User:PhanAnh123/A voyage to Cochinchina
"The Cochinchinese having effectually preserved the written characters of the Chinese language, we found no difficulty in communicating with them on all subjects, through this medium, by our Chinese priests. The spoken language, however, has undergone a very considerable change, which is the less surprizing, as the inhabitants of the northern and southern provinces of China are unintelligible to each other, but though it has been altered, it does not appear to have received any improvement, neither from additions of their own, nor from the introduction of foreign words. By a comparison of the short catalogue of Chinese words, which I have given in another work, with their synonyms in the Cochinchinese language, an idea may be collected how far the two spoken languages resemble or differ from each other."
Based on a dialect of Turon, i.e. Đà Nẵng, with the help of Chinese interpreters, which probably has something to do with why some words are listed with Sino-Vietnamese although there are native equivalents used in everyday language, as well as some words that look like straight-up Mandarin, not Sino-Vietnamese. Or maybe this is some kind of trade pidgin based on Vietnamese that arose from contact with Chinese merchants, that was mistaken to be Vietnamese proper, similar to how Yokohama Pidgin Japanese was referred to as simply “Yokohama Japanese”.
| Gloss | Orignal spelling | Modern form | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Earth | dia | địa | Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is đất. |
| The Air | bloei | trời | Preservation of /ɓl/. |
| Fire | whoa | hoả | /hw/ > /w/. Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is lửa. |
| The Sea | bæ | bể | |
| A River | jeang | giang | Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is sông. |
| A Mountain | noui | núi | |
| The Sun | mat blœi | mặt trời | "eye of heaven". Preservation of /ɓl/. |
| The Moon | blang | trăng | Preservation of /ɓl/. |
| The Stars | sao | sao | |
| The Clouds | moo | mù | The Chinese "yun" listed is obviously 雲 / 云 (yún). If this is not a misunderstanding on the Vietnamese interviewee(s)'s part, mù (“fog”) probably displaced mây in this dialect. |
| Thunder | no-sang | nổ sấm? | |
| Lightning | choap | chớp | |
| The Wind | jeo | gió | |
| The Day | ngai | ngày | |
| The Night | teng | đêm | /m/ > /ŋ/ |
| The Sky or Heaven | tien | thiên | Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is trời. |
| The East | doo | đông | Labial-velar allophone presented. |
| West | tai | tây | |
| North | pak | bắc | |
| South | nang | nam | /m/ > /ŋ/. |
| Man | dan-ou | đàn ông | Labial-velar allophone presented. |
| Woman | dan-ba | đàn bà | |
| A Quadruped | kang | con | /n/ > /ŋ/. Maybe trace of the iconic South Central vowel shift still widespread in Quảng Nam-Quảng Ngãi that was significantly gotten rid of in modern Đà Nẵng? |
| A Bird | ching | chim | /m/ > /ŋ/. |
| A Fish | ka | cá | |
| A Tree | kai | cây | |
| A fruit | blai | trái | Preservation of /ɓl/. |
| A Flower | wha | hoa | /hw/ > /w/. |
| A Stone | ta | đá | |
| Gold | whang | vàng | /w/, not /v/? Or maybe this was supposed to be hoàng. |
| Silver | bak | bạc | |
| Copper | tow | đồng | Labial-velar allophone presented. |
| Lead | chee | chì | |
| Iron | tié | ? | Did the Vietnamese interviewee(s) answer in Mandarin? |
| The Head | too | đầu | |
| The Hand | tai | tay | |
| The Heart | blai | trái | Either the interviewee was misunderstood and only the first half of the phrase equivalent to modern trái tim was recorded, or maybe it was just trái in this dialect/pidgin. |
