In the book , Le Minh Quoc will examine this transformation, helping readers understand the ingenuity and thoughtfulness in the nation's speech, thereby appreciating and promoting this valuable asset.
The author surveys four aspects of Vietnamese in four parts: Eat according to the times, live according to the times; Join the family according to custom; The roaring sound of the grave was revealed; Understand six sentences... suck at Le Thuy season.
In each part, author Le Minh Quoc surveys many linguistic subjects , both spoken and written, popular and scholarly literature, placed in many different communication contexts. Then, the author looked up, consulted and compared dozens of dictionaries and research materials to trace the origin and evolution of each word, pointing out the original and transformed meanings. Through this, we see the diversity, movement and development of language. According to the author, that process helps words become "alive, practical and "soulful", rather than "literal".
Among the subjects surveyed, Le Minh Quoc especially favored popular literature, especially folk songs and proverbs. According to him, they preserve "thousand-year-old cultural traces of the Vietnamese people", are "gems that last forever", so they are taken as a standard and an example when used as documentary evidence for a word. somehow.
Paying attention to popularity and locality, the written literary works that Le Minh Quoc cited also have these two characteristics, the writers mentioned are also typical representatives of the language of a region. or everyday language: Vuong Hong Sen, Son Nam, Binh Nguyen Loc, Ho Xuan Huong, Tu Mo, Vu Trong Phung, Phan Boi Chau...
But we don't stop there, we also encounter literary names with a more scholarly or intellectual language style, such as: King Le Thanh Ton, Nguyen Cong Tru, Nguyen Du, Han Mac Tu...
Another group of words also emphasized by author Le Minh Quoc is a group of words that have appeared recently, in daily life: Babies, diapers, virtual pans, price gouging, chicken driving, goods bombs, scandals. ... More interestingly, the author found many cases of borrowing from foreign countries that have entered life, folk songs, poetry, even amateur music...
All prove that our language is always expanding, transforming and accommodating new elements, to become increasingly richer, to express more things but still in a very Vietnamese way.
The above aspects of Vietnamese are illustrated by the author with a vast amount of material, both broad and deep. The number of dictionaries and reference books that Le Minh Quoc consulted reached nearly 50, clearly listed in the references section at the end of the book. That's not counting the huge number of folk songs, proverbs, cai luongs, poems, and individual press materials.
Poet and author Le Minh Quoc was born in 1959 in Da Nang, and is Chairman of the Poetry Council of the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association (term 2020 - 2025). Le Minh Quoc is the author of more than 50 books in many genres: Poetry, novels, essays, compilations...
