Talk:ổi

Origin of Guava

While Vietnamese "ổi" is likely related to the proposed cognates, it can not come from Proto-Austroasiatic "*pʔus" (guava) since the guava is a "new world crop" and therefore didn’t exist there before 1492.

It makes me curious where this word comes from.

— It could be that ổi (and its cognates (*pʔus)) were originally referring to a different fruit, however, if that’s the case then how, when, and why did all these languages divided by mountains and rivers decide to use that exact word for the foreign fruit guava? That seems unlikely.

— It could also be an original word which was then borrowed into different languages (lets just say Vietnamese created the word ổi after discovering guava and the other borrowed it). However, if thats the case then how come "only" Austroasiatic languages borrowed word?

— The last I can think of is that the word comes from Tai Dam "ꪮ꫁ꪺꪥ" and that it originally referred to a different fruit and through language contact and the introduction of guava the original meaning was lost. The Tai Dam people’s location does match with the Austroasiatic languages that use ổi and its cognates. But then again, shouldn’t there be languages outside of Austroasiatic using this word?

Interestingly, the languages mentioned here on wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Mon-Khmer/pʔus) are all in the general vicinity of Vietnam. So perhaps it was a word invented in Vietnam? Just Spitballing. 范俊華 (talk) 04:02, 24 December 2023 (UTC)