chữ Nôm

Etymology
🇰🇲, literally "the southern characters" wherein "southern" refers to Vietnam as opposed to northern which is China.

Noun

 * 1)  a historical writing system derived from Chinese characters that was once used to write Vietnamese
 * 2)  certain writing system(s) derived from Chinese characters historically used by certain groups of speakers of Tai languages in Vietnam to write their language(s), now usually grouped together as chữ Nôm Tày ("the Nôm script of the Tày people")
 * 1)  certain writing system(s) derived from Chinese characters historically used by certain groups of speakers of Tai languages in Vietnam to write their language(s), now usually grouped together as chữ Nôm Tày ("the Nôm script of the Tày people")

Usage notes

 * Although often (mis)portrayed as being what Nôm characters were, semantophonograms were simply one category of characters in Nôm texts. Even in the early 20th century (the last days of Nôm literature), no Nôm texts were spelled with only semantophonograms. The majority of Nôm texts were a mix of mostly phonograms and semantophonograms, with other types of characters occupying a smaller portion. Many of modern presentations of Nôm texts often show very dense use of semantophonograms (some of which were very rare or are straight-up ghosts), which might be misleading of what Nôm texts were actually like when they were in regular use.
 * The example above is from an early 20th century (1916) copy of an original work from mid-19th century. In these two lines, are phonograms used purely for their phonetic values;  are simplified forms of  and  respectively (also used as phonograms);  are semantophonograms;  are phonograms with semantic matching ( might instead belongs here); and  are straightforward Sino-Vietnamese elements.
 * This example shows denser use of semantophonograms. are phonograms used for their phonetic values;  is a simplified form of ;  are semantophonograms;  here is a phonetic rebus from, a semantophonogram; and  are straightforward Sino-Vietnamese elements.
 * This example shows denser use of semantophonograms. are phonograms used for their phonetic values;  is a simplified form of ;  are semantophonograms;  here is a phonetic rebus from, a semantophonogram; and  are straightforward Sino-Vietnamese elements.
 * This example shows denser use of semantophonograms. are phonograms used for their phonetic values;  is a simplified form of ;  are semantophonograms;  here is a phonetic rebus from, a semantophonogram; and  are straightforward Sino-Vietnamese elements.