Southeast Asia Threevisited Luke Bradley [email protected] September 7, 2020
Abstract Contents [NB: What follows is a mixture of two original 2019 documents from two different trips, with Accommodation 2 some personal information removed. The inten- tion is simply to showcase the document design.] Acquisitions during trip 3 This is but an echo of a document I prepared in Austroasiatic Languages 4 2016, which was considerably longer than this one. The abstract of that document was as follows: Bus travel 4 “Cultural, linguistic, geographical, Chamic languages 4 sociological, anthropological, musical, philosophical, religious, practical Champa 4 and personal notes pertaining to the Southeast Asian voyage undertaken Exchange rates 5 by L. Bradley and J. Luff in June of the Two Thousand and Sixteenth For Next Time 5 Year of the Common Era. Content mainly pertains to Việt Nam, with Flights, Internal 5 occasional notes on the Philippines reflecting the contingencies of the day. Giáo Trình Lịch Sự Tiếng Việt 5 All costings, except for visa, increased by ~10% relative to estimates garnered Hà Nội 5 from the web. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order for minimal Heat 6 efficiency.” Hmong-Mien Languages 6 My principles in this 2019 edition remain basi- cally the same. This document was originally more Insurance 6 practical than the last, with less starry-eyed prepa- ration for a wondrous trip resulting in fewer his- Islands 6 toric and linguistic flights of fancy, and more fo- cus on the non-niceties of cost, transport, and ac- Languages of Laos 6 comodation. However, the excitement ramped up Languages of Yunnan 6 as the trip approached, and there is now plenty of side material within. Clickable within-document Languages spoken en route 6 links in magenta (not Magenta!); clickable URLs in Cerulean. Luggage 9 I have sprinkled Traditional Chinese 正體字/繁 體 字 equivalents of subheadings and headings Money 9 throughout the document, in honour of the Tai- wan 臺灣 component of the trip. Not that it par- Music / Audio 9 ticularly matters, but this will simultaneously1 be my eighth trip to Asia, my sixth trip to Southeast Photography 10 Asia, my fourth trip to Vietnam, my third trip to Phrasebooks 10 Thailand, my second trip to Japan, my second trip to Cambodia, and my first trip to Taiwan. Hence Provinces of Việt Nam 10 the ‘threevisited’ of the title is a misnomer. 1Not literally simultaneously. Scripts 11
1 Accommodation List of Tables
Sino-Tibetan Languages 11 List of Tables
Tai-Kadai Languages 11 1 Six exchange rates as of 05.05.2019 .... 5 2 Luggage ...... 10 Thai Cuisine in Việt Nam 12 Abbreviations Tourism statistics 12 ĐN Đà Nẵng
Travel: General 13 ĐV Đồng Văn
Travel: Vocabulary 13 HA Hội An
Travel Risks 13 HG Hà Giang
Travel within Switzerland 13 HN Hà Nội
Travel within Vietnam: Buses 13 KL Kuala Lumpur LC Lũng Cú Tự Điển Tiếng Huế 15 MSEA Mainland Southeast Asia Tự Điển Chữ Nôm Dẫn Giải 15 MV Mèo Vạc Vietic 16 TPHG Thành phố Hà Giang Vietnamese Linguistic Collection 16 VN Việt Nam Visa & Visa Waiver 17 Japan 日本 ...... 17 Taiwan 臺灣 ...... 17 h[YnabXcamZ\g Vietnam 越南 ...... 17 Laos 寮國 ...... 17 Cambodia 柬埔寨 ...... 17 Thailand 泰國 ...... 17 Accommodation VN Express 17 (NB: Booked accommodation in ForestGreen; unbooked or still to be determined in BrickRed) VOV4 17
Wordlist Recordings 17 Update: All properties now booked!
List of Figures Tokyo, 26.05–31.05: Hostel wahaku kura, 111-0051, 1 Languages of Central and Southern VN . 4 Tokyo, Taito Ward, Taito-ku Kuramae 2-17-10. 2 Languages of ‘Eastern Indo-China’ .... 4 (hostel 和箔蔵, 111-0051, 東京都, 台東区, 台東 3 Distribution of Katuic languages ..... 4 区蔵前 2-17-10). Superior bunk bed. booking.com. 4 Giáo Trình Lịch Sự Tiếng Việt ...... 5 Pay JPY 12,730 at property. Free cancel until 22 May 5 Languages of Northern Việt Nam .... 7 2019, 23:59. 6 Languages of Laos ...... 8 7 Languages of Northwestern Việt Nam .. 12 Taipei, 31.05–01.06: Meander 1948, No.42, Taiyuan 10 Where to catch the bus to HG ...... 13 Road, Datong District , Taipei, 103, Taiwan. (漫步 8 Where to catch the 86 ...... 14 1948, 太原路 42 號, ⼤同區,(台北市, 103)). 4-bed 9 When to catch the 86 ...... 14 dorm. booking.com. Pay TWD 730 at property. Free cancel until 27 May 2019, 23:59. 11 Where to catch the bus to HN ...... 15 12 Tự Điển Tiếng Huế ...... 16 Xincheng, 01.06–03.06: Taroko Susi Space, No.20, 13 Tự Điển Dhữ Nôm Dẫn Giải ...... 16 Zhongzheng Road, Xincheng, 97144, Taiwan. (太魯 14 Distribution of Vietic languages ..... 16 閣蘇西小空間, 中正路 20 號 (新城 , 97144)). 1 15 Taipei to Xincheng by train ...... 18 room. booking.com. Pay TWD 1,890 at property. 16 Xincheng to Taipei by train ...... 18 Free cancel until 28 May 2019, 23:59.
