cá thu

Vietnamese

Etymology

The second element is from a Tai language. Compare Thai ทู (tuu).

Curiously, the Pacific saury, also known as the mackerel pike, is called cá thu đao in Vietnamese, corresponding to 秋刀魚／秋刀鱼 (qiūdāoyú) (SV: thu đao ngư) in Chinese.

The thu elements in cá thu ("mackerel") and cá thu đao ("mackerel pike") are therefore seemingly unrelated, with the former being a Tai loan, while the latter is the Sino-Vietnamese reading of 秋 (qiū).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kaː˧˦ tʰu˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kaː˨˩˦ tʰʊw˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kaː˦˥ tʰʊw˧˧]

Noun

(classifier con) cá thu • (个/𩵜 + 鰍/𩷊/𩹤)

1. (zoology) mackerel