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. The Cái River (a river in Quảng Nam, Vietnam)

   Synonym: sông Cái Quảng Nam

3. The Cái River (a river in Bình Định, Vietnam)

   Synonym: sông Cái Quy Nhơn

4. The Cái River (a river in Phú Yên, Vietnam)

   Synonym: sông Cái Phú Yên

5. The Cái River (a river in Ninh Hoà, Khánh Hoà, Vietnam)

   Synonym: sông Cái Ninh Hòa

6. The Cái River (a river in Nha Trang, Khánh Hoà, Vietnam)

   Synonym: sông Cái Nha Trang

7. The Cái River (a river in Bình Thuận, Vietnam)

   Synonym: sông Cái Phan Thiết