What Makes Chinese so Vietnamese?
An Introduction to Sinitic-Vietnamese Studies
(Ýthức mới về nguồngốc tiếngViệt)
Table of Contents
Examples of some polysyllabic and dissyllabic vocabularies
The following tabulation of randomly selected wordlists will help the readers make judgement whether: (1) Vietnamese is a dissyllabic language, (2) it should be written in the natural way of combining associated syllables to form a word. This in return will help them understand why a Chinese dissyllabic word when changing into Vietnamese equivalents, it might not follow the same old pattern as monosyllabic words do, (3) make sense of elaborations on other credible findings by other authors that support the postulation of genetic affiliation of those Vietnamese basic words that are cognate to both Sino-Tibetan and Chinese etymologies, (4) analyze supplementary materials as useful tools to approach Vietnamese and Chinese historical phonologies.
I) Composite words:
Ngáoộp, yếuxìu, ủdột, giómáy, lộnxàngầu, liềntùtì, bủnxỉn, rửngmỡ, lậtđật, bệurệu, mốckhính, thúiình, bệrạc, bêtha, chìnhình, đẩyđà, thắcmắc, trịchthượng, trịchbồlương, ởtruồngnhồngnhộng, trầntruồng, tòmò, tấtbật, bứcxúc, bứcrức, nóngtánh, nóngmáy, nónglòng, mongngóng, táymáy, tấtbật, bângkhuâng, bộpchộp, bồihồi, hữnghờ, phảngphất, mơhồ, chạngvạng, chậtvật, khúcmắc, ngờvực, bạttai, tuyệtcúmèo, háchxìxằng, hộtxíngầu, tứđỗtường, sạchbách, yêuđương, thươnghại, ấmcúng, làmbiếng, tộinghiệp, mồcôi, goábụa, híhửng, thấpthỏm... càphê, càrem, càpháo, càlăm, càkêdêngỗng, lacà, càgiựt, càgật, càrá, càrà, càrỡn, càrờ, Càná, càna, càtàng, càchớncàcháo, càtrậtcàduột, càrăng, càdựt, càràng, càlắc, càrịchcàtang, càtàng, càtửng... cùlần, cùlao, cùlét, cầncù, lùcù, cùrũ... hoasoan, hoavôngvang, hoacứtlợn, hoamắt, tàihoa, hoatay, hoaliễu, đàohoa, hoahoèhoasói, bahoa, bahoachíchchoè ... bagai, batrợn, tàiba, ađồngbảyđổi, chúangôiba, hộtxíngầu, caochótvót, baphải, bahồi, bồhòn, bồcâu, baquân... táhoảtamtinh, cứuhoả, hoảlò, hoảdiệmsơn, nhảydù, bếpmúc, baola, thừamứa, đằmthắm, nhạtthếch, chánphèo, ếẩm... châuchấu, bươmbướm, đuđủ, chuồnchuồn, lạcđà, sưtử... dưahấu, dưagan, bíđao, khổqua... trảđủa, chénđũa, bùlubùloa, sàbát, viếtlách, xấcbấcxangbang, tầmbậytầmbạ, tầmphào, bảvơbảláp, trớtquớt, tầmgửi, contầm, bánhtầm, bánhít, bánhdây, bánhdày, bánhxe, coicọp, bắtcóc, bắtnạt, bắtđền, đánhcá, cábóng, cháphi, cátô, cáhồng, cáthu, cáẻm, cáchẻm, cáchép, cángừ, cáđộ, đánhđáo, độcđáo, laỏmtỏi, chầndần, càmràm, cằnnhằn, phànnàn, nhõngnhẽo, tiềnnong, ruồngrẫy, obế, tângbốc, bặmtrợn, tréocẳngngỗng, baquexỏlá, thảgiàn, diệuvợi, xaxăm, xaxôi, xalắcxalơ, sạchbách, bângkhuâng, mônglung, ngỡngàng, ngơngác, tọcmạch, heomay, cùichỏ, chânmày, bảvai, chómực, chómá, chóđẻ, nhàquê, nhàvăn, nhàngủ, nhàmát, nhàtu, nhàlao, laocông, laophổi, mộttay, taychơi, tayvợt, tàytrời, chẫmrãi, gấprút, lẹlàng, tệlậu, cửasổ, maymắn, hấphối, dốtnát, thơngây, ủmtỏi, đắngngắt, giàusụ, nghèonàn, chậmrì, lềmề, nhẹhẫng, bãithama, gạocội, ngáoộp, biểnlận, sinhnhai, etc.
NOTE: "Composite" used here is to convey the meaning of something closely affixed to a radical which can not be broken into separate syllables and used independently for either one or both is a bound morpheme even though in the Chinese original form each character can stand alone as a word that may convey a certain meaning. In the category the same etymon appears as a sole syllable in Vietnamese that cannot function by itself that is merely a morpheme and may not mean anything semantically but it needs to appear in combined forms that go with other syllable to make a complete word. This kind of composite words are found numerous in the Vietnamese language that are commonly used in daily life.
To have more clear picture of what it actually means, compare words in English of the same nature: windy, courious, vague, pitiful, lovely, creamy, marvelous, tomato, salmon, unique, vocano, butterfly, kitchen, handy, camel, melon, excited, handsome, etc. Can you break syllables in each of these words into separate units and still use each of them independently with its original meaning? Of course you cannot.
II) Dissyllabic compound words:
Mồhôi, nướcmắt, nhanhchóng, nóngnực, nổigoá, nhàthờ, trườnghọc, giấybút, sinhđẻ, vợchồng, chamẹ, anhem, nhàcửa, trờiđất, đồngruộng, tiềnbạc, bànghế, chuacay, maquỷ, thầnthánh, trờiphật, bảngđen, sôngnúi, nhànước, máybay, sânbay, nhàmáy, ghếngồi, bànviết, giườngngủ, phòngăn, quẹtlửa, máylạnh, tủlạnh, máyhát, lýlẽ, chờđợi, ănuống, rượuchè, cờbạc, cấmkỵ, cẩthả, etc.
NOTE:Just like compound words in English, e.g. blackboard, therefore, airplane, moreover, billboard, airport, bookworm, football, baseball, notebook, software, harddisk, honeymoon, plywood, handicraft, aircraft, shipyard, graveyard, grapefruit, jackfruit, pineapple, etc., Vietnamese compound words are in great numbers. Each word-syllable in a word can be used independently as a word.
III) Reduplicative polysyllabic and dissyllabic compound words or binomes:
Lễlạc, tếtnhất, chắcchắn, lạnhlẽo, mấpmé, nướcnôi, nóngnẩy, nựcnội, caucó, cầukỳ, buồnbã, laođao, lậnđận, lếtthết, lúclắc, làulàu, vấtvả, tấttả, vậtvã, văngvẳng, lacà, dỡẹt, dỡình, ỡmờ, vờvĩnh, hữnghờ, chắcchiu, chătchíu, mằnmặn, ngọtngào, ngánngẫm, khờkhạo, giàgiặn, xaxôi, nặngnề, nhẹnhàng, tươmtất, rấmrớ, rầmrộ, rưngrưng, rộnràng, rùrì, rúrí, rờrẫm, rậmrực, tùtúng, phâyphây, phephẩy, phăngphăng, mêmẫn, chămchỉ, lolắng, mắcmỏ, rẻrúng, ấmức, viễnvông, mơmàng, sâusắc, đenđuá, hồnghào, hoahoè, dạidột, sờsoạn, mòmẫm, hẹphòi, rộngrãi, ấmức, thẳngthừng, quạuquọ, chắcchắn, vắngvẻ, côicút, lỗlã, dưdã, đauđớn, luônluôn, mêmãi, nhanhnhẩu, runrẩy, lắclư, lườilĩnh, liềnliền, nhạtnhẽo, nhạtnhoà, nhútnhát, dạndĩ, mạnhmẽ, nhẹnhàng, nặngnề, thấplètè, sạchsànhsanh, đồngxuteng, liềntùtì, lấplalấplững, bùlubùloa, híhahíhửng, xíxaxíxọn, lúngtalúngtúng, càrịchcàtang, lấplalấplững, bùlubùloa, híhahíhửng, tấtatấtửng, xấcbấcxangbang, lấplalấplửng, etc.
