On April 5, in Quy Nhon City (Binh Dinh Province), the Binh Dinh Provincial Historical Archives Center organized an exhibition of documents on the history of the formation of the Quoc Ngu script.

On the opening day of the exhibition, the organizers displayed and published more than 100 documents, images, books and research works related to the history of formation, the place where the first Quoc Ngu script was born in the commercial port of Nuoc Man (now in Tuy Phuoc district, Binh Dinh).

The exhibition revolves around four themes, including: the role of the National Language in Vietnam today; Binh Dinh in the embryonic formation of the National Language; the process of spreading the National Language in Binh Dinh; promoting the value of the cultural heritage that formed the National Language in Binh Dinh.

In mid-1618, Western missionaries such as Cristoforo Borri (Italian), Francisco de Pina (Portuguese), and Francesco Buzomi (Italian) wandered to the trading port of Nuoc Man and were helped by Cong Quan Cong Tran Duc Hoa to find refuge.

Later, to facilitate missionary work in Nuoc Man, Western missionaries sought to create the National Language script by using the Latin alphabet and then, with the help of local people and intellectuals, to record the Vietnamese language.

The National Language script was born in Nước Mẫn. Later, the Western priest Alexandre de Rhodes had great merit in inheriting, systematizing and publishing the Vietnamese - Portuguese - Latin dictionary in 1651 in Rome, from here the National Language script was officially born.

The exhibition runs from April to June 2024.

NGOC OAI