usually three syllables long, but may also be two or four syllables. The first syllable is the family name or surname. Because certain family names, notably Nguyen, are extremely common, they cannot be used to distinguish among individuals in the manner customary in English. Do not shorten two-syllable names, i.e. Le Duan is always Le Duan. For three-syllable names, use the final syllable as a short form to refer to the subject after the first reference. Thus Ngo Bao Chau is shortened to "Chau". For four-syllable names, use the last two syllables as the short form. Thus Nguyen Thi Minh Khai is "Minh Khai". It should be noted that "Ho Chi Minh" is exception to these rules since this is a pseudonym with a strongly literal meaning. Chí Minh means "he who enlightens," so these two syllables are not divided. An explanatory header, {{Vietnamese name}}, may be used if clarification is considered necessary.

Monarchs

Vietnamese monarchs were variously referred to as kings ([vua] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or [vương] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) or emperors ([hoàng đế] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)). For the period prior to ascending the throne, refer to them by given name. A reigning monarch generally had both a temple name and an era name. Refer to the monarchs of the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945) by era name, but to earlier monarchs by temple name. See List of Vietnamese monarchs for individual monarchs.

The use and transliteration of characters of Chinese origin

Until the 1920s, Vietnamese generally wrote using characters of Chinese origin called Hán tự. These could be used to write either classical Chinese (Nho), which had official status, or a vernacular script called Nôm, which used the characters phonetically. If the primary source material gives a name in non-Latin characters, provide this form as a gloss. For example, the article on Le Quy Don opens, "Lê Quý Đôn (黎貴惇; 1726–1784)". In this example, the markup {{lang|vi|'''Lê Quý Đôn'''}} ({{linktext|黎|貴|惇}}; 1726–1784) was used. This markup allows the reader to click an individual character to obtain additional information about it. Provide a character gloss only once in an article, either at the beginning or in a section entitled "Names". Use the lookup tools provided by the Nôm Preservation Foundation to convert between alphabetic and character script, or to look up English language meanings.

Note that the use of Hán tự was discontinued in 1945. To provide a character gloss for a modern Vietnamese name is inappropriate as this practice misrepresents Chinese script as a form of modern Vietnamese. Names given in Chinese characters by the primary sources may be transliterated either into pinyin (romanized Chinese) or into alphabetical Vietnamese. For example, 南越 can be transliterated either as Nányuè or as [Nam Việt] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). A consistent style should be used for a given article. Factors to consider include use by the source materials and whether the article has a Vietnamese or a Chinese orientation.