NOTE: Reduplicative compound words are made of a one-syllable word plus a variation of that with a little change in sound. This type of words renders a subtle change in meaning of the radical. An affix to the original word is usually a reduplicative element that has a different tone and initial or ending comes before of after a radical. Comparable structures of this type of words are those of English "childish", "slowly", "talkative", "handy", "continuous", "fashionable", "horrendous", "fabulous", exited", exciting", "initial", "vital", "likewise", "shaking", "shaky", "lonesome", "troublesome", "mimicry", etc. An affixed syllable or add-on component, just like those similarly structured words in English, cannot be used independently.
IV) Polysyllabic "Vietnamized" neigboring Mon-Khmer and Daic words:
They are words that were made up with the combined elements of all SInitic Vietnamese, Sino-VIetnamese, and other indigenous words indiscriminately.
Bơsữa, sữatuơi, sữachua, dưachua, tráibơ, tráisu, súbắp, diễnsô, bầusô, bánhbìtquy, bánhít, bánhchưng, bánhxèo, nămhợi, nămgà, tuổidậu, tuổihợi, làmthịt, làmcao, làmtàng, làmlẻ, làmăn, mầnăn, nângcao, lênmặt, lêngiọng, xuốnggiọng, xuốngnước, câucú, thathiết, thêthảm, tủithân, mồcôi, đầunậu, băngđảng, xốngáo, súngống, daobúa, hồhỡi, tụctằn, cánúc, hầubao, đầuđuôi, đóikhát, sấmsét, tàylay, tèmlem, xegắnmáy, câulạcbộ, hầmbàlần, tạppílù, nồiniuêusoongchả, đaotobúlớn, nởmàynởmặt, bàconchòmxóm, đếnhẹnlạolên, bèogiạtmâytrôi, anhemcộtchèo, anhemcôcậu, anhemthúcba, mẹchồngcondâu, đèocaogióhút, tiềnrừngbạcbể, trànggiangđạihải, vòngvotamquốc, hốilộđútlót, etc.
V) Polysyllabic Vietnamized English and French words:
It is no doubt that writng foreign words such as 'Xan Phờ-ran-xít-cô' instead of 'San Francisco' is the most stupid way to do by the uneducated people; therefore, readers will not find such wierd spellings in this paper but only the commonly accepted forms as reasonably natural as possible.
Càphê, càrem, xecamnhông, côngtennơ, đầukéocôngtennơ, phíchnước, sônước, canô, thùngphuy, lôcanh, origin, gin, gen, building, oánhtùtì, bíttết, lagu, sàlách, nướcsốt, xàbông, sôcôla, suwinggum, sabôchê, dămbông, phôma, yaua, vôlăng, mêgabai, internet, website, software, mashup, interview, rôbô, radiô, lade, photocópy, cọppi, ốcxygen, cạtbônát, đềphô, dốpdiếc, vốtka, virút, cờlê, mỏlết, tivi, video, dĩacompact, galăng, đôla, vila, tắcxi, xebuýt, phẹcmatuya, gạcmănggiê, cômpa, tráibôm, bômhơi, dăngxê, câulạcbộ, vacăng, ôtô, nhàga, ôten, dầuxăng, bùlon, cáisoong, chơigem, mànhìnhled, trượtpaten, chạymaratông, menbo, hợpgu, hợprơ, hămbơgơ, mesừ, mađam, xinêma, tuydô, kílômét, centimét, milimét, xebuýt, xemôtô, môtơ, đènmăngxông, xyláp, phạcmaxi, đốctờ, đìaréctơ, áoghilê, bộcomplê, ôpạclơ, micờrô, phắctuya, trảbiu, ốcxíthoá, sida, aid, căngxe, buyarô, rờmọt, móocchê, súngcanhnông, tủbuýpphê, chạyápphe, nhàbăng, trảcheck, sờnáchba, mìncơlaymo, bốtdờsô, aláchsô, ạctisô, căngtin, míttinh, Ácănđình, Hoathịnhđốn, Balê, Ănglê, Vaticăn, sôviết, bônxêvích, gạcđờco, gácgian, trứngốplết, hộtgàốpla, áobànhtô, áomăngtô, bugi, épphê, ácxít, átpirin, kýninh, đờmi, đờmigạcxông, đíplôm, đíplôma, găngtơ, ápphích, táplô, bancông, salông, khănmùxoa, lêmônát, rượurum, rượuvan, đườngrầy, xetăng, tănglều, miniduýp, carô, súngrulô, xerulô, mọtphin, xìphé, pháctuya, côngtắc, côngtơ, rôbinê, marisến, phôngten, bôlêrô, tănggo, rumba, phăngtadi, phuộcxét, xìcăngđan, sanđan, bigiăngtin, phúlít, batong, măngsông, đènpin, rờmọt, rờmoọc, boongtàu, tíchkê, bánsôn, đitua, vãira, đítcô, đăngxe, lăngxê, pianô, viôlông, honđa, trumpét, càtômát, xúchxích, patê, tráibơ, đắcco, xêrum, xiarô, xêry, băngrôn, băngnhạc, đồlen, rumba, bếpga, môđen, môđẹc, xilô, nồixúpde, pađờxuy, sơmi, balô, búpbê, tắcxi, buộcboa, côngtra, dềpô, áopull, quầngin, jắtkết, zêrô, sốpphơ, xếplớn, pátpo, vida, bida, côcacôla, pépsi, vôlăng, ămpiya, ampe, kílôoát, tăngdơ, xuỵtvôntơ, cátsét, ghisê, nhàbăng, tivi, gàrôti, chơisộp, kháchsộp, compiutơ, còmmăng, tíchkê, díppô, san-phơ-ran-xit-cô, etc.
NOTE: These variants of words of French and English origins are spelled in Vietnamese orthography. Even though words in this classification are in limited numbers, they are best representive of polysyllabic combining formation. They are loanwords of "foreign" origin. Their syllables are an integrated parts attached the others and cannot certainly be used as independent words even though the Vietnamese syllable itself may mean something else unrelated. How many that can you recognize besides the stupid san-phơ-ran-xít-cô?
The implication of these examples is that if dissyllabic Sino-Vietnamese words are seen as "foreign" loanwords in the Vietnamese language, then their nature and characteristics are virtually the same, not to be separated.
VI) Culturally-accented Vietnamese words of Chinese origin:
ănđòn (deserved punishment) 挨打: ăidă
ăntiền (win bet) 贏錢: yínqián
ănnhậu (have a drink) 應酬: yìngchóu
ănmày (beggar) 要飯: yàofàn
dêxồm (lecherous) 婬蟲: yínchóng
hẹnhò (dating) 約會: yèhuì
đánhcướp (rob) 打劫: dăjié
đánhbài (play cards) 打牌: dăpái
tầmbậy (tầmbạ, sàbát) 三八: sānbà
chánngán (sick of) 厭倦: yànjuān
bậtcười (laugh) 發笑: fáxiào
bậtkhóc (cry) 發哭: fákù
banngày (daytime) 白日: báirì
bồcâu (pigeon) 白鴿: báigē
chạngvạng (at dusk) 旁晚: bángwăn
cảgan (daring) 大膽: dàdăn
khờkhạo (foolish) 傻瓜: săguā
ấmcúng (cozy) 溫馨: wēnqìng
muárối (puppetry) 木偶戲: mù'ǒuxì
xinlỗi (apologize) 請罪: qǐngzuì
xinchào (hello) 見濄 jiànguò
chắcchắn (certainly) 確定: quèdìng
đưađón (see off and pick up) 接送: jiēsòng
chờđợi (expect) 期待: qídài
yêuđương (love) 愛戴: àidài
thươngyêu (affection) 疼愛: téng'ài
khôngdámđâu (it is not so) 不敢當: bùgăndàng
banngàybanmặt (in broad daylight) 青天白日: qīngtiānbáirì
đấttrờichứnggiám (Heaven and the Earth be the witnesses) 天地作證: tiāndìzuòzhèng
trờibấtdunggian (God punish bad people) 天不容姦: tiānbùróngjiān
langbạtkỳhồ (take on an adventure) 狼跋其胡: lángbáqíhú
nhưcágặpnước (like a fish back in water) 如魚得水: rúyúdéshuǐ
NOTE: The official Pinyin writing for the Chinese words above are always correctly written in combining formation because they are polysyllabic in nature, except for the diacritic marks that fall on the wrong vowel, e.g., 醉酒 zuìjiǔ VS 'sayrượu' (drunk), 真牛 zhēnniú VS 'chơingầu', 垂柳 chuíliǔ VS liễurũ (willow), 拜求 bàiqiǔ VS 'váicầu' (prayer), etc. The implication of these basic and not-so-basic words of the same roots between Chinese and Vietnamese, in addition to those Sino- and Sinitic-Vietnamese vocabularies which are indepensable in the Vietnamese language, is that Chinese is classified as a polysyllabic language, so is Vietnamese.
