khách khứa

Vietnamese

Etymology

Unclear relationship with the now possibly obsolete khách thứa, attested in the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum and Nôm poetry (such as of Nguyễn Trãi, where it was spelled 客次 (MC khaek tshijH) (SV: khách thứ)).

khách khứa might simply be a development from khách thứa, motivated by the tendency of bisyllabic compounds (with at least one fossilized element) in Vietnamese to resemble actual reduplicatives.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [xajk̟̚˧˦ xɨə˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kʰat̚˦˧˥ kʰɨə˨˩˦] ~ [xat̚˦˧˥ xɨə˨˩˦]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kʰat̚˦˥ kʰɨə˦˥] ~ [xat̚˦˥ xɨə˦˥]

Noun

khách khứa

1. (colloquial) guests (coming to visit)