Vietnamese tilde

{{Short description|Curved diacritic used in the early Vietnamese alphabet}}

{{Commons category|Apex (Vietnamese diacritic)}}

The Vietnamese tilde, also known by its Latin name of apex, was a curved diacritic used in the 17th century to mark final nasalization in the early Vietnamese alphabet.{{cite book |title=Portuguese Pioneers of Vietnamese Linguistics |first=Roland |last=Jacques |location=Bangkok |publisher=Orchid Press |year=2002 |page=91 |quote=The accent mark written by the amanuensis on the first word can be read as the apex (or tilde), an abbreviation sign used in 17th and 18th century {{lang|vi|Quốc Ngữ}} to represent the rounded nasal finals: '{{lang|vi|-aõ}}' (spelt today '{{lang|vi|-ong}}'); '{{lang|vi|-oũ}}' (= '{{lang|vi|-ông}}'), and '{{lang|vi|-ũ}}' (= '{{lang|vi|-ung}}'). Thus '{{lang|vi|chã}}' would stand for the word presently spelt '{{lang|vi|chẳng}}.'}} Note that de Rhodes called the tilde a "circumflex". It was an adoption of the Portuguese tilde, and should not be confused with the tone mark ngã, which is encoded as a tilde in Unicode (and in Vietnamese derivatives of ISO-8859-1 such as VISCII, VPS or Windows-1258), despite actually being an adoption of the Greek perispomeni.{{cite journal|title=The origin of the peculiarities of the Vietnamese alphabet|first=André-Georges|last=Haudricourt|authorlink=André-Georges Haudricourt|translator-first=Alexis|translator-last=Michaud|translator-link=Alexis Michaud|work=Mon-Khmer Studies|volume=39|date=2010|pages=89–104|id={{HAL|halshs-00918824v2}}|url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00918824v2/file/Haudricourt1949_Peculiarities_MonKhmerStudies2010.pdf#page=16}} Originally published as {{cite journal|title=L’origine des particularités de l’alphabet vietnamien|work=Dân Việt Nam|volume=3|pages=61–68|date=1949|language=fr}}{{refn|1={{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24111-vietnamese-apex.annot.pdf#page=2 |id=UTC L2/24-111 |work=Annotation request for Vietnamese apex |date=2024-04-05 |first1=Minh |last1=Nguyen |first2=Kirk |last2=Miller |title=Conflict with the Unicode tilde |pages=2–3}} [Note that equating specifically U+1DD1 with the Vietnamese Apex, as proposed in that document, was opposed by the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative.]{{refn|{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24103-mufi-clarification.pdf |id=UTC L2/24-103 |first=Tarrin |last=Wills |date=2024-04-09 |title=Clarification of use and forms of certain combining characters}}}}}} Apex is the name used in contemporary Latin texts.

In his 1651 {{lang|la|Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum}}, Alexandre de Rhodes describes the diacritic:{{cite book|title=Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt của Đắc Lộ 1651|trans-title=De Rhodes's Vietnamese grammar of 1651 |author=Nguyễn Khắc Xuyên |location=Garden Grove, California |publisher=Thời điểm |year=1993 |oclc=32129692 |url=http://vantuyen.net/index.php?view=story&subjectid=22131 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112002450/http://vantuyen.net/index.php?view=story&subjectid=22131 |archive-date=November 12, 2011 |language=vi }}{{cite book |chapter=Về các dấu và dấu hiệu khác trên nguyên âm |title=Từ điển Annam-Lusitan-Latinh (Thường gọi Từ điển Việt-Bồ-La) |first=Alexandre |last=de Rhodes |editor1=Hồ Lê |editor2=Cao Xuân Hạo |editor3=Hồ Tuyết Mai |translator=Thanh Lãnh |translator2=Hoàng Xuân Việt |translator3=Đỗ Quang Chính |location=Ho Chi Minh City |publisher=Social Science Publishing House |year=1991 |orig-year=1651 |page=11 |url=http://www.songhuong.com.vn/fullsize.php?id=53&page=11.jpg |language=vi }}{{cite thesis |title=Sự biến đổi các hình thức chữ quốc ngữ từ 1620 đến 1877 |trans-title=Changes in the Vietnamese alphabet's form from 1629 to 1877 |type=PTSKH |author=Nguyễn Thị Bạch Nhạn |location=Hà Nội |publisher=Hanoi National University of Education |year=1994 |url=http://www.vns.edu.vn/vns/images/stories/Bai_NCKH/5_LeKhacCuong/7_lekhaccuong.pdf |language=vi |access-date=2014-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309004127/http://www.vns.edu.vn/vns/images/stories/Bai_NCKH/5_LeKhacCuong/7_lekhaccuong.pdf |archive-date=2014-03-09 |url-status=dead }}