Examples of some variable sound changes
Thuận Nghịch Độc by Duc Tran
The author, a commentator and translator for Radio Free Asia (RFA) as of 2019, constructs an etymological analogy based a poem by Phạm Thái (1777-1813) which is written in "Thuận Nghịch Độc" form, that is, standard reading is for Sino-Vietnamese sound:
青春鎖柳冷蕭房 Thanh xuân khóa liễu lãnh tiêu phòng
錦軸停針礙點妝 Cẩm trục đình châm ngại điểm trang
清亮度蘚浮沸綠 Thanh lượng độ tiên phù phất lục
淡曦散菊彩疏黃 Đạm hy tán cúc thái sơ hoàng
情痴易訴簾邊月 Tình si dị tố liêm biên nguyệt
夢觸曾撩帳頂霜 Mộng xúc tằng liêu trướng đỉnh sương
箏曲強挑愁緒絆 Tranh khúc cưỡng khiêu sầu tự bạn
鶯歌雅詠閣蕭香 Oanh ca nhã vịnh các tiêu hương
while, as in old Chinese-based Nôm writing, Sintic-Vietnamese sounds can be also read in reverse (naturally some Sino-Vietnamese sounds, inseparatable part of Vietnamese vocabularies, are included also):
香蕭閣詠雅歌鶯 Hương tiêu gác vắng nhặt ca oanh
絆緒愁挑強曲箏 Bận mối sầu khêu gượng khúc tranh
霜頂帳撩曾觸夢 Sương đỉnh trướng gieo từng giục mộng
月邊簾訴易痴情 Nguyệt bên rèm, tỏ dễ si tình
黃疏彩菊散曦淡 Vàng tha thướt, cúc tan hơi đạm
綠沸浮蘚度亮清 Lục phất phơ, rêu đọ rạng thanh
妝點礙針停軸錦 Trang điểm ngại chăm, dừng trục gấm
房蕭冷柳鎖春青 Phòng tiêu lạnh lẽo khóa xuân xanh.
from these reading we can see clearly the relations between those Sino- and Sinitic-Vietnamese words:
- Các = Gác
- Cẩm = Gấm
- Cưỡng = Gượng
- Liêm = Rèm, etc.
with this onset, we can apply the same patterns to other words:
- Cận = Gần
- Can = Gan
- Cân = Gân
- Cấp = Gấp
- Cổn = Gợn
- Các = Gác
- Kê = Gà
- Ký = Gửi
- Kỵ = Ghét
- Ký = Ghi
- Tử = Chết
- Tự = Chùa
- Tự = Chữ (cái)
- Thanh = Xanh
- Vũ = Múa
- Vũ = Mưa
- Vân = Mây
- Vạn = Muôn
- Vọng = Mong
- Võng = Mạng
and so on.
NOTE: Specifically with the examples above, in the comments regarding Chinese ~ Vietnamese cognates, with no exceptions Duc Tran seems to see only the Sinitic-Vietnamese sound changes in comparison with those of Sino-Vietnamese on one-to-one correspondence within the monosyllabic words even though he did mention about the correlation of those Vietnamese sounds to those of Mandarin sounds: "Cái lạ ở chỗ các ví dụ trên phần theo chiếu theo tiếng Bắc Kinh hay Pinyin đều theo một luồng phụ âm đầu nhất định." (That means "the interesting thing about the words in the example is that all consonantal initials as said in Beijing dialect or Pinyin follow a certain pattern of correspondent initials.") This is how it has been done by most of specialists in the Chinese-Vietnamese etymological fields.
The APPENDICES A to G below are excerpts from Prof. Tsu-lin Mei's The Austroasiatics in Ancient South China: Some Lexical Evidence and all credits of course belong to the author himself alone. In his research, Professor Mei proved that those cited etyma under his examination had the Austroasiatic origin. His findings help reinforce the hypothesis that those Chinese and Austroasiatic cognates are derived from the same Yue substratum. The cited forms analyzed by the author show that certain Chinese lexicons in the substratum of the Minnan dialects are Austroasistic. The author stated that ""the modern Vietnamese are the descendants of the ancient Yüeh and their present territory represents the AA-speaking region closest to Fukien." [...] "It is noteworthy that the forms we discuss are best represented in Vietnamese." In the Minnan words cited below, the author pointed out the closeness of all the Yue languages (AA) with other dialects as seen relevant, i.e., the forms in Foochow (FC) and Amoy (AM), and VN as Vietnamese, and for the latter, as being variably referred to in this paper, that could be Vietic, Viet., Annamese, Ancient Vietnamese, Sinitic-Vietnamese, etc. Methodologically, on the one hand, Prof. Tsu-lin Mei's survey demonstrates how he utilized the analytic tools in his etymological work that can serve as a good example for us to learn in exploring Sinitic-Vietnamese etymological field. While examining the appendices below, on the other hand, readers may want to keep in mind the at a certain point in ancient times, there had existed proto-Chinese and Archaic Chinese before the early Chinese crossed the Yangtze River and mixed with the Yue (AA) people in their habitats, hence, linguistically, there emerged 河 */ˠɑ/ as apposed to 江 */krong/ for "river", 齒 chǐ vs. 牙 yá as "tooth", etc. That is, observe how the Yue words become a part of the Chinese lexical stock. In short, the point to make here is they have been derived from the same source regardless the direction of the loans.
On the sideline, the Simplified Chinese scripts in the originally quoted excerpts hereof by the author were meant to target audience in the China's mainland, hence we convert them back into Traditional Chinese characters to get closer to the original archaic forms as we are examining historical linguistics. Readers can refer to his complete work on the Austroasiatic origin for cited words below in the archived link that follows. Additional comments inside the [ square brackets ] are comments inserted by dchph.
The case of "sông"
by Tsu-lin Mei
(1) 江 **krong/kang/jiāng ‘Yangtze River’, ‘river’.
Vietnamese "sông" /səwŋ/ (river) is cognate to the Chinese 江 jiāng and other forms in the Mon-Khmer languages, e.g., Bahnar, Sedang krong; Katu karung; Bru klong; Gar, Koho rong; Laʔven dakhom; Biat n’hong; Hre khroang; Old Mon krung. Cf. Tibetan klu ‘river’; Thai khlɔ:ŋ ‘canal’. [ 江 jiāng has long been recognized as Yue or Austroasiatic word which would later become general term for rivers that go with the naming convention in southern Chinese and Vietnamese alike. ]
It is immediately clear that the Chinese borrowed this word from the Austroasiatic /*krong/ as in 江 jiāng for 長江 Chángjiāng. The word 江 jiāng as proper name for the ‘Yangtze River’ occurs in Ode 22 that belongs to the section Zhaonan 召南, and this term is also what the Zhou people used for the region which formerly belonged to Chu [ 楚國 ]. The form/krong/ is a general word for ‘river’ in Austroasiatic (AA). 江 jiāng is of relatively late origin. It did not occur in the oracle bones. The bronze inscriptions contain one occurrence of this word, and the Book of Odes, nine occurrences, in five poems and its use as names of rivers was limited to south of the Yangtze. The term 江南 (literally ‘south of the River’) as used during the Han dynasty refers to Changsha 長沙 and Yuzhang 豫章, in present Hunan [ 湖南 ] and Jiangxi [ 江西 ] situated in the middle section of the Yangtze and not the entire river. The notion that the Chinese met the AA’s in the Middle Yangtze region of course does not exclude their presence elsewhere; it just gives a precise indication of one of their habitats. It is perhaps pertinent to mention that the Vietnamese believed that their homeland once included the region around the Dongting Lake 洞庭湖 which is in that general area. Another Vietnamese legend states that their forefather married the daughter of the dragon king of Dongting Lake.
