nhặng

Vietnamese

Etymology

Possibly non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 蠅 (“fly”, SV: dăng). If true, then:

• It is a doublet of Vietnamese lằng (“common green bottle fly”).
• Its nặng-tone (instead of expected huyền) has resulted from either an irregular sound change (see vẹn), or borrowing from a regional Chinese dialect (see tạnh), or indirect borrowing (see tiếng).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ɲaŋ˧˨ʔ]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ɲaŋ˨˩ʔ]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ɲaŋ˨˩˨]

Noun

(classifier con) nhặng • (蠅, 𧔛)

1. flies in the Calliphoridae family

Verb

nhặng • (󰃐, 𡃌)

1. to make a fuss

Derived terms

• nhặng xị
• ruồi nhặng