Several years ago I wrote an article comparing the vernacular character scripts of Tai-speaking peoples north and south of the China-Vietnam border, and made a preliminary case for finding older and newer layers in the Tày vernacular script. The argument was based on the identification of the historical strata reflected in the readings of Chinese characters. The results showed a relatively high degree of commonality between part of the Tày script and the Zhuang scripts in the West River area in central Guangxi, an area which is known to have been subject to strong Chinese cultural influence for the last 1800 years or so. Another part of the Tày vernacular script was completely different from any of the Zhuang and Bouyei scripts north of the border. My hypothesis was that the first layer was relatively old, and the second layer was more recent and came from a separate source. I am now in a position to propose a possible source for this more recent layer: the Vietnamese vernacular script. Evidence will come from two sources: traditional Tày and Vietnamese manuscripts, and relevant entries in Nguyễn Quang Hồng’s dictionary of the Vietnamese vernacular script (2014). The implications of this finding will be briefly discussed.

目 錄
1.Introduction
2.Review of Previous Research Findings
3.The Newer Layer
4.Historical Phonology
5.The Lượn Slương
6.The Lượn Slương Chapters
7.Graphs in the Newer Layer of the Tày Script
    7.1 ăn 咹
    7.2 au 2
    7.3 pây 悲
    7.4 pền 边
    7.5 tū 須
    7.6 cón 5
    7.7 hết 7
    7.8 mà 麻
    7.9 bấu 保
    7.10 cạ >
    7.11 đây 低
    7.12 nẩy 乃
    7.13 xa 車
    7.14 hăn 欣
    7.15 rụ 胄
8.A mixed Tày-Vietnamese manuscript from elsewhere
9.A Vietnamese Manuscript and Printed Book
10.Entries in Nguyễn Quang Hồng
11.The Historical Nexus
12.Further Perspectives

• David HOLM(Professor Emeritus, Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University)