Textual and epigraphic evidence indicates that the word 江 jiāng came into the Chinese language between 500 and 1000 B.C. but archaeologists are increasingly inclined to the view that contact between North China and South China occurred as early as the Shang dynasty: artifacts showing strong Shang and early Chou influence have been discovered in the lower Yangtze region, and according to some scholars, also in the Han River (漢江) region. Early contacts with the Shang or Yin states can be further based on another mythical folk hero of Vietnam's history has been known as '扶董天王 Fúdǒng Tiānwáng (Phùđổng Thiênvương)', or 董聖 Dǒng Shèng (Thánh Dóng) , who defeated the Ân (殷 Yin) invaders from ancient China, that matches archaeological finds aforesaid. [ 根據 《嶺南 摭怪》 裡 的 越南 傳說。 ].
Phonetically 江 jiāng has a Second Division final in Middle Chinese (MC), and according to the Yakhontov-Pulleyblank theory, this implies a model –r- or –l- in OC. The Old Chinese (OC) reading for this word in Li Fang-kuei’s system is *krung. The final has been reconstructed as /-awng/ by Pulleyblank, and /–ong/ by Yakhontov; both finals had a rounded back vowel in OC. [ Note that V /-əwŋ/fits well into/-awng/ as anylized by Pulleyblank, a bilabial closed /-oŋʷ/ final. That is to say the V /səwŋ/ or /səwŋʷ/ is pronunced with a complete lips closed to cut off air-stream at the end of the ending /-ŋʷ/. ]
Both these facts again suggest that 江 jiāng was a borrowed word. Tibetan had klu ‘river' but a Sino-Tibetan origin of klu/krong while Thai also borrowed klu and khlɔ:ŋ from AA.
Other Chinese words for "river" include OC 河 ˠɑ/g’ɑ with an earlier *g’al or *g’ɑr from Altaic for 'Huanghe' 黄河 (Yelllow River), 水 shuǐ [ as 'river' in 渭水 Weishui (Wei RIver in Jiangxi) ], and 川 chuān [ interestingly, both 水 shuǐ and 川 chuān plausibly being cognate to V "sông" as well. ] The Chinese 水 *siwər/świ/shuǐ occurs in the oracle bones and can be traced to Sino-Tibetan: ‘water’ Tibetan ch’u; Bara, Nago dui; Kuki-chin tui. For the 川 *t’iwen/tś’iwän/chuān, the nasal final in chuān probably represents the phonological parallel in the sound gloss in the Shuowen 水，準也 [ 準 *turʔ [ For V 'nước' < *nak (water) the word also corresponds to Old Vietic */dák/that is cognate to 淂 dé (MC dak) and picked up for compilation in the Kangxi DIctionary.
[ For our purpose, the bottom line is the cited cognates of M 江 /jiang/ were derived from the same root: SV = giang = VS sông = Vietic *krông = AA krong = Thai khlɔ:ŋ = OC *krong = Tibetan klu < *ch'u, given 水 shuǐ and 川 chuān are cognates of V "sông", all without taking into consideration of the direction of borrowing, of which it is similar to the case of V 'chết' (to die) to be quoted in the Appendix E next. ]
The case of "chết"
by Tsu-lin Mei
(2) 札 *tsɛt 'to die’
In the Zhouli [ 周禮 ], the gloss '札 as *tsɛt' in 越人 謂 死 為 札 “The Yüe people call ‘to die’ 札” occurs.** Tuan Yü-ts’ai assigns this character to his group 12, which corresponds most nearly to Karlgren’s group V that corresponds to Chiang Yu-kao's 脂 group, while Karlgren’s Grammata Serica Recensa (GSR) reconstructed it as /*tsă/ in group II. Frequently, a given MC rhyme has more than one OC origin. 札 belongs to the MC 黑吉 rhyme; this rhyme derives from three different OC rhyme categories: 祭，微，and 脂 corresponding roughly to Karlgren’s II, V, and X. The only way to determine which OC rhyme category such words as this belong to is to examine their xiesheng [ 諧聲 ] connections. In the Shuowen, is defined as follows: 札 牒 也，从 木 乙 聲. In GSR 505 a reading *tʂiɛt is given for Karlgren’s group V. And in the Shih-ming, written by Liu Hsi, the sound gloss is 札，木節 也 (木節 *ts-，OC 脂 group). Clearly 札 should belong to the same group as 乙; the proper reconstructions is /tsɛt/ and not /tsăt/ as given in GSR 280b. Dong Tonghe does not give this character in his Shanggu Yinyün Piaokao, but it is simple enough to place it where it belongs — viz. on page 215 in Dong’s 微 group; the proper form in Dong’s system is *tsət that represents the AA word for ‘to die’: VN chết; Muong chít, chét; Chrau chu’t, Bahnar kˠcit; Katu chet; Gua test; Hre ko’chit; Bonam kachet; Brou kuchêit; Mon chət. More cognate forms can be found in Pinnow, p. 259, item K324f. The Proto-Mon-Khmer form has been reconstructed by Shorto as **kcət, which is extremely close to our OC form. There is even the possibility that Proto-MK **k- is reflected in the glottal initial of the phonetic 乙.
'To die' in other east and southeast Asian languages are: Chinese 死 *siər; Tib. * ‘chi-ba, šhi; Lolo-Burm *šei; Proto-Tai **tai; Proto-Miao **daih. Here Chinese goes together with Tibeto-Burman, and Proto-Tai goes together with Proto-Miao. None of these forms has any resemblance to *tsɛt. **
**[ Overall for our purpose, yet, let us postulate the final as /-jət/, then for the reason that in Chinese there are many words, of which some might be doublets that denote the concept of 'death' or 'die' sounding similar to V 'chết' besides 札 **tsɛt, e.g., 死 sǐ < MC sji < OC *sijʔ, 逝 shì, zhì, shé < MC tsjai < OC *djats, 折 zhé, shé, tí, zhē (chiết, đề) < MC tsjet < OC *tat , 卒 zú, cù (tốt, tuất, thốt) < MC tsyt < OC *tswit, 陟 zhì, dé, shăn (trắc, triết, đắc) < MC ʈik < OC *trǝk, etc. In the mean time, modern Khmer as represented by Cambodian, it is pronounced as /slab/, having nothing to do with V 'chết'. ]
The case of "ruồi"
by Tsu-lin Mei
(3) 維虫 *rwəi ‘fly’
For Vietnamese ruồi, *rui is a very old word in Proto-AA *ruwaj for ‘fly'. Mon-Khmer forms have a wide distribution: Cambodian rouy; Lawa rue; Mon rùy; Chaobon rùuy; Kuy ʔaruəy; Souei ʔɑrɔɔy; Brurùay; Ngeʔ, Alak, Tampuon rɔɔy; Loven, Brao, Stieng ruay; Chong rɔʔy; Pear roy, including some in the Munda branch, can be found in Pinnow, p. 268, item 356).
Like 江 jiāng ‘Yangtze River’, the loanword 維(虫) wéi(chóng) ‘fly’ suggests the word was loaned by the eary Chinese then they came to the middle Yangtze between 1000 and 500 B.C. from the Chu (楚) people that consisted of Austroasiastic origin. King Wu of Chu saw himself as a 'southern barbarian' just like what was described in the Lüshi Chunqiu (吕氏春秋), “Chu was derived from the barbarians.” So said 維 wei ‘fly’ was a term in the ancient Chu dialect that shows up in the Chuyu 楚語 (Sởngữ) section of the Guoyu 國語 (Quốcngữ) with the sentence “亡虫 維虫 之 既 多" (many gnats and flies). The OC value of 維虫 can be ascertained via its phonetic that is the name of an insect pronounced like 維. The initial of wei in MC is 喻四, the yü initial. Li Fang-kuei has argued convincingly that the OC value of yü IV is a flapped r- or l-; he writes it as *r- such as the initial of the word 酉, one of the twelve earth’s branches, has *r- in Proto-Tai, still attested in several modern dialects . The final of wei has been reconstructed as –d by Dong Tung-he and Li Fang-kuei, and as –r by Karlgren. These are values for the earlier stage of OC. By the time of the Guoyu, which is relatively late, the ending-d or –r had probably already become –i. In Li’s system, the distinction between hekou and kaikou (with or without –u-/-w-) is non-phonemic in OC, and the OC value of 維 in his system is *rəd. In terms of our problem, there are two possibilities. Either OC had no –w- at all, phonemic or non-phonemic, in which case the best the Chinese could do to approximate the AA form (which has a rounded back vowel) is *rəi < *rəd; or with a non-phonemic OC –w- form as *rwəi.
