Talk:вьетнамки

What is with this and japonka? Wyang (talk) 12:17, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

I have no idea about the etymology, perhaps @Vahagn Petrosyan knows. It sounds racist but it's not. Apparently, it's not comparing flip flops with Vietnamese or Japanese women but with what they wore. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 12:30, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

I don't have etymological sources for modern borrowings, so I can't say for sure. I don't think the -ка (-ka) suffix here refers to women. It is rather a diminutive suffix. Compare панамка (panamka) hats, Havaiana flip-flops. All of them probably refer to exotic places where people wear such things. --Vahag (talk) 12:41, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. There seems to be some relationship between japonka and the New Zealand English word jandal, which derived from "Japanese sandals", possibly a trademark in the 1950s. The flip-flops do look like Japanese sandals Geta (footwear) and Zōri. As for the Vietnamese, they have a separate word for "sandals": dép. вьетнамки might have derived from dép lốp, a type of sandals made from rubber tyres (also called Ho Chi Minh sandals), worn by Vietnamese soldiers during the Vietnam war [1][2][3]. Wyang (talk) 22:46, 13 February 2014 (UTC)