Middle Chinese affixes in Vietnamese

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information on affixes and word etymologies is mostly derived from Wiktionary, supplemented by examples gathered informally via internet searches and verified via personal communications between T. Lê Thị, B. H. Nguyễn, V. A. Nguyễn and T. T. Chan in 2024. Being an isolating language, it is unclear what an affix is in Vietnamese. In the current entry, affixes are understood to be morphemes that either cannot be used on their own (i.e. bound morphemes) or if they can be, their meaning changes when used on their own. A secondary consideration is that prefixes with a predicative meaning (e.g. cựu ‘former, old’, cùng/đồng ‘co-, same’) are not seen as adjectives since they precede the noun they modify. This is unlike regular adjectives in Vietnamese, which follow their head noun. Finally, many of the forms discussed here are recognized as affixes in modern Chinese (Arcodia 2012:97–98).

The forms covered in the current entry were most probably borrowed when Vietnamese was undergoing intensive contact with ‘Annamese Middle Chinese’, a regional variety of Middle Chinese hypothesized by Phan (2013:296–302) to have existed in northern Vietnam under the Tang dynasty prior to the 10th century CE. We therefore consider this the primary borrowing event. The morphemes most likely only came to be used as affixes much later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, under the influence of Chinese character-based compounds. These were first coined in Japanese and then borrowed into Vietnamese and other East Asian languages, including Sinitic languages in a process called ‘Sinographic borrowings’ (Lê 2002:30, cited in Phan 2013:343–352).

1 ordinal numeral (dates of month) prefix

  • mồng, ‘forms dates from the ten native cardinal numerals (một, hai, ba, bốn, năm, sáu, bảy, tám, chín, mười) in Northern Vietnamese, referring to the first ten days of a month’, e.g. mồng một ‘the first day of the month’, mồng hai ‘the second day of the month’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/m%E1%BB%93ng#Vietnamese ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).

6 adjectivizing prefixes for nominal modification

  • hậu, ‘post-’, e.g. hậu đổi mới (Đổi Mới ‘period of market reforms in Vietnam, 1975–1985’) ‘post-Doi Moi’, hậu nhà Nguyễn (nhà Nguyễn ‘the Nguyen dynasty’) ‘post-Nguyen dynasty’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/h%E1%BA%ADu ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • kháng, ‘anti-’, e.g. kháng nghiện (nghiện ‘addiction’) ‘addiction relief (medication), lit. anti-addiction’, kháng rượu (rượu ‘alcohol’) ‘(medication) providing relief from an alcohol addiction, lit. anti-alcohol’, (năng lực) kháng buồn nôn (buồn nôn ‘nauseous’) ‘anti-nausea (i.e. has the effect of combatting nausea)’. This morpheme behaves like a derivational prefix but can be used as a verb in very similar constructions, e.g. tôi kháng nghiện (‘I resist an addiction’) (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kh%C3%A1ng#Vietnamese ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • ngoài, ‘extra-’ adjective formed from noun with the meaning external to that noun, extra-’, e.g. ngoài trái đất (trái đất ‘planet Earth’) ‘extraterrestrial’, ngoài nước (nước ‘water, country’) ‘overseas’, ngoài hệ mặt trời (hệ mặt trời ‘solar system’, hệ ‘system’ is a Chinese borrowing, while mặt trời ‘solar’ is native) ‘external to the solar system’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ngo%C3%A0i ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • phản, ‘anti-’, e.g. phản xét lại (xét lại ‘to review, reconsider’) ‘anti-revisionist’, phản bóng đá (bóng đá ‘football’) ‘anti-football’, phản máy móc (máy móc ‘machinery’) ‘anti-mechanical’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ph%E1%BA%A3n ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • phòng, ‘anti-, protecting against, forms adjectives from nouns’, e.g. phòng trộm (trộm ‘theft’) ‘anti-theft’, phòng thuốc trừ sâu (thuốc trừ sâu ‘pesticide’) ‘protecting against pesticides’. This morpheme could potentially also be used as a free-standing verb (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ph%C3%B2ng ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • tiền, ‘pre-’, e.g. tiền đổi mới (Đổi Mới ‘period of market reforms in Vietnam, 1975–1985’) ‘pre-Doi Moi’, tiền nhà Nguyễn (nhà Nguyễn ‘the Nguyen dynasty’) ‘pre-Nguyen dynasty’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ti%E1%BB%81n ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).

6 nominal derivation prefixes

  • chủ nghĩa, ‘-ism, forms abstract nouns referring to an ideology from verbs or nouns’, e.g. chủ nghĩa xét lại (xét lại ‘to review, reconsider’, where xét is derived from Chinese but lại is native) ‘revisionism’, chủ nghĩa yêu nước (yêu nước ‘patriot, patriotic, patriotism’) ‘patriotism’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ch%E1%BB%A7_ngh%C4%A9a ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • cùng, ‘metonymic noun from noun, denoting referent sharing the noun, co-’, e.g. (bạn) cùng lớp (lớp ‘school year’) ‘classmate, lit. friend from the same class’, cùng căn hộ (căn hộ ‘flat’) ‘flatmate, lit. co-flat’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/c%C3%B9ng ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • cựu, ‘former, forms modified nouns from nouns’, e.g. cựu nhà báo (nhà báo ‘journalist’, báo is a loan from Chinese but nhà is native) ‘former journalist’, cựu nhà ngoại giao (nhà ngoại giao ‘diplomat’, ngoại giao is a Chinese loan) ‘former diplomat’, cựu nhà tù (nhà tù ‘jail’, tù is a Chinese loan) ‘former prison’, cựu người yêu (người yêu ‘romantic partner’) ‘former romantic partner’, cựu chồng (chồng ‘husband’) ‘ex-husband’, cựu sân bay (sân bay ‘airport’) ‘former airport’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/c%E1%BB%B1u#Vietnamese ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • đồng, ‘metonymic noun from noun, denoting referent sharing the noun, co-’, e.g. đồng lòng (lòng ‘heart’) ‘unanimous, lit. of the same heart’, đồng bọn (bọn ‘gang’) ‘accomplice, teammate, lit. co-gang’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C4%91%E1%BB%93ng#Vietnamese ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • siêu, ‘super-, forms modified nouns from nouns’, e.g. siêu sao (sao ‘star’) ‘superstar’, siêu máy tính (máy tính ‘computer’) ‘supercomputer’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/si%C3%AAu#Vietnamese ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).
  • trường ‘field or range’, e.g. trường bắn (bắn ‘to shoot’) ‘shooting range’, trường lái (lái ‘to drive’) ‘a range for motorcycle-riding or driving practice’, trường nhìn (nhìn ‘to look at’) ‘a field of view’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tr%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Dng ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).

1 agent nominalizer prefix/suffix

  • trưởng, ‘prefix or suffix indicating a leader, elder of the modified noun’, e.g. lớp trưởng (lớp ‘school year’) ‘chief student supervisor of the class’, trưởng nhóm (nhóm ‘group’) ‘a band leader, a frontman’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tr%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Fng#Vietnamese ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).

1 verbalizing suffix

  • hoá, ‘-ize, -ization’ derives verb or verbs that can also be used as nouns from noun indicating transition to a state defined by the modified noun’, e.g. máy tính hoá (máy tính ‘computer’) ‘computerization’, máy móc hoá (máy móc ‘machinery’) ‘mechanization, motorization’, mũi hoá (mũi ‘nose’) ‘to nasalize’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ho%C3%A1 ［accessed: 18.06.2024］).