Southeast Asia Threevisited 2 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Acquisitions during trip
Where I stay will make a large difference to my enjoyment over booking.com for CHF 45; prepayment day of arrival of the trip. If I spend too much on luxurious beds, I won’t (I think); free cancel until 18:00, Mar 5. experience enough of the landscape and people. This is not In Mèo Vạc (MV), I will stay in the Ong Vang Meo Vac a trip to spend hermit-style—except when reading, contem- Hotel, as it seems to be the only one with private bath- plating nature, or working.2 rooms (although the Giac Xua guesthouse also looks good, It could be worth sticking with Agoda; Airbnb is moving as does Little Yen’s Homestay). This seems to require book- past its sell-by date, perhaps? They certainly have one of the ing through booking.com, which mysteriously has 5 beds slowest websites known to man. Here is the distribution of remaining at the time of writing, while Agoda has none. nights: Per-site allocation, I suppose. It’s worth thinking about which languages are spoken: Giac Xua seems to be Giáy- 1-1-3-2-1-3-1½ run, whereas Ong Vang is probably not. However, a mes- sage I sent to Green Karst brought a reply assuring me that In Emerald are those occasions on which I am likely to be exhausted, or on which a very good night’s sleep is oth- multiple local languages were spoken by their staff. Booked booking.com erwise desirable. This applies principally to the first Hà Nội for Fri 8 over for CHF 20; payment on arrival (HN) stopover. I have also highlighted the last night(s) of in cash; free cancel until Mar 6. the trip, in Đà Nẵng (ĐN), as it seems sensible to be well- Coming back through HG, I will stay in Creekside once rested before the long voyage home. The final ‘½’ represents more and try to sample any local dishes I hadn’t before. the Saturday evening, upon which I don’t want to be walk- Booked for Sun 10 with SB over Agoda for CHF 10; ing the streets of ĐN up until midnight and my flight. I will charged on Mar 7; free cancel until Mar 8. therefore keep a room to relax in until I leave for the airport I then fly to ĐN, where I need a simple room for the around 21:00 or 22:00. night before heading to Hội An (HA) the next day. This room should be rather cheap, in case I miss the flight from For the first night, I have come across the excellent op- HN and have to get a train down instead. The Green Bal- tion of the Executive Suite at Tomodachi House. I have cony hostel looks fine. Booked for Mon 11 with SB over great memories of that hostel, and reviews indicate that it Agoda for CHF 13; payment processed Mar 8; free cancel has maintained its quality over the past few years. Since this until Mar 9. is a ‘penthouse suite’ offered for only 32 CHF (with private pool, supposedly!), with great reviews, I think it will be the For HA, Pearl Beach House (Airbnb) or Sun Paradise perfect way to relax after a journey which commences with Villa (Agoda) look like good possibilities, although things me leaving my house in Basel at 05:00 (11:00 VN time) on are starting to get a bit pricey. But overall, there is an em- Saturday; i.e. a 26-hour journey altogether. Booked for Sun barrassment of riches. It would be nice to have a place ac- 3 with SB over Agoda for 36 CHF inc. fees; charged Feb 28; tually on the beach. An Bang Garden Homestay is right on free cancel until Mar 2. the beach. The Cashew Tree also looks great (again sold out on Agoda). Away from the beach, Hoi An Discovery Villa The next night, I’m tempted to take Ha Giang Creekside, looks particularly tempting, but also quiet. I think I would which has shared bathrooms but private rooms. It looks prefer quietness on this leg. And if the beach hotels don’t perfectly adequate in terms of comfort and is only 9 CHF actually own the beaches, then I don’t see the problem with / night. The owner is supposed to be friendly, so I can ask a 10-minute bike ride. So, the Discovery Villa! Booked for him for help with the onward journey. Booked for Mon 4 Tue12 with SB over Agoda for CHF 81; payment at hotel; with SB over Agoda for CHF 10; pay at property; free can- free cancel until Mar 6. cel by Sun 3. I finish with the 1½ nights in ĐN. I think I’ll just take I have decided against staying in Lũng Cú (LC) or sur- Green Balcony again. Booked for Fri 15 with SB over book- rounds; it is hikeable from Đồng Văn (ĐV), and the lat- ing.com for CHF 29; payment processed Mar 8; free cancel ter has more accommodation options. If I have a moped, I until Mar 15 (i.e. last-minute!) can take that, but three days should be more than enough Total booking costs: CHF 244 to take the hike to both LC and XP. After all, the locals walk the roads all the time! But to be realistic, my probable Acquisitions during trip bases are still lively towns. They aren’t exactly the middle of nowhere—there are too many people around for that. Stay- It may be convenient to add certain items to my inventory ing in a hamlet way off the map doesn’t appeal too much en route, either to aid in weathering unforeseen adversity or on this particular trip. The idea is to stay somewhere mod- simply due to favourable price. Try to wait until ĐN to ac- erately comfortable, close to a good selection of food, and quire any heavier items such as books—although it may be to get out into the wilderness during the day! Hence, the difficult to resist in Thành phố Hà Giang (TPHG). Green Karst Hostel looks like a good bet, but with a private room. About 16 CHF / night. It may be fun to meet the — mosquito spray inevitable insufferable (Californian? German? Australian? — sun cream God forbid, English?) blowhard. Booked for Tue5 with SB — anti-malarials 2Which sounds bad, but I enjoy working on holiday. Could I — souvenirs from HG markets make some recordings for the acousticNDL project? I’ll take the recorder in any case (see Luggage). — Lịch Sự Tiếng Việt, Chữ Nộm dictionary, etc.
