Where does “chữ đơn” come from?

chữ đơn (Vietnamese) comes from Vietnamese chữ, from Proto-Vietic cuːʔ, from Proto-Mon-Khmer cuuʔ — grandchild.

chữ đơn (Vietnamese): single characters that were borrowed for their sound, a category of chữ Nôm where each character is borrowed for their phonetics, "simple phonograms"; this was one of the main components in Nôm texts alongside semantophonograms

Definitions

  1. single characters that were borrowed for their sound, a category of chữ Nôm where each character is borrowed for their phonetics, "simple phonograms"; this was one of the main components in Nôm texts alongside semantophonograms

Ancestry of “chữ đơn”, step by step

chữ đơn traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Vietnamese chữ

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Vietnamesechữalphabet, writing system, script; letter,...
2Proto-Vieticcuːʔgrandchild; father's younger brother
3Proto-Mon-Khmercuuʔgrandchild

via Vietnamese đơn

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Vietnameseđơnapplication, petition, request; alone, only
2Proto-Mon-Khmerɗuənwide hat of straw
Every word from Proto-Mon-Khmer cuuʔ →