| The Foot | tchen | chân | |
| The Face | mien | ? | Did the Vietnamese interviewee(s) answer in Mandarin? |
| The Eyes | mat | mắt | |
| The Ears | tai | tai | |
| An Ox | bo | bò | |
| A Horse | ma | mã | Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is ngựa. |
| An Ass | looa | lừa | |
| A Dog | koo | cẩu | Sino-Vietnamese, considering the ⟨oo⟩, is there a chance it's the monophthongal /u/ here? Native equivalent is chó. |
| A Sheep | chien | chiên | |
| A Cat | miao | miêu or mèo | |
| A Stag | hoo | hươu | Characteristic Southern-type monophthongization /ɨəw/ > /u/ |
| A Pigeon | bo-kau | bồ câu | |
| An Egg | te-lung | trứng | Preservation of /tl/, most likely so written because /tl/ is not a native cluster in English. |
| A Goose | ngoo | ngỗng | Labial-velar allophone presented. |
| Oil | taw | dầu | A bit of evidence for earlier *-t-. |
| Rice | gao | gạo | |
| Vinegar | jing | giấm | /m/ > /ŋ/. |
| Salt | muoi | muối | |
| Silk | looa | lụa | |
| Sugar | dang | đường | Conservative monophthong. |
| A House | da | ? | |
| Temple | shooa | ? | |
| A Bed | tchuang | giường | Either Mandarin 床 (chuáng) or unlenited chờng, more likely the former. |
| A Door | pan | ván? | If indeed the same root as ván, then either unlenited or lenition was unmarked on orthography. |
| A Knife | tiau | dao | See "oil". It's compelling to consider ⟨ti-⟩ to be [ðj], but Barrow was an English speaker (⟨ee⟩ for /i/, ⟨oo⟩ for /u/), so shouldn't it be something like ⟨thi-⟩? |
| A Plough | kai | cày | |
| An Anchor | dan | ? | |
| A Ship | tau | tàu | |
| Money | tien | tiền | |
| One | mot | một | |
| Two | hai | hai | |
| Three | teng | tam | /m/ > /ŋ/. Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is ba. |
| Four | bon | bốn | |
| Five | lang | lăm? | /m/ > /ŋ/. |
| Six | lak | lục | Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is sáu. |
| Seven | bai | bảy | |
| Eight | tang | tám | /m/ > /ŋ/. |
| Nine | chin | chín | |
| Ten | taap | thập | Sino-Vietnamese. Native equivalent is mười. For some weird reason, it's thập here but mười in "eleven" and so on. |
| Eleven | moei mot | mười một | |
| Twelve | moei hai | mười hai | |
| Twenty | hai moei | hai mươi | |
| Thirty | teng-moei | tam mươi | /m/ > /ŋ/. |
| Thirty-one | teng-moei-mot | tam mươi mốt | |
| Thirty-two | teng-moei-hai | tam mươi hai | |
| One hundred | klang | trăm | /m/ > /ŋ/. Preservation of /kl/ (was this sporadic? See "egg", which had /tl/); the word is tlam in Northern Middle Vietnamese attested about 150 years earlier. |
| One thousand | ngkin | nghìn | Northern nghìn and not Southern ngàn. |
| Ten thousand | muon | muôn | |
| One hundred thousand | shee-van | []-vạn | "shee" was Mandarin 十 (shí). |
| I | tooi | tui | |
| Thou | bai | bay | |
| He | no | nó | |
| We | chung tooi | chúng tui | |
| Ye | chung bai | chúng bay | |
| They | chung no | chúng nó |
Some other words.
| Gloss | Orignal spelling | Modern form | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Champa | Chang | Chăm | /m/ > /ŋ/. |
| Banyan | Dea | đa (or maybe, da) | |
| Buddha | Fo | ? | Did the Vietnamese interviewee(s) answer in Mandarin? |
- Preservation of the clusters, /ɓl/, /tl/, /kl/
- Possibly merger of all final nasals into /ŋ/
- Lenition was operative in "rice" (or maybe not, there's no other ⟨g/gh⟩ initial word for comparison anyway), but unclear (not operative or lenition not marked) in "knife", "door", "oil".
- Quite a lot of Mandarin, which suggests that it might actually be a trade pidgin.
- A lot of Sino-Vietnamese as well.