Southeast Asia Threevisited 3 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Champa
Figure 1: Languages of Central and Southern Việt Nam
Austroasiatic Languages See the old edition of this document for extensive informa- tion. Figure 2: Languages of ‘Eastern Indo-China’ (Blagden 1906) Bus travel See Travel Within Vietnam: Buses. Chamic languages See Graham Thurgood’s chapter on Phan Rang (Eastern) Cham in The Austronesian Languages (Routledge). Cham was called ‘The Malay of Champa’ by John Crawfurd in 1822—accurately, in Thurgood’s view. Phan Rang (East- ern) Cham diverged from Western Cham in the fifteenth century, as a consequence of Kinh incursions to the south. Chamic epigraphy dates to the fourth century CE. Étienne Aymonier published a large French-Cham (Čam) dictio- nary in 1906. Aymonier had already published a short grammar of the language in 1889. Most words in Cham are disyllabic and iambic, although a shift towards monosyllabicity is ongoing: pèrew (‘new’; formal) becomes frèw (‘new’; informal). Champa The kingdom of Champa once stretched along the coast of central and southern Việt Nam (VN), perhaps as far as the Malay peninsula. The civilization flourished in the Figure 3: Distribution of Katuic languages (Sidwell 2005) sixth century CE, with inscriptions from the region around Indrapura dating to the fourth century. At this time,
Southeast Asia Threevisited 4 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Hà Nội
Cham was a single dialect continuum, including speakers of modern Acehnese. Throughout their history, however, the Cham were driven progressively further southwards by Vietnamese incursions: important settlements, remains of some of which survive, were located at or near modern-day Đà Nẵng and Nha Trang, the latter being the last bastion after defeat in the 1471 Cham-Vietnamese war; the king- dom once reached as far north as modern Huế. See Grif- fiths 2014 (produced for the Metropolitan Museum of Art) for description and illustrations of early inscriptions in SE Asia. Exchange rates Table 1 gives exchange rates between CHF and six relevant currencies.
CHF 1 CHF 10 CHF 50 JPY 109 1093 5463 TWD 30 304 1518 VND 22,867 228,672 1,143,359 LAK 8,486 84,855 424,476 KHR 3,993 39,927 199,636 THB 31 314 1,568
Table 1: Six exchange rates as of 05.05.2019
Figure 4: Giáo Trình Lịch Sự Tiếng Việt For Next Time To really experience such an endlessly fascinating country and Hội An seems ridiculous. It also falls foul of the two- as VN, I’d have to move there permanently. But even from night-minimum rule, which will already have to be flouted this short trip, there are things that had to be given up—‘for (unfortunately) three times on the trip, thanks to the awk- next time’: ward location of the sights of HG. (In fact, this leaves only 10 full nights which do not fall foul of IINM.) d Going to Bảo Lạc 09:50 (Malay time) > 12:05 (Viet time, i.e. -1), March 3: d Staying for longer in the historic heartlands (Red Malindo Air (seat 4D), KL > HN: River Delta) Booked for 229 MYR = ~57 CHF. 15:00 > 16:20, March 11: Vietjet Air (priority checkin; d Staying on Cù lao Chàm seat 6D), HN > ĐN: d Observing the development of Phú Quốc since 2016 Booked for ₫1,031,900 =~46 CHF. However, it’s important to realize that the original impe- Giáo Trình Lịch Sự Tiếng Việt tus for this trip was my long-held wish to see Hà Giang, and that, I am certainly doing. A book by Trần Trí Dõi published in 2011 with Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục Việt Nam (Hanoi). Actually appears to be Flights, Internal the best summary of the history of the Vietnamese lan- guage, given the lack of a single book on the subject in En- (NB: Booked flights in ForestGreen; still to book in glish. I believe Ferlus (sometime collaborator of Trần, for BrickRed) example on EFEO wordlist recordings) is supposed to be releasing a book some time, but it’s been quiet. Update: All internal flights now booked! Hà Nội I count the flight from Kuala Lumpur (KL) to Hà Nội as Capital of VN; I shall be passing through twice, although internal. That makes two internal flights, along with that on both occasions I will have an entire Sunday afternoon / from Hà Nội to Đà Nẵng. From KL to HN, I leave im- night to wander and relax. Obviously the climate and pol- mediately, just two hours after arriving at KL. Less, in fact: lution are stifling, and so an advance plan would be useful, 1:45! In retrospect, this seemed best: only 10 days to see or at the very least an offline map. I should like a Highlands Hà Giang, Đồng Văn, Mèo Vạc, Đà Nẵng, Cù lao Chàm Coffee chicken bánh mì for old times’ sake. Perhaps I shall
Southeast Asia Threevisited 5 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Languages spoken en route also eat cơm hến on Tráng Thi on the first night, also for old Islands times’ sake. Try to make the trip start as auspiciously as last A Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) trip should include time! visiting at least one island. For this trip I have chosen Cù Heat lao Chàm, found using the excellent method of merely scan- ning the map in the vicinity of where I was going anyway, The average March high in TPHG is 24.2°, but the aver- without ever having heard of it before. This surely augurs age overnight low is 17.7°. Đồng Văn will be considerably well. colder, with an average March temperature of 11.8°. Obvi- ously, Đà Nẵng will be hotter and probably humid, with a Languages of Laos March average of 24.2° and average daily high of 28.5°, but a The languages of Laos are of interest to a Vietnamist a) be- March record of 37.2°. Nice! Cù lao Chàm does not appear cause there are so many of them, and b) because so many of to be much different. them are Austroasiatic. Wordlist readings recorded in Laos could thus be of interest for my vietAcousticNDLexten- Hmong-Mien