What happens when a language becomes a vehicle for empire—and then becomes something more? In this episode of Viet Origins, host Kenneth Nguyen sits down with Professor John Phan of Columbia University to untangle one of the most persistent and misunderstood narratives in Vietnamese history: that Chinese writing “civilized” Vietnam. Together, they delve into the myth, the reality, and the long arc of Vietnamese literary identity—from oral traditions to classical Chinese texts, to the vernacular explosion of chữ Nôm, and beyond.

Co-hosts Kenneth and Professor John Phan (Columbia University) unpack what “Sinitic neologisms” really are and explore the tension between cosmopolitan and vernacular languages in East and Southeast Asia.

In this episode of The Vietnamese Podcast, host Kenneth Nguyen engages in conversation with Professor John Phan of Columbia University, author of The Lost Tongues of the Red River. The discussion examines the historical and linguistic development of Vietnamese within the broader context of East and Southeast Asia. Emphasis is placed on the long-standing contact between Vietic languages and various Sinitic, Kra–Dai, and Austroasiatic linguistic traditions, highlighting the ways in which centuries of interaction shaped the structure, vocabulary, and identity of Vietnamese.

This episode marks the beginning of Ancient Vietnam, a sub-series of The Vietnamese Podcast dedicated to examining Vietnam’s early history through the study of language, culture, and archival sources. Host Kenneth Nguyen speaks with Professor John Phan, a linguistic historian at Columbia University and author of Lost Tongues of the Red River. The discussion considers the complex relationship between Vietnamese and Chinese, with particular attention to spoken language, literary traditions, and writing systems in the premodern period.

In this second installment of the series Is Vietnamese Just the New Chinese Language?, Professor John Phan continues his exploration of the linguistic relationship between Vietnamese and Chinese. Building on the earlier discussion of language shift and the “Norman Conquest” analogy, Phan examines the deep and multilayered influence of Chinese on the development of Vietnamese. He situates his own contribution—arguing that a spoken form of Chinese became native to northern Vietnam and facilitated a large-scale linguistic shift—within a much broader scholarly tradition. Along the way, he acknowledges the foundational work of earlier linguists, from Maspero and Wang Li to André Haudricourt and Michel Ferlus, while also highlighting contemporary voices advancing the field today.