In the meanwhile, the standard word for ‘fly’ in OC is 蠅 *riəng, which was already attested in the Odes. It is substantiated by old dictionaries; the Guangya 廣雅 defines 虫 as 虫羊, and the Fangyan 方言 states that 羊 (虫羊) is a dialect form of 蠅 ‘fly‘ [ cognate to VS 'nhặng, dặng, lằng' (bluebottle) that is in turn associated with *riəng to be cognate VN 'ruồi' (fly, gnat). Meanwhile, there exists also the compound form V 'ruồinhặng', plausibly cognate to the aforementioned 虫羊 to carry the concept of 'flies and gnats', and usually in Vietnamese strucrally the second syllabic-word '-nhặng' modifies the first one 'ruồi-', i.e., the second made the remaning semantically clear, easier to understood. Over the years the dissyllabic word has become the general binome to strenthen the connotation of the extended meaning of 'flies' as a whole including 'gnats', 'bluebottles' etc. All said, 維虫 weichong was a Chu word and it was a cognate of VN *rui and 'ruồi', hapax legomenon locus classicus in the Chuyu 楚語 section of the Guoyu 國語. ]
The case of "ngà"
by Tsu-lin Mei
(4) 牙 *ngra/nga/ya ‘tooth, tusk, ivory’
VN ngà ‘ivory’; Proto-Mnong (Bahnar) *ngo’la ‘tusk’; **Proto-Tai *nga.
Chinese ya has Division II final in MC, which, according to the Yakhontov-Pulleyblank theory, calls for a medial –r-in OC *ngra that was derived from an AA form similar to Proto-Mnong *ngo’la.
For the Chinese 牙 yá as an AA loan it is cognate to Vietnamese 'ngà' (ivory) that is based upon the fact that 牙 yá is of relatively late origin. When it first appeared, it was only used for ‘animal tooth’ and ‘tusk' and still is the meaning in AA. While North China once had elephants, they became quite rare during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and ivory had to be imported from the middle and lower Yangtze region. Imported items not infrequently bear their original names, and by our previous argument, the Yangtze valley was inhabited by the AA’s during the first millennium B.C.
In the meanwhile, the oldest Chinese word for ‘tooth’ is 齒 chǐ which once had an unrestricted range of application, including ‘molar,’ ‘tusk', and ‘ivory'. 齒 chǐ consists of a phonetic 止 and the remaining part as a signific pictograph showing the teeth in an open mouth. Ancestral forms of the pictograph occurred frequently in the oracle bones to represent 齒 chǐ. The graph of 牙 yá, however, has no identifiable occurrence in the oracle bones and only one probable occurrence in the bronze inscriptions. This statement is based upon the fact that 牙 yá is listed neither in Li Hsiao-ting’s compendium of oracle bone graphs nor in Yung Keng’s dictionary of bronze graphs. Karlgren cited a bronze form for 牙 yá in GSR (37b) but this occurrence of 牙 yá was a proper name. There are reasons to believe that the absence of 牙 yá from early epigraphic records was not merely accidental. The oracle bones contained many records of prognosis concerning illness, and among them tooth ache. The graphs used were always ancestral forms of 齒 chǐ. The oracle bones also contained a representative list of terms for parts of the body, including head, ear, eye, mouth, tongue, foot, and probably also elbow, heel, buttock, shank, but not 牙 yá as 'tooth'.
Beginning with the Book of Odes we have unambiguous evidence for the use of 牙 yá. But in the pre-Han texts 牙 yá still did not occur frequently, and an analysis of this small corpus reveals that 牙 yá was never used for human tooth. Hence the Shuowen’s definition of 牙 yá as 牡齒, usually interpreted as ‘molar’，seems to reflect a later, probably post-Qin, development. The most frequent occurrence of 牙 yá in the sense of ‘tooth’ is in the compound 爪牙 ‘claw and tooth' [ cf. Vietnamese 'nanhvuốt' but in the roundabout loan to become SV 'nha' /ɲja/ and probably 'răng' [ via the tentative medial –r-in OC *ngra; cf. the southwestern Vietnamese subdialect Rạchgiá "găng"/ɣæŋ/ ] to be associated with an earlier form derived from Chinese 齡 líng (SV linh) ] and there the reference to animal tooth is quite clear. The Yijing contains a line in which the meaning of ya was ‘tusk’: 豶豕之牙，吉。 ‘the tusk of a castrated hog: propitious. ’ The line in Ode 17 '誰謂鼠無牙' probably means ‘Who says the rat has no tusks?’ but some scholars prefer to interpret 牙 yá simply as ‘teeth (incisors).’
A graph must first exist before it can become a part of another graph, and the older a graph, the more chances it has to serve as part of other graphs. By this criterion, 齒 chǐ is much older than 牙 yá. The meaning of 齒 chǐ in the oracle bones is primarily ‘human tooth’, including ‘molar.’ The use of 齒 chǐ as ‘tusk, ivory’ in most clearly illustrated in Ode 299 憬彼淮夷，來獻其琛，元龜象齒 “Far away are those Huai tribes, but they come to present their treasures, big tortoise, elephant’s tusks”; and not quite so clearly in two passages in the 禹貢 “Yukung,” both of which listed 齒，革，羽，毛 as items of tribute. Here 齒 chǐ can mean either ‘ivory’ or ‘bones and tusks of animals,’ all used for carving. Lastly, 齒 chǐ also applies to tooth of other animals, 相鼠有齒 “Look at the rat with its teeth” (Ode 52). In the oracle bones, 齒 chǐ occurs as the signific of three graphs. In the Shuowen, 齒 chǐ occurs as the signific of forty-one graphs, all having something to do with tooth; 牙 yá, only two graphs, one of which has a variant form with 齒 chǐ as the signific. The Shuowen also tells us that ya has a kuwen form in which the graph for 齒 chǐ appeared under the graph for 牙 yá. What this seems to indicate is that when 牙 first appeared, it was so unfamiliar that some scribes found it necessary to add the graph for 齒 chǐ in order to remind themselves what ya was supposed to mean. 牙 also occurs as the phonetic of eight graphs (six according to Karlgren) but none of these graphs is older than 齒 chǐ.
Elephants once existed in North China; remains of elephants have been unearthed in Neolithic sites as well as in An-yang. Ivory carving was also a highly developed craft during the Shang dynasty. These facts, however, should not mislead us into thinking that elephants had always been common in ancient North China. Yang Chung-chien and Liu Tung-sheng made an analysis of over six thousand mammalian remains from the An-yang site and reported the following finding: over 100 individuals, dog, pig, deer, lamb, cow, etc.; between 10 and 100 individuals, tiger, rabbit, horse, bear, badger (獾) etc.; under 10 individuals, elephant, monkey, whale, fox, rhinoceros, etc. The authors went on to say that rare species such as the whale, the rhinoceros, and the elephant were obviously imported from outside, and their uses were limited to that of display as items of curiosity. This view is also confirmed by literary sources. In the Han Feizi, it is said that when King Chou of the Shang dynasty made ivory chopsticks, Chi Zi, a loyal minister, became apprehensive – implying that when as rare an item as ivory was used for chopsticks, the king’s other extravagances could be easily imagined. Importation of ivory in the form of tribute was also reported in Ode 299 and in the “Yü-kung,” both of which were cited above.