Languages sions project, for example. See Fig. 6. A language family with considerable pockets of speak- Languages of Yunnan ers in Northern and Northwestern Việt Nam, among other places. Sometimes known as Miao-Yao; Vietnamese [Tobe inserted] H’Mông-Miền / Miêu-Dao. In Vietnam, there are over a million speakers. Descriptive modifiers are used to distin- Languages spoken en route guish subgroups. For example, the Hmong Don region Vietnamese is a Vietic, and thus an Austroasiatic language. (falling roughly halfway between Hà Nội and Sa Pa) actu- It is by far the most widely spoken language of VN. There ally falls geographically within the Tai Den (Black Tai) re- are also considerable numbers of Mường speakers in north- gion (the Tai Don (White Tai) region being somewhat fur- ern VN, and considerable numbers of Khmer speakers in ther northwest). southern VN; both are also Austroasiatic. Perhaps more in- Hmong Daw (White {Hmong | Miao}; (H’)mông teresting are the much smaller Vietic languages with archaic Trắng) and Hmong Njua ({Blue | Green} {Hmong | Miao}) features and little Chinese and Tai influence (Ferlus 1974; (as well as Kim Mun and Iu Mien) are spoken near Sa Pa; the Sidwell 2009). Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, Tibeto-Burman two are apparently mutually intelligible. They have large and Hmong-Mien are also represented within modern VN. consonantal inventories and seven tones, making them a Austroasiatic languages are quite evenly distributed in serious challenge for the ambitious fieldworker. White Central and Southern Việt Nam, with Vietnamese clearly Hmong recently had a Brill monograph dedicated to it dominating the scene, and an Austronesian ‘breakwater’ (Jarkey 2015). in the Central Highlands. Otherwise, larger languages by Iu Mien (a Yao language 840,000 speakers worldwide) is area (Ethnologue), from north to south, include Nguôn, widely spoken throughout the northeast of the country. Iu Khua, Eastern Bru, Pacoh, Eastern Katu, Jeh, Rengao, Mien allows coda consonants, unlike the typical Hmongic Bahnar (227,000 speakers; fairly large area bordering Jarai language. Munic and Mienic are both strands of Dao. (Kon Tum / Pleiku) to the northeast), (Austronesian: Jarai, Thomas Lyman published a Dictionary of Mong Njua Rade, Roglai), Central Mnong, Eastern Mnong, South- (i.e. Hmong Njua, which he translates as ‘Green Miao’), ern Mnong, Koho, Bulo Stieng, Budeh Stieng, Maa, Chrau with Mouton in 1974. The dictionary was based on field- and Central Khmer. Note the omission of Mường above: work carried out in Thailand, and contains interesting ma- Though spoken over a large area, its heartland is north- terial in addition to the main dictionary, such a bibliogra- ern enough to fall within a region of Tai-Kadai dominance. phy of other MSEA language work and an appendix of cul- Khmer is the second largest Austroasiatic language overall, turally relevant thematically organized vocabulary. and, with Vietnamese, one of only two national, standard- ized languages in the family. Insurance The Chamic languages belong to the Malayo- Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian languages, and (NB: Booked in ForestGreen; still to book in BrickRed) include the descendants of the dialect continuum of the members of the Champa civilization formerly dominant Update: All insurance now booked! in modern-day Southern and Central VN. This is Cham, spoken by 79,000 people in VN. Cham has complex onsets, as well as productive morphology (causative, frequentative, I shall be taking insurance with World Nomads. Two etc). weeks—Sunday 3rd to Saturday 16th!—are covered for 58 Another Chamic language is Jarai (viet. Gia Rai), with USD with their Explorer package, which seems rather su- 332,557 speakers. This is spoken by Degar or Montagnards perior to their regular package, which is just 5 USD less. in VN (concentrated around Pleiku) and Cambodia, and Booked for 60 CHF, policy number WNCHE35988881. I also has been heavily influenced by Austroasiatic to the point of have Malindo Air insurance, which cost 20 MYR. losing vowel distinctions in initial syllables.
Southeast Asia Threevisited 6 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Languages spoken en route
Figure 5: Languages of Northern Việt Nam
Southeast Asia Threevisited 7 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Languages spoken en route
Figure 6: Languages of Laos
Southeast Asia Threevisited 8 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Music / Audio
Another language with a similar profile and location is solution either; it’s slightly too small for both hiking boots Rhade or Ede (viet. Ê Đê), with 270,348 speakers. Inter- and trainers. But the next one up was too big. I’ll probably estingly, Rhade language speakers have preserved numerous appreciate having less luggage than usual. See Table 2. oral epics, such as the Klei Khan Y Dam San (viet. Bài ca Đam San). It would be interesting to determine whether Money these epics have been transcribed, and indeed whether a consistent transcription system exists. The language con- There is only one ATM each in Đồng Văn and Mèo Vạc tains complex onsets (knah hliang and mdu khơk are two (both Agribank). So, don’t rely on them. Hà Giang, on kinds of gong). the other hand, has many, belonging to Agribank, Saigon The Chamic languages also include Acehnese, with 3.5 Commercial Bank, BIDV, Vietinbank, etc. Agribank had million speakers in Aceh, the northwesternmost province assets of ‘762.869 billion’ VND in 2009, which is 33 billion of Sumatra. Acehnese encodes split ergativity proclitically; Swiss Francs (not 33 million, i.e. the point is not merely intransitive subjects pattern with either transitive agents cosmetic). Agribank is the largest corporation in Vietnam. or patients according to presence or absence of volitional- BIDV has 24 billion CHF of assets. ity. P. Sidwell has claimed an Austroasiatic substratum for VND is high-denomination compared with CHF. It is Acehnese. therefore worth getting one’s head around exchange rates Tai (and thus Tai-Kadai) languages are spoken by Việt (and being comfortable talking of amounts up to 1e6, Nam’s second largest ethnic group, the Tày, which counts preferably in Vietnamese). 