Not Pho!
Rosie Mai
Preservation of Vietnamese accents and diacritics are essential for linguistic integrity and upholding cultural identity, while being an agent of accurate communication. Evolved through more than 400 years, modern Vietnamese language inherits unique diacritical marks that represent distinct tonal sounds. Despite their crucial roles in providing proper context for the language, Vietnamese diacritics are often overlooked and undervalued, relegated to a nuisance status in favor of maintaining conventional aesthetics in most printed materials.
Not Pho! is a two-part project that delves into the relationship between diacritical marks and letters in the Vietnamese language through type design and bookmaking. This project aims to address two key objectives. First is to explore whether diacritical marks can be treated with the same importance as letters. And secondly, to create a comprehensive resource introducing the history and language for non-Vietnamese audiences.
By emphasizing the proportions of diacritic marks in both typefaces and physical media, Not Pho! seeks to raise awareness of the importance of diacritical use in Vietnamese and encourage non-Vietnamese speakers to learn about tonal difference through commonly used words (such as phở). Through this approach, the project raises questions about how language is expressed efficiently while highlighting how diacritics deeply influence meaning and context, ultimately stressing their importance in Vietnamese communication and cultural expression.