The history of 牙 yá and 齒 chǐ can now be reconstructed as follows: The people of the Shang and Zhou dynasties have always depended upon import for their supply of ivory. But during the early stage, ivory and other animal tusks and bones were designated by 齒 chǐ, which was also the general word for ‘tooth’. Items made of ivory were also indicated by adding a modifier 象 hsiang ‘elephant’ before the noun, for example 象弭 ‘ivory bow tip' or 象箸 ‘ivory chopsticks’. Then 牙 yá came into the Chinese language in the sense of ‘tusk’ and because a tusk is larger than other types of teeth, ya gradually acquired the meaning of ‘big tooth, molar’ by extension, thus encroaching upon the former domain of 齒 chǐ. When later lexicographers defined 牙 yá as ‘molar’ and 齒 chǐ as ‘front tooth' [ cf. VS 'răngsỉ' 牙齒 yáchǐ; hence, 'răngcỏ' ] a general term for 'teeth' as they are describing, though without clear awareness, the usage of the Han dynasty and thereafter. By further extension, 牙 yá also became the general word for ‘tooth’ while retaining this special meaning of ‘ivory' [ The foregoing argument has brought up an interesting point in lexical developent in human languages, to say the least. ].
Some Min dialects still employ 齒 chǐ in the sense of tooth. The common word for tooth in Amoy is simply k’i. Fuzhou has nai3 which is a fusion of ŋɑ plus k’i, i.e. 牙齒 yáchǐ [ and probably Vietnamese 'răngcỏ' (teeth) ]. This strongly suggests that in Min the real old word for ‘tooth’ is 齒 chǐ as in Amoy, the implication being that this was still the colloquial word for ‘tooth’ well into Han when the first the Chinese resettled in Fujian Province. The Japanese use 齒 chǐ as kanji to write ha ‘tooth’ in their language; 牙 yá rarely occurs. Both these facts provide supplementary evidence for the thesis that the use of ya as the general word for ‘tooth’ was a relatively late development. [ As for a doublet for V "răng" could it possibly later originate from Chinese 齡 líng as well? ]
In a note published in BSOAS, vol. 18, Walter Simon proposed that Tibetan /so/ ‘tooth’ and Chinese /ya/ 牙 (OC *nga) are cognates, thus reviving a view once expressed by Sten Konow. Simon’s entire argument was based upon historical phonology; he tried to show (a) OC had consonant clusters of the type sng- and C-, (b) by reconstructing 牙 yá as sngɔ > zngɔ > nga and 邪 xié as zˠa > za, one can affirm Xu Shen’s view that 邪 xié [ SV tà ] has 牙 yá [ SV nha ] as its phonetic, and (c) Chinese *snga can then be related to a Proto-Tibetan *sngwa and Burmese swa: > θwa:. Our etymology for ya ‘tooth’ implies a rejection of Simon’s view; if ya is borrowed from AA, then the question of Sino-Tibetan comparison simply does not arise. And even if our theory is not accepted, there is no reason to adopt Simon’s analysis; ya is clearly a word of relatively late origin, and the fact that 邪 xié has 牙 yá as its phonetic can be explained by assuming that the z- of 邪 xie resulted from the palatalization of an earlier g-.
SOME OTHER SURVIVAL OF AUSTROASIATIC ETYMA:
[ Quoted: "The Yiddish linguist, Max Weinreich, states, “A language is a dialect with an army and navy”. According to this definition, Mandarin has armies while Hokkien and Cantonese do not. However, Hokkien and Cantonese are linguistically different from Mandarin. They use different words and have different grammars. " For example, Fukienese (Hokkien) was officially classified by China's institutions into the Sino-Tibetan linguistic family > Chinese > Min > Coastal Min > Southern Min > Hokkien (as quoted by Wikkipedia.org ] There exists highly the possibility of the survival of AA forms in some modern Chinese dialects spoken in areas occupied by the ancient Yue peoples.
The Min dialects spoken in Fukien and northeastern Kwangtung [ and the Hannanese in the Hainan Island Province where the Li minorities have been considered as a descendants of ancestors of the Chamic people who had built the ancient Champa Kingdom located in today's Central Vietnam ] represent the most aberrant group of dialects in China. While most of the vocabulary found in these dialects can be traced back to early Chinese sources, there remains a residue of forms which cannot be explained in this way. A possible explanation of such words would be to consider them relic forms from the non-Chinese language spoken in this region before the Chinese began to settle there in the Han dynasty. [ Note that modern Chinese Sinologists classify Guangdong and Minnan dialect are of the Sino-Tibetan linguistic family based on their dominant Sinitic vocabularies. Imagine if Vietnam were not an independent country, then it is so apparent such a case as well. Invertly, if Fukien or Canton had survived the Han dominion, they would have been parallel cases of Vietnam with Fujian and Guangdong as independent states. As a result, all our classification for their languages should have been gone different direction, not as of Sino-Tibetan but Yue or AA languages, similar to what has happened to the classification of Vietnamese then. Written Chinese records prove that is the case, though, to say the least. In fact, accordrding to Haeree Park in Recent Advances in Old Chinese Historical Phonology (Society of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) "The Chu language is an attested language spoken during the Chu state of China, and is believed to be the base precursor to Xiang Chinese, a dialect spoken in Hunan. The Chu language is classified as a Sino-Tibetan language and sometimes referred to as "Para-Sinitic" meaning that it is related to the Chinese language having shared a common Proto-Sinitic ancestor. It had its own characters modeled on Zhou dynasty Chinese characters." ] The pre-Han inhabitants of Fukien were the MinYue; they appear to have been a semi-civilized state which was finally destroyed by Han Wu in 110 B.C. [ and ancient Vietnam as part of the NanYue Kingdom in 111 B.C. ]
(5) 虎 ‘tiger’ ** k’la(g)/χuo/hu
‘tiger’ in AA: *kalaʔ; Munda ki’rɔ, kul, kula, kilo, etc.; Old Mon kla; Mon kla; Bahnar, Sedang kla; Sue kala; Brou klo; Old Khmer, klɔ; Khmer khla ‘felines’; Khasi khla; VN khɔi; Muong k’al, k’lal, kanh, etc. Pinnow reconstructs the Proto-Munda form as *kala (Pinnow, p. 142, item 281), and we propose an alternate Proto-AA form, *kalaʔ
The Chinese 虎 hu belongs to the OC 魚 yü group. According to Yakhontov, Pulleyblank, and Li, this group had /–a/ as its main vowel [ cf. Viet. 'cá' (fish) ]. It may or may not have had a final voiced consonant of some sort in OC; Yakhontov has none, and Li would have –g. In Li’s system 虎 MC /χuo/ would derive from an OC /*χag/. Now, 虎 serves as the phonetic in some words with MC l-initial: 盧 MC luo, 慮 MC liwo, etc. Therefore, in Li’s system, 虎 hu ‘tiger’ could be reconstructed as *χlag, since his OC medial –l- simply drops in MC; -r- on the other hand yields the Division II vowels. Further, certain Western Min dialects have an initial aspirated k’- in the word for tiger: Kienyang /k’o/, Shaowu /k’u/ [ cf. Viet. 'cọp' /kɔp8/ and 'hùm' 甝 hán (SV hàm) all for 'tiger' while 虎 hu is 'hổ' in Sino-Vietnamese. ]. This is not an isolated phenomenon in Min; for example, 許 Amoy k’ɔ, but MC xwo; 火 Kienyang k’ui, MC χu; Foochow k’auʔ, MC χut. From this we can see that MC χ- (in some cases) may go back to a stop *k’-. Since 虎 is one of the words involved in this change, we are justified in reconstructing it as **k’la(g). This form is very close to Pinnow’s Proto-Munda reconstruction *kala.
Our reconstruction of the Proto-AA form as *kalaʔ is motivated by the fact that –ʔ is present in the word for tiger in several Munda languages. The Chinese word 虎 hu ‘tiger’ is in the rising tone, and one of the present authors has argued elsewhere that the MC rising tone derives from a final glottal stop ʔ. If so, the correspondence between Proto-AA *kala and OC *k’la is even closer.
There is no plausible Tibeto-Burman etymology for 虎 hu ‘tiger’; Tibetan has stag ‘tiger’, a totally unrelated word; Old Burmese has kla, a loan from Mon. The present habitats of the tiger (Panthera tigris) in China are the Southwest, the Southeastern coastal area, the Yangtze valleys, and Manchuria, with South China as the area of highest concentration. Appearances of the tiger in historical records coincide with the above, but also include northern Hebei and Shansi. Skeletal remains of the tiger were also found at the site of Anyang, in Henan. The distribution of the tiger is noteworthy in two respects: the heaviest concentration is in South China, presumably the habitats of the AA’s. The area of total absence includes the steppes and loessland of northwest China, the probably homeland of the Sino-Tibetan ancestors of the Chinese. From this perspective, it is easy to see why there is no word for tiger in Sino-Tibetan, or in the oldest stage of Chinese. The word attested as a pictograph in the oracle bones was derived from the AA’s word for tiger loaned the Chinese.
