Talk:Cô Tô

Etymology

@PhanAnh123, Erminwin When was Cô Tô first attested? It appears that the island was historically referred to as Chàng Sơn, rendered in sinographs as 撞山. Historical records seem to indicate that the island historically a Chinese pirate hideout. In Qing dynasty Chinese sources, the island was known as 九頭山 ("nine-headed mountain") or 狗頭山 ("dog head mountain"), which are homophonous in most Yue. For reference, both would be read gau2 tau4 saan1 in Standard Cantonese.

The Convention relative à la délimitation de la frontière entre la Chine et le Tonkin signed in 1887 by the Qing dynasty and France reads "Les îles Go-tho et les autres les autres iles qui sont à l'ouest de ce méridien appartiennent à l'Annam". The corresponding Chinese translation reads "該線以西，海中九頭山（越名格多）及各小島歸越南".

Three maps from the late 19th century (File:Carte du Tong-King - par F. Romanet du Caillaud ; dessinée par J. Hansen - btv1b531473366.jpg, File:Karte von Tongking.png, File:Les côtes de la Chine.jpg) render the name of the island as Is. Gow Tow. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this apparently non-Vietnamese spelling stands in contrast to other place names of Vietnam rendered in Quốc ngữ (without diacritics).

What is the relationship between Chinese 九頭山/狗頭山 and Vietnamese Cô Tô?

RcAlex36 (talk) 16:30, 14 February 2024 (UTC) RcAlex36 (talk) 00:05, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Also see GAU-TAU OR PIRATE ISLAND in The China Sea Directory: Volume II (1879). RcAlex36 (talk) 17:27, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Like you said, it seems the name Cô Tô desginated for the Vietnamese placename(s) is attested very late (post-1920s); the earlier attestations for "Cô Tô" all seems to mean for the Chinese place name 姑蘇／姑苏 (Gūsū), most prominent in the name of a kind of large bowl called bát Cô Tô. There's also a mountain in Southern Vietnam called Cô Tô, this one is unrelated since it's from Khmer ខ្ទរ (khtɔɔ), the Khmer name of the mountain. For the archipelago itself, I can't find any information on how it obtained its name in Vietnamese sources, but I think your conjecture could likely be correct, and the placename is derived from a nearby Yue lect and not from 姑蘇／姑苏 (Gūsū). PhanAnh123 (talk) 15:53, 16 February 2024 (UTC)