Query: Chinese/Vietnamese script

[Greg Aumann]

David Gil wrote:
> I'm seeking help identifying the script/language in some manuscripts
> that can be viewed at the following website:
>
> http://monolith.eva.mpg.de/~gil/script/
>
> To a non-specialist, it looks like Chinese.  However, when I purchased
> these manuscripts last month in Hanoi, the shopkeeper/antiquarian told
> me that they were "Vietnamese, not Chinese".  Trouble is, people will
> say whatever they think will fetch a higher price, which is why I'm
> seeking a non-biased opinion.
> My question therefore is whether there is anything visible in the
> manuscripts that is indentifiable as non-Chinese, and/or specifically as
> Vietnamese.  Is the actual script different?  Or does the script clearly
> represent a non-Chinese language such as Vietnamese?
>
Vietnamese Chữ-nôm script is traditional Chinese characters with some
additional characters used only in Vietnamese. See
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chunom.htm and the links at the bottom
of the page. These additional characters use the same components as
Chinese characters with no simple way to tell them apart.

Some characters which may well be Vietnamese are: sample 2 col 1 num 1,
sample 2 col 1 num 3. Sample 3 col 2 num 3. This is counting the columns
from left to right (but they are written right to left).

Samples 4 to 6 are poorly written and much less useful for this purpose
because many characters are not written in quite the Chinese way and it
is unclear if it is because of the poor calligraphy, nonstandard style
or because it is a Vietnamese character.

Note we are coming at this question with a knowledge of Chinese but not
of Vietnamese. You need really need someone who knows Vietnamese
characters to comment on it. Also there are several languages in the
area that use Chinese characters for religious documents and they look
somewhat like this also. Despite all the above caveats we see no reason
to suspect that the shopkeeper was lying.

Greg & Misako Aumann