Developing a Writing System for Ve Ethnic Minority Language in Vietnam

Abstract

Ve is the autonym of an ethnic minority group in the mountainous commune Đắc Pring, Đà Nẵng city.  The group has  more than 2,000 native speakers, and their language belongs to the Bahnaric language family.   This paper presents the development of a  writing system for the Ve language, based on the Vietnamese script with the addition of two letters, j and w. The study first  analyses the concept of 'writing' and describes the  nature of writing systems in the world throughout history. A preliminary Ve orthography is then  proposed, focused on how to write different types of words in the Ve language. Data were collected during three fieldwork periods (2020, 2023, 2025) as part of three linguistic research projects funded by the Institute of Linguistics, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences: (1) Investigating Jeh - Trieng Vowels System (A Case Study of the Ve Language in Nam Giang District,  Quang Nam Province (2020); (2) A Phonological Study of Ve across its Villages in Dak Pre and Dak Pring Commune, Nam Giang (2022); and (3) Developing a Writing System for the Ve Language  in Nam Giang District (2025).