1.7 million members. Not all speak the Tày language; some speak other Tai languages, such as Bouyei (also known as Music / Audio Yay), only 2% of whose speakers live outside China. As well as concentrating on classical music on this trip, I Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) languages are also well- would like to listen to indigenous music, too. Hmong, Tay represented. A high-quality study of serial verbs in White and Cham music would be interesting.3 Hmong has recently appeared (Jarkey 2015); the study is It is also a good idea, since I’m taking (some of ) the based on a variety of Luang Prabang which is apparently EFEO-CNRS-SOAS Word List for Linguistic Fieldwork in mutually intelligible with the Hmong Daw of Northern Southeast Asia along with my anyway, to download a few of Việt Nam. the audio files from the Pangloss Collection that go through Sino-Tibetan languages are sporadically represented in this wordlist with native speakers of languages I may en- the form of the Loloish subgroup of Lolo-Burmese, itself counter (see Wordlist Recordings). A skim of the website containing around 100 languages. James Matisoff is an emi- seems to indicate a lack of Hmong lists, although this could nent scholar of Tibeto-Burman and MSEA more generally, be an oversight. Files possibly of interest include: and has undertaken extreme amounts of work on the Lahu language (Laghuu is a separate language, according to Eth- d Vocabulary of the Cao Lao Hạ dialect of Vietnamese, nologue, although Lahu also appears to be spoken within a ’heterodox’ dialect of Quảng Bình (Ferlus, Michel / Việt Nam). One of his blurbs calls Lahu ‘among the best Trần Trí Dõi; 2 files) documented minority languages of the world’ thanks to his work, which began with the 1973 Grammar of Lahu. d Cuối Chăm vocabulary (Ferlus; 11 files): A dialect of General literature on MSEA: A good general reference Thổ; interesting phonetic similarities to MV is Edmondson and Gregerson 2007 in Language and Lin- guistics Compass, which also has some good maps. David d Mường: Many files available from different speakers Bradley has some good chapters in the three-volume Atlas of different dialects. We take Vocabulary list for Hoa of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pa- Binh dialect of the Mường language as spoken in the cific, Asia, and the Americas (Würm, Mühlhäusler, Tryon commune of Dan Chu [female speaker] (Ferlus; 2 files) (eds.) 1996), which contains an entire volume of colour lin- as it’s first in the list guistic maps. Among other things, the status of Lolo / Yi, its subgroups, and sometime status as political plaything are d Vocabulary list for the Tai Paw dialect (Ferlus, Michel clarified (although this may be outdated). / Trần Trí Dõi; 3 files)
Luggage d Vocabulary list for the Tai Yo dialect in Quy Chau (Fer- The following items appear indispensable to a maximally lus, Michel; 2 files) fulfilling trip. The rucksack load should be minimized. I’m d already not too happy about the value of the items within, Many further interesting wordlists of Katie Gao and but as long as the laptop is backed up before leaving, things particularly Andrew Hsiu, who have both done im- should be OK. The phone will be on my person and proba- pressive work. bly covered by insurance, and the camera will be covered by 3Although beware of sounding too similar to Richard Stall- insurance. So altogether, the risk is far from ridiculous. man when mentioning such interests. They aren’t true interests of I wasn’t happy taking the large Eastpak holdall, so I mine, anyway. They’re just to add some local colour to the experi- bought a 100-litre Eastpak for 109 CHF. This isn’t an ideal ence.
Southeast Asia Threevisited 9 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Provinces of Việt Nam
Eastpak Toiletries Cabin On Person Loakes Aftershave Passport Airpods Black jumper Razor Wallet with PF, SB, cdV, HSBC House key North Face shell Mortar Books 1, 1a Black jeans Leopard trunks Lectern VND in wallet (e.g. for HN taxi) White shirt Nike shorts Hair wax Phone (in glove) Belt, watch 2 vests Guitar Phone charger Blazer building materials Laptop, charger Trainers huge flamethrower Sermon grenade launcher Black file Toiletries (cabin) Hill Tribes book Plane tickets Deodorant Plug adaptor Train tickets (CH) Toothpaste Mic + charger Further printed documents Hand sanitizer Books 2, 2a Ray-Bans in case Eye drops 3 shirts A5 jotter Lip salve Blue jeans Pens: brush black, black, pink Toothbrush Denim + UA shorts Camera, charger
Table 2: Luggage (BrickRed: emenda)
Photography cized and repeated on the return journey): My first couple of experiences with my new Canon M50 left — Hà Nội me slightly underwhelmed compared to my old EOS 700D. However, this could be the lens, or it could simply be that — Vĩnh Phúc I have no idea how to do anything with it except point and — Tuyên Quang shoot. The macro lens will hopefully give brilliant results with point-and-shoot, but I should also try to learn some — (Phú Thọ?) basic principles of how to take a good photo with the 15– — Hà Giang 45 mm lens. — Tuyên Quang Phrasebooks — Vĩnh Phúc Hmong is provided for in the Hill Tribes phrasebook. Jarkey worked on White Hmong (Hmong Daw), which — Hà Nội seems to be dominant around the Sa Pa area, although — Đà Nẵng Hmong Njua (Green / Blue Hmong) is also present. Ideally we would add Hani / Hà Nhì (TB; N of Sa Pa), Lü — Quảng Nam (KD; SW of Sa