lằng

See also: Appendix:Variations of "lang"

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

lằn

Etymology

From Proto-Vietic *-laŋ (“bluebottle fly”), from Old Chinese 蠅 (OC *m-rəŋ, “housefly”) (B-S) (SV: dăng). Cognate with Chut [Rục] məlaŋ¹.

This is an example of a Sinitic loanword borrowed at the stage when the shift *m-r- > *m-l- already happened. Compare lẽ (“reason”) < Middle Vietnamese mlẽ, from Chinese 理 (lǐ) (phonetic 里 (OC *m(ə).rəʔ)).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

(classifier con) lằng • (䗀)

common green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata)
Synonyms: nhặng, ruồi lằng