Dear colleagues, I used the Vietnamese email we recently agreed to reach out to a Vietnamese contact suggested by Meikal, Dr Ngô Thanh Nhàn. He has sent some really useful feedback, which I have copied below for your information. Regards, Chris. -- Research Associate in Linguistic Computing, Centre for Digital Humanities, UCL, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT Tel +44 20 7679 1599 (int 31599) www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/people/chrisdillon<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/people/chrisdillon> From: Nhan Ngo [mailto:nhan@temple.edu] Sent: 17 November 2015 02:56 To: Dillon, Chris <c.dillon@ucl.ac.uk<mailto:c.dillon@ucl.ac.uk>> Cc: Eric Brunner-Williams (ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net<mailto:ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net>) <ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net<mailto:ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net>>; Alireza Saleh <alireza.saleh@icann.org<mailto:alireza.saleh@icann.org>> Subject: Re: Vietnamese in in Latin script Top Level Domain names Dear Chris, 1. Unicode CLDR Are any other letters in use? Yes. a. Vietnamese monetary unit, đồng, is ₫. b. Five tone marks, represented as Unicode combining marks huyền [ `], sắc [´], nặng [ ̣], hỏi [ ̉], ngã [~]. 2. Yes. The official alphabet is a ă â b c d đ e ê g h i j k l m n o ô ơ p q r s t u ư v w x y z and six tone marks. they and the Unicode combining marks as tone marks generate the summary list you cited in 1 (Unicode CLDR). 3. They are all in use. Comments: a. The Unicode summary CLDR list does not sort correctly in Vietnamese. b. We proposed two sets of codes for Vietnamese: — one is the list you gave called the Unicde CLDR (you listed), and — the official Vietnamese alphabet with 6 tones (linguistically correct). Unicode allows two standard character computer code sets, which output the same results. E.g. letter “ă” combined with tone “ `” is equal to “ằ” (there are 2 ways to get “ằ”); letter “ă” combined with tone “ ´” is equal to “ắ” (there are 2 ways to get “ắ”);… Our proposal reconcile correct sorting in Vietnamese, as well as as full adherence to official Vietnamese alphabet (and tones). Let me know if this helps. Regards, Ngô Thanh Nhàn On Nov 16, 2015, at 10:16 AM, Dillon, Chris <c.dillon@ucl.ac.uk<mailto:c.dillon@ucl.ac.uk>> wrote: Dear Dr Thanh Nhan, Meikal Mumin suggested I contact you. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is currently doing some research into Unicode code points for use in Latin script Top Level Domain names: https://community.icann.org/display/croscomlgrprocedure/Latin+GP Currently we have no Vietnamese language expertise. I wonder if you would be able to help us with the following questions: == The Unicode CLDR (Common Locale Data Repository) lists the following letters for Vietnamese: a à ả ã á ạ ă ằ ẳ ẵ ắ ặ â ầ ẩ ẫ ấ ậ b c d đ e è ẻ ẽ é ẹ ê ề ể ễ ế ệ f g h i ì ỉ ĩ í ị j k l m n o ò ỏ õ ó ọ ô ồ ổ ỗ ố ộ ơ ờ ở ỡ ớ ợ p q r s t u ù ủ ũ ú ụ ư ừ ử ữ ứ ự v w x y ỳ ỷ ỹ ý ỵ z (See www.unicode.org/cldr/charts/28/summary/vi.html<http://www.unicode.org/cldr/charts/28/summary/vi.html> .) 1. Are any other letters in use? 2. Some of the diacritics are used to indicate tone – is Vietnamese ever written with a simpler set of Latin letters without tone marks? (For example, Pinyin Běijīng is sometimes written as Beijing, without tone marks.) 3. Are some of the letters listed not in use? == Please let me know if you would be interested in becoming a member of the Panel. Regards, Chris Dillon. Co-Chair Latin Generation Panel -- Research Associate in Linguistic Computing, Centre for Digital Humanities, UCL, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT Tel +44 20 7679 1599 (int 31599) www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/people/chrisdillon<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/people/chrisdillon>