Pa), Laghuu / Xá Phó (TB; SE of Sa Pa, in — Đà Nẵng Nậm Sài), Tai Dón (around Sa Pa) and Tai Dam (leaving Sa Pa to SE, towards YB) phrases, but this is difficult The Wikipedia page Provinces of Vietnam is very use- for the time being. If any materials in smaller languages ful. Provinces and municipalities have their own media, exist, they are likely to be in Vietnamese. For Tai / Tay, many of which have online versions of minority language Fang Kuei Li 1977 may be useful, at least for getting the news programs. The term for minority-language television differences between the languages straight. See also the is truyền hình tiếng dân tộc. An exhaustive list of geopoliti- Tai materials pointed out by Christoph Patrice Bourgeois. cal hierarchical structures follows, from the largest divisions Li mentions Diguet 1895 and Gedney 1964 for Black Tai, downwards: and Minot 1940, Donaldson 1963, Gedney 1964 and Dieu & Donaldson 1970 for White Tai. For Tay we have — tỉnh > huyện > xã Savina 1910, though this language is not directly en route. Similarly we have Diguet 1910 for ‘Tho’, and Savina 1924 — tỉnh > huyện > thị trấn / huyện lỵ for Nung. Finally, Coedès 1925 may be consulted on the — tỉnh > thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh history of Tai writing. — tỉnh > thị xã > xã — tỉnh > thị xã > phường Provinces of Việt Nam — thành phố trực thuộc trung ương > huyện Provinces which I will cover in this trip, in expected chrono- logical order (provinces merely passed through are itali- — thành phố trực thuộc trung ương > quận > phường
Southeast Asia Threevisited 10 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Tai-Kadai Languages
Scripts
Southeast Asia Threevisited 11 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Tourism statistics
Figure 7: Languages of Northwestern Việt Nam
gent (from the rest of Kra) Laha (viet. La Ha) language, in Black Tai (Edmondson and Gregerson 1997). written about by Jerold Edmondson (Gregerson & Ed- Three more Tai languages spoken over relatively wide ar- mondson 1997), and Paul Benedict before him. Wet Laha eas, from north to south, include Tai Daeng, Tai Thanh (as opposed to Dry Laha) is spoken in Tà Mít Commune, (20,000 speakers), and Tai Yo (Tai Do). In these more Tân Uyên, Lai Châu. Edmondson was in the village of southerly areas, Austroasiatic languages tend to abut, re- Bản Muot, although their paper seems to mix provinces (al- placing the Hmong-Mien and Sino-Tibetan languages ternatively, towns or communes may have been renamed found further north. The Southwestern Tai and Central or provincial borders redrawn since 1997). Note that Lai Tai subgroups, as well as Kra (in much smaller numbers), Châu province contains a Than Uyên and a Tân Uyen dis- are all represented in Việt Nam. Southwestern Tai presum- trict, according to Wikipedia. ably has by far the most speakers globally, including as it does Thai, Lao and Shan (Burma), the latter of which has its Furthermore, Ethnologue assigns the Sa Pa area its very own rich cultural history, perhaps less familiar today thanks own Tai language, ‘Tày Sa Pa’, apparently technically spo- to national borders. Central Tai lacks the phonemic plosive ken in the Mường Khương district (French Wikipedia, aspiration contrast present in Southwestern and Northern based on a useful website maintained by Jerold Edmond- Tai. son). This language could be of typological interest with A small contingent of Tai Lü / Lue (tiếng Lự) speakers regard to phonological structure, apparently having failed exists southwest of Sa Pa, concentrated around the town of to participate in certain shared innovations of Southwest- Lai Châu; I do not know if they are literate in either the Old ern Tai. See Pittayaporn 2009. Further information on this or New Tai Lue scripts. language is hard to come by. Massively dominant by speaker numbers, of course, Thai Cuisine in Việt Nam are languages like Tày (1.6 million speakers) and Nùng (970,000 speakers), generally spoken in the north rather Ẩm thực Thái Lan (tiếng Thái: อาหารไทย) is very popular than the northwest. In fact, Tai-Kadai dominates north- in VN. Tom Yam is translated as Canh Chua, although this ern Việt Nam, with only pockets of Hmong-Mien and name can also be used for a native dish. Pad Thai is known Sino-Tibetan interwoven. The Tai DónThái ( Tráng) lan- simply as Mì Xào Thái. guage is spoken by 500,000 White Tai across Northwest- ern Việt Nam. The Tai DamThái ( Đen) language, inter- Tourism statistics estingly though perhaps understandably lacking the ubiq- Here is a link to the tourism statistics for June 2015. 13,000 uitous Pali and Sanskrit wordstock of Thai and Lao, is spo- of our compatriots entered the country at some point dur- ken by 760,000 Black Tai in Việt Nam, Laos, Thailand and ing the month of June (200,000 total in the year), which China. It is this language that uses the Tai Viet (ꪺꪕꪒꪾ) writ- is around twice the number of Germans. Large numbers ing system. Looking at the maps available at Ethnologue, it of Chinese entered—over 100,000 in the month. Japanese, is not surprising that Laha speakers report being bilingual Korean, and US tourists are next, all above 40,000. Tai-
