Event Details:

Date: Thursday April 17th, 2025 , 6:15pm EDT
Location: The Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room, Columbia University
Virtual Registration: Click Here

Book Content Overview: 

The Vietnamese language offers a distinctive perspective on the vibrant and interconnected world of premodern Asia. Contemporary approaches to language history are often shaped by nationalist frameworks that seek to reinforce a specific nation’s cultural, social, or political identity. However, a deeper exploration of Vietnamese reveals a complex history of exchange and evolution that transcends the boundaries of nation-states.

Utilizing philological, textual, and comparative linguistic analysis, John D. Phan reconstructs the trajectory of a Sinitic language that once thrived in northern Vietnam’s Red River Plain—what he terms “Annamese Middle Chinese.” The rise and eventual decline of this language set in motion profound linguistic shifts, ultimately leading to the emergence of Vietnamese in the early centuries of the second millennium.

By weaving together linguistic, demographic, intellectual, and cultural threads, Phan situates the development of Vietnamese within the broader landscape of East and Southeast Asia’s cosmopolitan past. Lost Tongues of the Red River reveals how language serves as an intimate record of human interaction, offering invaluable insights into the complexities of history and deepening our understanding of the past.

About the Author

John D. Phan, Assistant Professor of Vietnamese Humanities at Columbia University, studies language history to uncover social and political dynamics, focusing on Sino-Vietic contact and the vernacularization of early modern Vietnamese society.

Experts Speaking at this Event

Mark Alves has taught ELAP courses at Montgomery College, researched Southeast Asian linguistics, co-authored ESL materials, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society since 2015.

Robert Hymes, Carpentier Professor of Chinese History at Columbia University, specializes in the social and cultural history of middle period and early modern China, with a focus on elite culture, kinship, medicine, religion, and social networks.

David Lurie, a professor at Columbia University, specializes in premodern Japanese history and literature, focusing on writing systems, linguistic thought, mythology, and the Japanese reception of Chinese texts.

Gray Tuttle, Leila Hadley Luce Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, specializes in modern Tibetan history and Sino-Tibetan relations, focusing on Buddhism’s role and Tibet’s ties with the Qing Empire.

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