“Yuon”, a Traditional Appellation - “យួន”ជាឈ្មោះប្រពៃណី

“យួន”ជាឈ្មោះប្រពៃណី
“Yuon”, a Traditional Appellation

Feb 2010
Op-Ed by Bora Touch, Esq.

យួន or “yuon” is not a racist term as Mr. Meas Sokchea suggested in, “Sam Rainsy Declares Border Victory”, The Post, 02/02/2010, although since the date of that article Meas Sokchea advised the Khmerization that he “ did not use the word Yuon and did not add in phrase ’racist epithet for the Vietnamese.’ This word and this phrase were written by the [foreign] editor. I have requested him to use the word Vietnam in the bracket [Vietnam] instead of Yuon but he did not listen to me”

Part of its war propaganda, the characterization and propagation of យួន or “Yuon” as a pejorative term was started by the Vietnamese army in late 1977 when Vietnam was preparing for its invasion of Democratic Kampuchea.

Historically, the Vietnamese/Yuon, as a French historian, Etienne Aymonier (1893) pointed out, did not have by their own ethnic name. The Chinese called them, variously, Giao-Tchi, Lac, Yueh, (pronounced by the Vietnamese យិក or “Dyoek”, “Dyeh” យិ or វៀត “Viet”), Viet Thuong, etc. Again, in 756 AD, the Chinese Emperor Ning Hoang Ty established in Tonquin a military command post formally called An Nam (pacified south). The Vietnamese used or were called this name “An Nam,” or the Anamites, basically till the 20th century. In 1803, an An Nam envoy was sent to establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese (Emperor). The diplomat told the Chinese that An Nam wanted their new country to be called “Nan Viet”. The Chinese objected and in turn imposed the name "Viet Nan" (Viet Nam). Gradually, the Chinese-imposed appellation acquired acceptance among the Vietnamese.

Nor did/do the Vietnamese have their own language really and the claim that “Vietnamese” is in the Austro-Asiatic/Khmer-Mon language group is also a myth. The German linguists Himly and Kuhn thought it was in the Thai group. Fr. Souvignet thought it was in the Indo-Malay group. The French Henri Maspero opined that it was of Thai origin. A. Haudricourt, misled, perhaps, by regular correspondence between the Austro-Asiatic and certain phonemes of Yuon language, concluded that it was in the Austro-Asiatic family. In fact, it is none of the above and it is not a language of its own “pure form” either: Nguyen Kham (1961). It’s a blend of different languages. 1/3 of the vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese, with the balance being Indonesian, Cham, Tai/Thai, French, Khmer, etc.

“Viet Nam” only rather recently entered Khmer vocabulary. “Yuon” has been used by the Khmer and Chams since probably the 2nd century to refer to a people recently known as “Viet Nam”, the Vietnamese.

Since ancient times, like the Sanskrit ជិនៈ “Cina” or Chen/ចិន which the Khmer (and Indian) used to call the Chinese and the Chinese did not call themselves as such), the Khmer called “Vietnamese” យ្វន or “yvan”: (see Inscriptions K407, K669, K208, K273, and K485, K208, K662, K663 for Cina, and K105; K908 for យ្វន/yvan as listed by Coedes, Inscriptions du Cambodge). យ្វន /yvan is of Sanskrit យៈវៈនៈ “yavana”, the term the Indian used to refer to the ancient Greek or strangers. យ្វន/yvan resembled the Chinese “Yuan”, which the Vietnamese pronounced “Nguyen”. In fact, the Vietnamese Emperor Tu Duc (r.1847-1883) was officially called by the Chinese Youan Fou Tchen: (Abbé Launay, 1884). It is thus possible the Khmer យ្វន/Yvan is of Yuan (Ma), the Chinese military commander who ruled the Vietnamese in 2nd century. David Thomas, in his “a Note on ‘Yuan’” believes that Yuon is from Yueh, “The viet: yueh correspondence would seem fairly secure and indeed Viet is the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation for the Chinese character yueh “Vietnam”. The nang tone in viet would be from a Rising Tone in old Sino-Vietnamese, borrowed from the Chinese Rising Tone. In several Min dialects the Rising Tone has a final glottal stop, such as we suggest for yuan, and in Hainan the n sounds like nt. Add to this also the fact that alternation between –n and –t was reasonably common in Old Chinese, and n/t shifts also occur in Mon-Khmer, with the result that the viet: yueh + yuan equation is not as farfetched as it might seem at first glance”, (JAOS, 94(1) 1974).

In the Khmer national (Chhuon Nath) Dictionary of the Khmer language published 1967, “Viet Nam” was not yet a Khmer vocabulary, while យួន “Yuon” was defined as meaning people who live in Tonquin, An Nam and Cochin China, (p.955). រាជកិច្ច‌រាជការ the Reachkech reachkar or the Official/State Gazette/Journals, where state laws, regulations, circulars, appointments of State functionaries, grants of citizenship etc were published, was first published in Khmer in 1911 (to 1974), យួន/“Yuon” was used officially and singularly in the Journal. Post-Angkorianly, យួន “Yuon” was used officially such as in ក្រមស្រុក/kram srok or Law on the District Governors (1693) and ក្រមអជ្ញាលួង/kram anha luong or Law on Royal Emissaries (1877). In Khmer literature, whether they were or are didactic poems, popular songs, history textbooks, “Yuon” was or still is used. Both CPP-affiliated (កោះសន្តិភាព 22/12/2009, 11/2/2010, Kohsantepheap Daily News and ដើមអំពិល 2/2/2010, 25/12/2009, Deum Ampil Newspaper) and Opposition newspapers and the government spokesmen, Mr. Khieu Kanharith, Mr. Phay Siphan and opposition leaders Mr. Sam Rainsy use “Yuon” and “Vietnamese” interchangeably.

Khmer language or “literature”, as argued by Chea Sim, then the President of the National Assembly in March 1985 in a debate on whether to continue to use Chhuon Nath’s Dictionary “is an old aged tradition. It can’t be changed easily”.

យួន/Yuon has been used by the Khmer continuously for over a thousand years. We cannot change and we will not change.

Bora Touch – February 2010