Southeast Asia Threevisited 12 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Travel within Vietnam: Buses wanese, Malaysians, Russians and Australians also have strong showings. Spain and Italy are poorly represented with around 2,000 apiece, although France comes roughly between England and Germany. Thailand and Cambodia are on a par with England. The statistics for June 2018, just three years later, tell a scary tale: here, around 20,000 of our compatriots entered the country, around 320,000 in a year. A full 415,000 Chi- nese entered in just this month—some 9 million in the year. Koreans have shot up to 272,000; 1,700,000 in the year. The US has grown slightly from 40,000 to 58,000. Ger- many grew modestly from 6,000 to 9,000. Spain doubled; Italy was at 3,000. Thailand almost doubled from 13,000 to 23,000. Travel: General Baolau is a flashy website for booking travel within VN, but now apparently overtaken by Vexere, at least for bus travel. Road journeys and approximate costs: Mai Linh (green livery) is generally a good bet for taxis and minibuses. Be- ware of imitations. Note that all vocabulary below is taken directly from Vietnamese travel websites, hence should be up to date. Travel: Vocabulary Figure 10: Where to catch the bus to HG Bản đồ (du lịch): (travel) map Chiều: direction, route Travel within Switzerland Đăng ký: to book, reserve (e.g. ticket) (NB: Booked transport in ForestGreen; still to book in Đặt trước: to book, reserve BrickRed) Giá vé: ticket price Hãng xe buýt: bus company Update: All CH travel now booked! Khám phá: to discover, explore Lịch trình: timetable I’ll need to be up extremely early on the Saturday—04:30, in order to be at Eglisee to catch Tram 2 to the SBB (05:13– Sức chứa (xe): (vehicle) capacity 05:26). From the SBB, I take the IC 3 (551) from Gleis 7 Xe {buýt | bus} (nhỏ): (mini)bus to Zürich HB, Gleis 9, 05:33–06:26. I then change to Gleis Xe ôm, xe tắc-xi: taxi 34 to take the IC 1 (703; Richtung St. Gallen) to Zürich Flughafen, 06:33–06:42. Clearly I need to set two alarms, Xe riêng: to travel privately / separately maybe even three. (Booked for CHF 8) It’s only a ten-minute walk maximum to the tram stop Travel Risks from my house, so 04:30 should be OK. I don’t get to HN This section has been reduced considerably since the origi- until 13:00 VN time the next day, which is 07:00 Swiss nal document; I’m not sure if this was wise. time—so about 27½ hours, door to door. While I hope I Bike helmet: Always have a bike helmet on. I now know can sleep on the Doha > KL flight, I shouldn’t reckon with the value of this. that, hence the penthouse suite in Tomodachi House! But Safety awareness at sea: Know where your lifejackets are I think I’ll be up for the 86 Express Bus. It will certainly be on the boat to Cù Lao Chàm! an adventure. Avoid mosquito bites! DEET is the gold standard active Coming back, I’ll take the IC 1 (722; Richtung Génève- ingredient; see tips here. It may also be worth investing in Aéroport) from Gleis 4 to Zürich HB, Gleis 32, 14:18– a mosquito net, but don’t let the net touch your skin while 14:27. I then change to Gleis 12 to take the IC 3 (572) to sleeping. Mosquitos are attracted to warm bodies, carbon Basel SBB, 14:34–15:27. (Booked for CHF 14) dioxide (which is expelled at an increased rate after exer- Travel within Vietnam: Buses cise), and by darker or tighter clothes (not ‘attracted’ per se, but the idea is clear). Calamine lotion should be applied to (NB: Booked transport in ForestGreen; still to book in mosquito bites. ‘Mosquito’ is muỗi in Vietnamese. BrickRed)
Southeast Asia Threevisited 13 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Travel within Vietnam: Buses
Figure 8: Where to catch the 86 (Terminal 1)
Figure 9: When to catch the 86
Southeast Asia Threevisited 14 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Tự Điển Chữ Nôm Dẫn Giải
(NB: Mail [email protected] for ticket problems; my tickets also magically appeared on the app, which is cool.)
Update: All VN buses now booked!
First, HN airport is some distance from the Old Quarter. However, buses travel regularly (see Figure 9). This ‘Express Bus 86’ costs ₫35,000, although Visa is also accepted. It takes around 55 minutes, meaning I should arrive in town around 13:30 on Sunday. The last stop is the train station, a little further than the Sword Lake. The important thing to bear in mind is that the bus to HG departs some 6 km west of the train station, and it departs early—07:15! That means a nice place to stay is in order. (See Accommoda- tion.) Bus travel within VN now seems best booked via vexere.com. This website also has very thorough informa- tion about each bus company and journey. While most buses from HN to HG depart from Bến xe Mỹ Đình, the Viet Culture Tours bus conveniently goes from their HN office at Số 20 Bát Sứ, Hàng Bồ - Hoàn Kiếm. Hence, I shall book the 09:00 > 15:00 16-seater ‘Limousine 16 chỗ VIP’, on March 4th, for ₫300,000. One should be at their office 30 minutes in advance: “Quý khách vui lòng có mặt tại văn phòng trước 30p để làm thủ tục lên xe.” The bus supposedly arrives at “Số 1 Nguyễn Trãi (Phượt House)”. The trip from HG to ĐV can be booked on Vexere, but could equally probably be found on the day. The xe om trip to MV will be found on the day. The trip from MV back to HG can be booked on Vexere, but could equally probably be found on the day. Coming back to HN from HG, I am tempted to sim- ply get off at the airport, since there are buses that offer this service. This requires a reasonably early start, but not too bad—06:00 wakeup at Creekside. The Quang Nghị bus leaves at 07:15, from 60 Minh Khai—about 1 km from Creekside, across the river—and should take around 5½ hours to the airport, which leaves around an hour for a nice lunch before check-in. If by any chance I miss the flight, I can take my chances with an overnight train journey. Figure 11: Where to catch the bus to HN The trip from ĐN to HA can be booked on Vexere, but could equally probably be found on the day. The trip from HA back to ĐN can be booked on Vexere, but could equally probably be found on the day. Tự Điển Tiếng Huế A large dialect dictionary, compiled by Bùi Minh Đức. Probably unfeasible to bring back. Tự Điển Chữ Nôm Dẫn Giải An impressive two-volume dictionary of Chữ Nôm with usage examples, published in 2015 and compiled by GS.TSKH Nguyễn Quang Hồng. Contains 9,450 Nôm characters. Clearly a desirable purchase, though may be hard to find. Costs about 27 CHF; weighs 3 kg!
