Chinese Loanwords in Vietnamese and Their Impact on Chinese Historical Phonology

What is it about?

How can researchers determine whether words are borrowed between languages thousands of years ago? While the Vietnamese language does present some clear evidence of Chinese loanwords back two thousand years or more, it is challenging to assess those words. They all have only one syllable and somewhat simple syllable structure, and so chance similarities between words happen more often. My article "Does Vietnamese have evidence for oc *-r?" answers the question of the title by showing problems with previous claims about Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese around 2,000 years ago during the Han Dynasty. It also shows evidence as to why these words were considered potential Chinese loanwords in the first place. Both the Sinitic language group and the Vietic language group (belonging to Austroasiatic) had a tendency of changes from an *-r sound at the ends of words to a final -j sound, regardless of the origins of the words. However, ultimately, this is a fairly natural sound change not just in these languages, and the scattered nature of the borrowed vocabulary altogether made for weak support in these instances. This is not to refute the idea that Vietnamese does have Chinese loanwords from that ancient period (as I have published elsewhere), but rather that one must be careful about the data and methods when making such claims.

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Why is it important?

It is a case study in counter-evidence to earlier claims about loanwords. This refutation helps to increase the certainty of early Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese in other instances by refining the analytical tools. The article is also a summary of historical linguistic changes in Vietnamese from its Austroasiatic roots.