{{Quotation|The third sign, finally, is the apex, which in this language is entirely necessary because of a difference in the ending [i.e. of a word], which the apex makes entirely distinct from the ending that m or n makes, with a meaning entirely diverse in words in which it is employed. However, this sign, namely the apex, only affects o᷃ and u᷃, at the end of a word, as {{lang|vi|ao᷃}} "bee", {{lang|vi|ou᷃}} "grandfather" or "lord". It is pronounced, however, such that neither the lips touch together nor the tongue touches the palate.|{{lang|la|Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum}}{{cite book |chapter=De Accentibus & aliis signis in vocalibus. |title=Dictionarium annamiticum lusitanum, et latinum |first=Alexandre |last=de Rhodes |location=Rome |publisher=Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith |year=1651 |page=10 |url={{fullurl:File:Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum.pdf|page=500}} |language=la }}}}

The apex appears atop {{angle bracket|o}}, {{angle bracket|u}}, and less commonly {{angle bracket|ơ}}. As with other accent marks, a tone mark can appear atop the apex.{{cite dictionary |title=cou᷒̀ la|dictionary=Dictionarium annamiticum lusitanum, et latinum |first=Alexandre |last=de Rhodes |location=Rome |publisher=Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith |year=1651 |page=135 |url={{fullurl:File:Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum.pdf|page=71}} |language=la }}

According to canon law historian Roland Jacques, the apex indicated a final labial-velar nasal {{IPA|[ŋ͡m]}}, an allophone of {{IPA|/ŋ/}} that is peculiar to the Hanoi dialect to the present day. The apex apparently fell out of use during the mid-18th century, being unified with {{angle bracket|-ng}} (representing {{IPA|/ŋ/}}), in a major simplification of the orthography, though the Vietnamese Jesuit {{lang|vi|Philipphê Bỉnh}} ({{lang|pt|Philiphê do Rosario}}) continued to use the old orthography 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=https://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/outre_0300-9513_1998_num_85_318_3600 |language=fr |doi=10.3406/outre.1998.3600 }} In Pierre Pigneau de Behaine and Jean-Louis Taberd's 1838 {{lang|la|Dictionarium Anamitico-Latinum}},{{cite book |chapter=Litterarum anamiticarum ex ordine disposita series |title=Dictionarium anamitico-latinum |first=Pierre Joseph |last=Pigneaux |editor-first=Jean-Louis |editor-last=Taberd |publisher=Joshua C. Marshman |year=1838 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CylHAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR3 |language=la }} the words {{lang|vi|ao᷃}} and {{lang|vi|ou᷃}} became {{lang|vi|ong}} and {{lang|vi|ông}}, respectively.

The Middle Vietnamese apex is known as {{lang|vi|dấu sóng}} or {{lang|vi|dấu lưỡi câu}} in modern Vietnamese. The apex is often mistaken for a tilde in modern reproductions of early Vietnamese writing, such as in Phạm Thế Ngũ's {{lang|vi|Việt Nam văn học sử}}.{{cite book|title=Việt Nam Văn Học Sử: Giản Ước Tân Biên|trans-title=History of Vietnamese Literature: New Survey|author=Phạm Thế Ngũ|location=Saigon|publisher=Quốc Học Tùng Thư|date=1961|page=61|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tvNHAAAAMAAJ|language=vi|via=Google Books}}{{cite journal|journal=Việt-Nam khảo-cổ tập-san: Bulletin de l'Institut de recherches historiques|publisher=Vietnam Historical Research Institute|date=1961|page=86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFNQAQAAMAAJ|language=vi|via=Google Books|title=Bulletin de l'Institut de recherches archéologiques}}