Southeast Asia Threevisited 15 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Vietnamese Linguistic Collection
Figure 14: Distribution of Vietic languages (Ferlus 1989)
Vietic A subfamily of Austroasiatic, superordinate to Việt- Mường. Mostly confined to VN but with some extension into Laos. Along with Mường, Nguồn falls within Việt- Figure 12: Tự Điển Tiếng Huế Mường, and Nguồn speakers apparently comprehend Viet- namese without effort. See Nguyễn Phú Phong 1996 in MKS on this language, spoken in the Trường Sơn moun- tains of Quảng Bình province. Much of the following is based on Paul Sidwell’s intro- duction to Shorto 2007 (A Comparative Mon-Khmer Dic- tionary). Vietnamese initially proved classificatorily prob- lematic, probably due to pervasive Chinese influence over the millennia, but also due to the erstwhile mystery of tones (pre-tonogenesis-theory). Seboek (e.g. 1942) often ap- pears as an example of misclassification of Vietnamese as non-Austroasiatic. Schmidt (1901, 1904, 1906; esp. 1905) famously deferred classification of Vietnamese as Mon- Khmer in his Grundzüge. Maspero 1912 claimed Tai or Chinese ancestry in order to explain the tonal typology, but Haudricourt (1952, 1953) is generally seen as a turn- ing point with wider relevance to the field of linguistics, in that Vietnamese tonogenesis could be explained solely on the basis of internal Mon-Khmer reconstruction. How- ever, Ferlus 2004 revises Haudricourt’s analysis. Barker and Barker did work on Proto-Viet-Mường in the nineteen- sixties (Barker and Barker 1970). Thompson 1976 is a good article on Proto-Việt-Mường. Jeanne Cuisinier did much work on the Mường language and peoples in the second half Figure 13: Tự Điển Dhữ Nôm Dẫn Giải (Nguyễn Quang of the twentieth century. Hồng, 2015) Vietnamese Linguistic Collection This refers to a patchwork pdf document which I will take in case it enables me to communicate better with people I meet along the way. Many candidates were winnowed out.
Southeast Asia Threevisited 16 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Wordlist Recordings
The final list is: VN Express
d Aymonier’s Cham dictionary (pp. 56–96, pdf) According to their website, the most-read newspaper in VN. Launched an English version in 2016. Detailed and d Chinese-Hmong dictionary (pp. 30–33, pdf) interesting stories, with Western-style opinion pieces. d Chéon’s ‘L’argot annamite’ VOV4 d Ferlus’ ‘Les écritures thai du Vietnam’ A national radio station with minority-language program- d Jarkey’s Serial Verbs in White Hmong (pp. 24–86, pdf) ming (Ban tiếng dân tộc thiểu số). d Oetiker Vietnamese Wordlist Recordings Visa & Visa Waiver It would be excellent to record my own Hmong-Mien wordlist, both just to have it and possibly for control against Since I last travelled to VN in 2016, a Visa Waiver program the Vietic varieties in my acousticNDLextensions project. has supposedly been introduced. I shall have faith in this. See Travel within Vietnam: Itinerary. As for the actual lan- The program waives visa requirements for UK citizens as guages I will get, I think that will be somewhat left to fate. long as they stay for ‘less than 15 days’. Since I arrive on a My setup will be roughly as follows: First, determine the Sunday and will be exiting customs (just) before midnight wordlist—probably about 300 items, on the model of An- on a Saturday / Sunday, this is both technically and ‘in spirit’ drew Hsiu. Have the Vietnamese and English words in one less than 15 days. So I foresee no problems. column each in Excel; for each new consultant, start a new Each subsection begins (und ggf. endet) with the rele- sheet in the same workbook. Find a suitably quiet loca- vant quotation from www.gov.uk. tion. Perhaps have a Vietnamese speaker on hand to pro- Japan 日本 nounce the Vietnamese elicitations. Start recording video with Camtasia, using the Zoom microphone. Have the “If you have a ‘British Citizen’ or ‘British National (Over- consultant state the date, location, their name, and their seas)’ passport, you can enter Japan as a visitor for up to 90 language. Zoom in and scroll through, while recording on days without a visa. You may need to provide evidence of a Camtasia. Ask each word in English and Vietnamese, and return or onward ticket.” then have them say the word clearly in their language three Taiwan 臺灣 times. Perhaps remunerate consultant, depending on how natural the acquaintance was. “You may spend up to 90 days in Taiwan without a visa.” If I succeed, I can attempt phonetic transcription at my Vietnam 越南 leisure, and perhaps pass on the materials to Hsiu, or better, Alves. “For visits of up to 30 days, you can get an e-visa online be- fore you travel. Use of the e-visa is limited to certain en- try/exit points which you must select at the time of appli- cation.” I have ordered an e-visa, which I have printed. It begins on June 03, and ends on July 03; it was supposed to state that I will be leaving at Mộc Bài, but in fact it does not, at least not explicitly. It may be extensible given an invitation by a firm in VN.
Laos 寮國 “Youcan get a visa on arrival for around US$35 or Thai Baht 1,500.00. You will need one passport photo.”
Cambodia 柬埔寨 “Tourist visas are available on arrival at the Phnom Penh or Siem Reap international airports. If you wish to get a visa on arrival you should arrive with a passport photograph. You can also get an eVisa online before you travel.”
Thailand 泰國 “British passport holders arriving by air or land can enter Thailand for 30 days without a visa - this is known as avisa exemption. If you need to stay longer, it’s possible to extend your stay once, from the expiry date of the original visa, for up to 30 days.”
Southeast Asia Threevisited 17 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020 Wordlist Recordings
Figure 15: Taipei to Xincheng by train
Figure 16: Xincheng to Taipei by train
Southeast Asia Threevisited 18 L. Bradley Version of September 7, 2020