B with flourish

File:Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).pdf}}]]

The B with flourish is known principally from the works of Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes, particularly his trilingual dictionary {{lang|la|Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum}} (1651) and bilingual {{lang|la|Cathechismus}} (1658). For example, {{lang|vi|vậy}} was written {{lang|vi|ꞗệy}}. As with the letter Đ, only the lowercase form ꞗ is seen in these works, even where a capital letter would be expected.{{cite book|chapter=Ngày thứ bốn|title=Cathechismus pro iis, qui volunt suscipere baptismum, in octo dies divisus|first=Alexandre|last=de Rhodes|author-link=Alexandre de Rhodes|year=1658|page=103|url=http://bsb3.bsb.lrz.de/~db/1034/bsb10347734/images/index.html?id=10347734&fip=&no=27&seite=105|language=vi|quote=ꞗệy thì còn cái ou᷄ Adam lià nhau…|access-date=2014-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141015104759/http://bsb3.bsb.lrz.de/~db/1034/bsb10347734/images/index.html?id=10347734&fip=&no=27&seite=105|archive-date=2014-10-15|url-status=live}}

The Vietnamese alphabet was formally described for the first time in the 17th-century text {{lang|la|Manuductio ad Linguam Tunckinensem}}, attributed to a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, possibly Francisco de Pina{{cite book|title=Portuguese Pioneers of Vietnamese Linguistics|first=Roland|last=Jacques|location=Bangkok|publisher=Orchid Press|year=2002|isbn=9748304779}} or Filipe Sibin.{{cite book|title=Gesammelte Studien|series=Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S.I.|publisher=Jesuit Historical Institute|year=1963|volume=21|page=12|language=pt|quote=…e a « Manuductio ad linguam Tunckinensem » do Padre Filipe Sibin SI…}} This passage about the letter Ꞗ was later incorporated into de Rhodes's {{lang|la|Dictionarium}}:{{cite journal|title=Alexandre de Rhodes có phải là cha đẻ của chữ Quốc ngữ?|trans-title=Was Alexandre de Rhodes the father of the Vietnamese alphabet?|author=Nguyễn Minh Hoàng|journal=Hồn Việt|access-date=November 17, 2013|url=http://honvietquochoc.com.vn/bai-viet/3028-alexandre-de-rhodes-co-phai-la-cha-de-cua-chu-quoc-ngu.aspx|language=vi|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017173357/http://honvietquochoc.com.vn/bai-viet/3028-alexandre-de-rhodes-co-phai-la-cha-de-cua-chu-quoc-ngu.aspx|archive-date=October 17, 2014|url-status=live}}

{{Quotation|{{lang|la|…pronunciatur ferè ut β Græcum ut, {{lang|vi|ꞗĕaò}} ingredi, non eſt tamen omninò ſimile noſtro, V, conſonanti, ſed paulo aſperius, & in ipſa labiorum apertione pronuntiatur ita ut ſit verè litera labialis, ut Hebræi loquuntur, non autem dentalis.}}|Alexandre de Rhodes|{{lang|la|Lingue annamiticæ seu tunchinensis brevis declaratio}}{{cite book|chapter=Lingue annamiticæ seu tunchinensis brevis declaratio|title=Dictionarium annamiticum lusitanicum, et latinum|first=Alexandre|last=de Rhodes|location=Rome|publisher=Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith|year=1651|page=3|url={{fullurl:File:Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).pdf|page=645}}|language=la}}}}

The passage roughly translates to:

{{Quotation|…pronounced almost like the Greek β, for example, {{lang|vi|ꞗĕaò}}, to enter, yet not quite the same as our consonant V, but a little coarser, and in the very opening of the lips pronounced, indeed, as though it was a labial letter, as the Hebrews speak it, rather than a dental.}}

The linguistic interpretation of this description is that the sound was a voiced bilabial fricative, which phoneticians transcribe with the Greek letter beta [β].“The two b’s in the Vietnamese dictionary of Alexandre de Rhodes”. Originally published in Vietnamese translation as: Hai Chữ B, trong cuốn từ điển của A-lếch-xan đơ Rốt. Ngôn Ngữ [Linguistics] 4 (1974). Published in French in 2005 as: Les deux b du Dictionarium d’A. de Rhodes, Cahiers d’Etudes Vietnamiennes 18, 65–68. [https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01631486/document English translation (available online)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205143607/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01631486/document |date=2017-12-05 }} to appear in: Haudricourt, André-Georges. Evolution of languages and techniques. (Ed.) Martine Mazaudon, Boyd Michailovsky & Alexis Michaud. (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] 270). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Although some peculiarities of de Rhodes's orthography persisted into the early 19th century,{{cite journal|title=Le Portugal et la romanisation de la langue vietnamienne. Faut-il réécrire l'histoire ?|trans-title=Portugal and the romanization of the Vietnamese language. Should we rewrite history?|first=Roland|last=Jacques|journal=Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer|publisher=Société française d'histoire d'outre-mer|volume=85|issue=318|year=1998|page=52|url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/outre_0300-9513_1998_num_85_318_3600|language=fr|doi=10.3406/outre.1998.3600|access-date=2014-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021193358/http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/outre_0300-9513_1998_num_85_318_3600|archive-date=2014-10-21|url-status=live}} the B with flourish had by then become V, as seen in the writings of Vietnamese Jesuit Philipphê Bỉnh (Philiphê do Rosario).

The lowercase B with flourish and a hypothetical uppercase form, unattested in de Rhodes's works, were standardized in June 2014 as part of the Latin Extended-D block of Unicode 7.0.{{cite web|title=Proposal for the addition of five Latin characters to the UCS|first=Michael|last=Everson|author-link=Michael Everson|work=Universal Character Set|publisher=JTC1/SC2/WG2|date=February 8, 2012|access-date=February 11, 2012|url=http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n4030.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021032746/http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n4030.pdf|archive-date=October 21, 2012|url-status=live}}

{{charmap

|a796

|name1= Latin capital letter B with flourish

|a797

|name2= Latin small letter B with flourish

|Info = yes

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{{Wikisourcelang|vi|Từ điển Việt–Bồ–La/ꞗ|Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum: ꞗ}}

• Vietnamese apex, another distinctive element of de Rhodes's orthography

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• [http://www.1ec5.org/software/daclo/ Đắc Lộ font for Vietnamese that supports B with flourish]

{{Latin script|Ꞗ}}

Category:Vietnamese language

Category:Latin letters with diacritics

Category:Palaeographic letters