sông Cái

Vietnamese

Fleuve Rouge/Song-Coï

Etymology

sông (“river”) +‎ cái (“mother”), literally "mother river", or, sông (“river”) +‎ cái (“great, main”), means "Great River"; both interpretations might be correct, because both meanings are from the same etymology. This word was transliterated by the French as Song-Koï and Song-Coï.

This was the original name of the Red River, but later used to refer to many other rivers of Vietnam. May be related to other Vietnamese river names such as Cái Lớn, Cái Bé, Cái Mép, Cái Vùng, Cái Tàu and Cái Cối.

For some semantic parallels, compare Coptic ⲡⲉⲓⲉⲣⲟ (peiero), ⲫ̀ⲓⲁⲣⲟ (ph̀iaro, “the Nile”), Spanish Río Grande, Korean 한강(漢江) (han'gang, “Han river”) (where 漢 is a phonogram used to write the native Korean morpheme for "big", see Middle Korean 하다〮 (hàtá)).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [səwŋ͡m˧˧ kaːj˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʂəwŋ͡m˧˧ kaːj˨˩˦] ~ [səwŋ͡m˧˧ kaːj˨˩˦]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʂəwŋ͡m˧˧ kaːj˦˥] ~ [səwŋ͡m˧˧ kaːj˦˥]

Proper noun

sông Cái

1. (historical) Red River (a river in northern Vietnam and Yunnan, southern China)

   Synonym: Sông Hồng

2. A river in Quảng Nam province, Vietnam; main tributary of the Vu Gia River.
3. Portion of the Vĩnh Điện River inside Da Nang, Vietnam.

   Synonyms: sông Vĩnh Điện, Bến Đò Toản, sông Tứ Câu, sông Cổ Mân, sông Mân Quang, sông Đò Toản

4. A river in Bình Định province, Vietnam

   Synonym: sông Cái Quy Nhơn

5. A river in Phú Yên province, Vietnam

   Synonym: sông Cái Phú Yên

6. A river in Ninh Hoà, Khánh Hoà province, Vietnam

   Synonym: sông Cái Ninh Hòa

7. Cái River (a river in Nha Trang, Khánh Hoà province, Vietnam)

   Synonym: sông Cái Nha Trang

8. A river in Bình Thuận province, Vietnam

   Synonym: sông Cái Phan Thiết