All of the languages in the cultural and linguistic Sinosphere display the phenomenon of borrowing Han characters and Han radicals to form their own scripts. The Nom Viet is no exception. When studying the structure of Nom Viet, scholars often use Han characters as the basis to analyze the structure of the Nom characters and divide them into different categories. This approach is applicable to the vast majority of Nom characters. However, in practice, when studying the processes of creating and using characters through many Nom texts, it is found that some Nom characters are formed on the basis of pre-existing Nom characters. This category of Nom characters, for a long time, has not won the attention of scholars. Surveying over 50 different Nom works, this article has collected 25 Nom characters with a multi-layered structure, which we call the derivative Nom category. By analyzing the components that directly make up these Nom characters and relying upon new research results on Chinese grammatology, the article will analyze and specify the internal structure of these Nom characters. The article has classified and presented the model of these Nom scripts. In addition, the separation of elements directly forming the characters has shown the process of acculturation of Chinese characters in Vietnam. It can be seen that the number of Nom derivatives is not large. However, their presence has more or less provided new materials for studying the structure of the Nom characters. Hopefully, the analysis in this article will contribute to shedding light on the current theoretical issues regarding the structure of the Nom Viet.

In the early First Millennium AD, Vietnam imported Chinese language and culture, which had a lasting influence ever since. Chinese influence on Vietnamese written and spoken language is notable in particular. Despite this, due to the fact the two languages belong to two distinct families and differences in the number and structure of syllables available in each language, the borrowed Chinese language cannot transcribe all of Vietnamese personal and local names properly. This is the reason for the formation of the Nom script. From the 17th century onwards, Western missionaries used the Nom script for religious purposes, which led to the formation of the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet. It would not be an overstatement to say that, 17th century Catholic documents written in Nom are of indispensable value to researchers who wish to study the history of the Vietnamese language and the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet. Based on the materials from Kinh nhung le mua phuc sinh (Scriptures on Easter Rituals), this paper will focus on the Nom transcription of foreign Saints' names, which will show the differences in syllabic structure between Western languages (Portuguese and France) and Vietnamese, as well as give an overall idea of Nom transcribing rules.