It is possible that 虎 had a disyllabic doublet, derived from the same AA source. The Zuozhuan says ”楚人 謂 乳 穀， 謂 虎 於菟。“' “The Chu people call ‘to nurse’ 穀, and ‘tiger’ 於菟”. The initial of 於 has the value y– in MC, but here is some reason to believe that its OC value is k- or k’-. 於 is a variant of 于, and the latter was used to transcribe “khotan” in the Shiji: 于闐，于闐also has a variant 狗竇; Kuo P’u’s (郭璞) commentary to the Fangyan states under 於虎菟 ‘tiger’: 今 江南 山夷 呼 虎 為 虎兔，音 狗竇, “Nowadays the hill tribes in the south of the Yangtze call ‘tiger’ 虎兔, pronounced as 狗竇 (MC kəutəu).” The OC form of the Chu word for ‘tiger’ was therefore something like *kat’a.
The only difference between AA *kalaʔ and Chinese is –l- versus –t’- or –t-, which may conceivably be postulated that some AA forms have a dental stop: Pinnow regards Khmer khla ‘felines’ as a cognate of dho (thom) ‘tiger royal,’ and according to Kuhn, Karia kiɔʔ < *kil-dɔʔ (Pinnow, p. 142). Kuiper has noted that there is a variation among Munda d, t, and l in initial position. It may be that AA *kala had a dialect form kata, and the latter was represented by the Chu word for ‘tiger’.
(6) 囝 FC kiaŋ/AM kiă ‘son, child’
This word is attested for all Min dialects. From the conservative dialects of northeastern Fukien, the word originally ended in –n: Fuan kiɛŋ, Ningteh kian. The Proto-Min form was probably something like *kian with the tone which corresponds to the classical shang or rising tone. This word is attested textually quite early. The Tang poet Gu Kuang 顧况 living around 725-816, composed a poem using the word 囝: “it is pronounced like the word 蹇 (MC kɒn, shang tone); in Fukien ‘son’ is called 囝 in the popular language.” This word is clearly the same as the modern Min words for ‘son, child‘，related to the AA etymon represented by VN con ‘child'. This etymon is very widely distributed throughout Austroasiatic: Khmer koun, Spoken Mon kon, written Mon kon, kwen, Bru kɔɔn, Chong kheen, Wa kɔn, Khasi khu:n; it is also well represented in Munda: Kharia kɔnn ‘small,’ Santali ‘son, child,’ Hohon ‘child’. The Min form agrees with the AA forms predominantly show low to mid unrounded vowels. The Min form of Kienyang kyeŋ, however, has a rounded medial which may indicate that the Min forms derive from some type of earlier rounded vowel.
(7) 弩 *na/nuo/nu ‘crossbow’
‘crossbow’ in AA: VN nõ, ná; Proto-Mnong *so’na; Proto-Tai *hnaa.
Cf. Mon, Old Mon tŋa; Palaung kaŋ, kaŋaʔ; Tibeto-Burman: Nung the-na; Mso ta-na.
The crossbow is at present widely used by the tribes in southwest China and Indo-China. Early references to the crossbow in Chinese texts point to that general region as the place of origin. The Hanshu [ 漢書 ] explicitly mentioned the crossbow as one of the weapons used by the tribes inhabiting Hainan Island, and implied that it was also used by other tribes farther south. Sichuan was famous for its crossbow. Both the Hua Yang Guo Zhi [ 華陽國志 ] and the Hou Hanshu [ 後漢書] reported that when a white tiger roamed the area of Qin and neighboring states, a man from Pa [ 巴郡 閬中人 ] had to be called in, and he killed the tiger with a crossbow made of white bamboo. King Anyang [ 安陽王 Andươngvương ], a prince from Sichuan, is said to have brought along the crossbow as he entered Vietnam when Zhao Tuo [ 趙佗 Triệu Đà ] tried to conquer Vietnam at the end of the Qin Dynasty; he was for a time stymied by King Anyang’s archers using crossbow.
The fact that the crossbow has a southern distribution, past and present, suggests that it was acquired by the Chinese. Phonology provides another reason. The Tai and Vietnamese, because of their proximity to Chinese speaking people, were the most likely points of contact. The Tai form implies voiceless initial *sn-. VN ná is in the sắc tone, which comes from a voiceless initial. Proto-Mnong *so’na indicates that perhaps the Proto-AA form should be *s-na. Now, under the hypothesis that Chinese borrowed this word from AA, we only need to assume that *s- (or the voicelessness of the initial *n-) was lost in the process of borrowing. Under the contrary hypothesis that the loan was in the opposite direction, none of the AA or Thai forms can be easily explained [ cf. 弩 nú (SV 'nỗ) = VS/nỏ/ vs. Viet. 'ná', i.e., */sna/ > OC */na/ > 弩 nú > VS 'nỏ' ].
The Japanese scholar Fujita Toyohchi believes that the Chinese crossbow came from India, on the strength of the Sanskrit word dhanu ‘bow’ and the fact that India already used the crossbow in warfare during the fourth century B.C. The Sanskrit word may have something to do with Mon and Old Mon tŋa, Nung thə-na, Moso ta-na, but is unlikely to be the direct source of 弩; 弩 belongs to the MC 魚 rhyme, and as Chou Fa-kao has shown, Sanskrit –o and –u were regularly transcribed before the Tang dynasty by words belonging to 尤，侯，虞，模 rhymes but seldom by words belonging to the 魚 rhyme [ i.e. /-a/ 魚 = VS 'cá' vs. 弩 = VS 'ná' vs. /nỏ/ ].
(8) FC tyɔŋ/AM tɔŋ ‘shaman, spirit healer, medium’
It is not entirely clear whether the word in question is basically a nominal or verbal root since it occurs in constructions of both types. Thus in FC dialect we have tyɔŋ-tsi ‘shaman’, tyɔŋ-tsi ‘to shamanize,’ tyɔŋ-siŋ id., phaʔ-tyɔŋ ‘shaman’s assistant’ [ cf. VS 'đồngbóng' ( <~ 'thầybóng') ]; in Amoy we have id. (to dance under the influence of spirits), (note: both and mean ‘to leap, to dance’), the spirit leaves the shaman’, ‘to become possessed.’ In the Kienyang dialect (northwest Fukien) we have ‘shaman’ and ‘to become possessed'. Yungan (Central Fukien) has ‘to shamanize’ (‘to jump, to dance’), ‘shaman'. The common element in all these expressions is Foochow, Amoy, Kienyang, and Yungan; these forms point back to a Proto-Min 'id.' in the tonal category corresponding to the classical p’ing tone. All of the dialects show lower register (yang) tones indicating that the protoform had a voiced initial [ d- ]. The word in question is sometimes written with the character 童 tóng [ cf. SV 'đồng' < MC duŋ < OC *dhoŋ as there exists the Chinese word 乩童 jītóng (SV kêđồng) 'kẻbóng' (?) for 'child shaman' and V 'lênđồng' to mean 'to dance under the influence of spirits.' In Sintic-Vietnamese, there are other Sinitic-Vietnamese words for 'shaman' that cought our attentention, e.g, 'thầymo', 'thầymô', 'sưmô', and , especially, 'phùthuỷ' as nouns, that is absolutely cognate to the Chinese 巫師 wúshī (VS 'phùthuỷ') where 'phù' = 'mô' = 巫 wū, wú < MC mʊ < OC *mha and 'thuỷ' = 'thầy' = 師 shī < MC ʂɨ < OC *srij. In any cases we are just attempting to mix and match the AA form with both Chinese and Vietnamese cognates. ]
In Vietnamese we find a word which both semantically and phonologically corresponds to the unexplained Min etymon perfectly: ‘to shamanize, to communicate with spirits', ‘male, shamanistic spirit', ‘to shamanize, to communicated with spirits', ‘shameness', ‘female shamanistic spirit', ‘shaman, sorcerer' [ Does the author mean SV 'kêđồng' (乩童 jītóng) or 'kẻbóng' as noted above? ]. This word is not confined to Vietnamese within Austroasiatic. In Written Mon the cognate is ‘to dance (as if) under daemonic possession', ‘dance of shaman'. In Modern Mon the corresponding form is ‘to leap with the feet together, to proceed by leaps, to dance while under daemonic possession, to climb’; Shorto also lists a derived meaning ‘shaman(?)'. Further AA connections can be adduced: Shorto links the written Mon form with Khasi lyngdoh ‘priest’; to support this equation, one can cite similar examples of Mon final –ʔ corresponding to Khasi –h: spoken Mon, written Mon ‘belly,’ Khasi ‘id.’ On the Munda side, there are at least three good cognates: Santali ‘a kind of dance, drumming and singing connected with marriage’; Ho dong ‘a wedding song’; Sora toŋ ‘to dance'.
