Viet Syllable Keyboard

https://vietkeyboard.vercel.app/

The recent physical version.

A digital version is available at vietkeyboard.vercel.app

Typing is a key interaction between us and computer. Typing is a way of using language. Users forming the words in the mind and put them into life by physically pressing on keys. Typing reflects how we use language to rationale and navigate in digital era.

Early 2024, CodeSurfing hosted a research called "Our Vietnamese Project". From the research, we built a dataset of all the mono-syllables of Vietnamese, extracted from "Từ điển tiếng Việt" (Vietnamese dictionary) by Prof. Hoàng Phê. From 30.000 Vietnamese words appear in the dictionary, we created a dataset of roughly 6,000 mono-syllables. While analyzing that monosyllabic dataset, we recognized a structure of Vietnamese. Despite the alphabetic outerwear, the Vietnamese body is actually constructed by:

consonant + vowel + consonant

The current use of alphabetic keyboard (QWERTY) erases that structure and forces Vietnamese to become a character-based language, instead of a component-based language. Each part of a Vietnamese syllable carries certain pronunciation and certain feeling. For example: “phập” starts with “ph” that force us to breath out briefly, “ậ” carries the air back in to fill the mouth, then “p” force the lips and teeth to close abruptly. All of them together to create “phập”, which means a quick and exact bite. Think vampire. The QWERTY keyboard erases that syllabic functionality. And worse, with rules and automation, users are not allowed to form words that are possible to form and pronounce in Vietnamese but not yet appear in the dictionary. There are more than new 70,000 syllables like that, compared to 6,000 official syllables. This proves the abundance and flexibility of our language and suggest endless potential for the growth of Vietnamese.

1st digital prototype (07/2024)

Keyboard display with its research poster at 3nam Studio (09/2024)

On display with Our Vietnamese Project artworks at FutureTense Award Hong Kong (08/2025)