A script that cannot yet be typed.
Unicode has no characters for Quốc Âm Tân Tự yet. Today it can only be shown as images or with the private font of this site. Once encoded, it can be typed, searched, quoted and shared on every device, next to Hán Nôm and Quốc ngữ.
Read the proposal
The draft is public. Every comment on the content, the encoding or the names helps.
Small alphabet. Big possibilities.
Two shapes combine to write a syllable. Tiny marks encode the tones. A compact system with its own visual rhythm.
Discover the script
Learn the story of QATT, its structure, and the surviving historical text.
Explore the symbols
Browse the shapes, understand their roles, and see how syllables are assembled.
What is Quốc Âm Tân Tự?
Quốc Âm Tân Tự means “new script for the sounds of the national language”. It was created in the 1840s, under Emperor Thiệu Trị. Only one text survives, in two manuscripts in Hanoi.
The script has 22 basic shapes of three strokes each. A small extra stroke in one of six places gives six more forms. Two shapes side by side make one syllable: the left one is its beginning, the right one its ending. Small circles and half circles in the corners mark the eight tones.