gần

See also: Appendix:Variations of "gan"

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

(North Central Vietnam) gưn, ngưn, ngân
(North Central Vietnam) gin

Etymology

From Proto-Vietic *t-kəɲ. Traditionally regarded as a non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 近 (SV: cận).

There have been some proposals, including Miyake (2015) and Trần Trí Dõi (2016), that this term is not a loanword. The earliest layer of Sinitic loans in Vietic usually show the shift of *-r > *-n characteristic of the later stages of Old Chinese. However, there is no motivation for the shift of this *-n to *-ɲ (Rục kept Vietic *-n as is after all vowels).

In any case, cognate with Muong Bi khênh, Chut [Rục] təkiɲ¹, Arem kɨ̀ɲ.

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ɣən˨˩]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [ɣəŋ˦˩]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [ɣəŋ˨˩]

Adjective

gần • (𧵆)

near; nearby; close (to)
Antonyms: xa, ngái

Adverb

gần • (𧵆)

nearly; almost