(9) AM/Fu‘an tam ‘damp, wet, moist’
These forms which are attested in most eastern Min dialects except Foochow can be related to VN [ 'tẩm' = 浸 jìn, jīn < MC cjɨm < OC *cim, *cims (?) ] (wet, moist).
(10) FC siŋ/AM tsim ‘a type of crab’
These forms may bear some relationship to VN 'sam' [ M 蟳 xún, SV 'tầm' (hairy sea crab) ]. The VN form is probably further related to Mon-Khmer forms such as Bahnar, Written Mon 'khatham' [ Whether the postulation of this Mon etymon is truthful or not, it is interesting to note that in SIntic-Vietnamese, besides SV 'tầm' there exist other words for different types of crabs, such as 'bakhía' (a kind of small crabs that live in paddies) that happens to be cognate to either 螃蟹 pángxiè or 蟛蜞 péngqí (amphibious crab). Meanwhile, 蟹 (SV giải: xiè, xiě, xié < MC ɠa < OC *ghre:ʔ, *kre:ʔ < PC: **qre:jh) alone is certainly cognate to VS 'ghẹ' (a type of sea crabs with thin long legs and a skinny pair of claws), meanwhile, 蜞 qí > 'cáy' (small crab), and 蟹 xiè > 'cua' (crab). ]
(11) FC paiʔ/AM bat ‘to know, to recognize’
AM b- generally corresponds to FC m-; the upper register tone with a voiced initial is also incongruous. Douglas gives a Tung-an form pat for Southern Min, so we regard the AM form as irregular. We can compare all these forms with VN 'biết' (to know, to recognize) [ cf. Hainanese /bat7/ vs. Hainanese-Chinese form /taj1/ ( 知 zhì: SV 'trí' /ʈej7/) that evolved into VS 'hay'/χɑj1/. Could it be possible that the word is totally Chinese contracted form transcribed as 捌 /bat/ from the dysyllabbic form 明白 /mɓat7/ (understand, know) where spoken Min dialects of 明 being pronounced variably as bêng, bîn, miâ, mê, mêe, mî, môa, mâ... e.g., 伊毋捌字. i m̄ at jī. "He cannot read." ]
(12) FC p’uoʔ/AM p’eʔ . cf. Fu'an p’ut ‘scum, froth’
Compare VN 'bọt' (scum, bubbles, froth) [ Chin. M 泡 pào, pāo < MC phaw < OC *phra:ws, *phru:s. Besides the derivatives such as VS 'bọtnước' (水泡 shuǐpào), in its own development, the Vietnamese word formed with 'bèo' (see below) to make the compound 'bèobọt' (‘worthless, scum, froth’) to associate it with the concepts of 'drifting about' (萍浮 píngfú or 萍泊 píngbó), hence, the 'unworthy'. ]
(13) 萍 FC p’iu /AM p’io ‘duckweed’
This word is recorded in Kuo P’u’s (AD 276-324) commentary to the Erya 爾雅 where he states that p’iao was the Jiangdong 江東 (East of the Yangtze) word for ‘duckweed'. VN 'bèo' (duckweed) is obviously related to all these forms. The VN form is probably further related to spoken Mon pè, Written Mon bew ‘to ride low in the water.’ [ And of course, there is certainly no doubt that the Chinese cognate is píng 萍 < MC bhēŋ, pjəjŋ < OC *bieŋ, *bjəjɲ; cf. 'lụcbình' 綠萍 lǜpíng (floating duckweed), 'bèogiạtmâytrôi' 萍梗浮雲 pínggěngfúyún (idiomatic, literally, floating duckweed and drifting cloud; figuratively, 'of uncertain whereabouts, destined to be gone with the wind, wandering fate'.) ]
(14) FC kie/AM kue, cf. Kienyang ai ‘(small) salted fish’
Baldwin and Maclay define the Foochow word as follows: “a kind of salted seafish; it is small varying from one to four or five inches in length.” There is a VN word kè which is defined as a ‘type of fish'; 'it is small and resembles the gecko.’ [ Even though the modern Vietnamese who are living along the coastline and netfishing has long been their major livelihood, they do not call fish solely by specialized 'type of fish' but the word must be compounded with a modifier with the classifer-prefix "cá-" /ká/ (fish) -- lexically similar to English 'catfish', 'snakefish', etc., -- in this case the word will become a binome called /cákè/, probably the gecko. ] The primitive Yue etymon probably meant a small fish of some sort, and the specialization of meaning took place in the various languages later. [ The aforesaid phenomenon did not happen in the Vietnamese as previously mentioned. Meanwhile V 'cá' /ká/ is plausibly cognate to 魚 yú (fish) < MC ŋʊ < OC *ŋa < PC **ŋja. See also APPENDIX N (A few lines in the whole article is the riders for the case of Vietnamese "cá", or "fish", in Minnan dialects. Specifically, words for fish of different kinds come with the prefix "cá-" + modifier, e.g., ]
[...]Above we have demonstrated that the language of the NanYue was most likely Austroasiatic. Might we not go one step further and suppose that all the various Yüeh peoples of ancient southeastern China were AA speaking? In other words, we would propose that the term Yeh was essentially linguistic. If this supposition is correct, then the present day Min dialects have an AA substratum, and we should expect to find a certain number of relic words of AA origin in these dialects. We believe that this is indeed the case. [...] It is noteworthy that the forms we discuss are best represented in Vietnamese. This is not surprising since the modern Vietnamese are the descendants of the ancient Yüeh and their present territory represents the AA-speaking region closest to Fukien and northeastern Kwangtung.
THE NEW SINO-VIETNAMESE WAR
1991: Sino-Vietnamese Detente period in Vietnam's East Sea (S. China Sea) (1991-present)
1979: Sino-Vietnamese conflicts (1979-90)
1979: Sino-Vietnamese Border's War
1988: Johnson South Reef Skirmish in Vietnam's East Sea (So. China Sea)
1974: Battle of the Paracel Islands in Vietnam's East Sea (So. China Sea)
THE HISTORY OF OTHER PAST SINO-VIETNAMESE WARS1789: Tâysơn Dynasty -- Defeat of the Qing in Ngọchồi, Hànội
1427: Battle of Chilăng for independence: Lê Dynasty
1407: 4th Chinese domination of Vietnam (1407-27)
1287: Battle of Bạchđằng River (against the Third Mongol Invasion)
1284: General Trần Hưng Đạo (against the Second Mongol Invasion)
1257: Trần Thái Tông (Trần Dynasty -- against the First Mongol Invasion)
1075: Lý Dynasty -- the War against the Song
981: Battle of Bạchđằng River (2)
938: Battle of Bạchđằng River (1)
602: 3rd Chinese domination of Vietnam (602–938)
544: Lý Nam Đế (Early Lý Dynasty 544-602)
43 2nd Chinese domination of Vietnam (43–544)
40–43 A.D.: Trưng Sisters (againt the Han's domination)
111 B.C.: 1st Chinese domination of Vietnam (111 B.C.–40 A.D.)
208 B.C.: Triệu Dynasty
218 B.C.: Triệu Đà
221 B.C.: Andương Vương
258 B.C.: Vănlang
Approximately between 22nd–21st century B.C.: The Legendary Hồngbàng Dynasty