trâu

See also: trau and trầu

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• tru

Etymology

From Middle Vietnamese tlâu, from Proto-Vietic *c-luː. Cognate with Nghệ An/Hà Tĩnh dialects tru, Muong tlu.

Shorto (2006) proposes a connection between Vietic *c-luː and Proto-Mon-Khmer *krpiʔ ~ *krpiiw ~ *krpuʔ ~ *(kr)puh . Blench (2012) reconstructs Proto-Austroasiatic *k.r.pu.y, whose Proto-Vietic descendant lost *-/b ~ p/- medial and changed *-/r/- to -/l/-; resulting in *k.l.Vw structure. Cognates outside Vietic include Proto-Bahnaric *kpɨw, Khmer ក្របី (krɑbəy), Chong kpaːw (SEALang) & possibly Mon ပြေၚ် (preaŋ) (Blench)

According to Ferlus (2013) Khmer ឆ្លូវ (chləw, “Year of the Ox”) was borrowed from an extinct conservative Northern Vietic language.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕəw˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʈəw˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʈəw˧˧]
• Homophone: châu

Noun

(classifier con) trâu • (㺏, 𤛠, 𤠋, 𬌥)

1. a water buffalo, as opposed to a bò (“Yellow Southern bovine”)

   trâu trắng

   an albino water buffalo

Derived terms

• con trâu là đầu cơ nghiệp
• đàn gảy tai trâu
• đầu trâu mặt ngựa
• hoa nhài cắm bãi cứt trâu
• làm trâu làm ngựa
• trâu bò
• trâu buộc ghét trâu ăn
• trâu già gặm cỏ non
• trẻ trâu

 

See also

• trẻ trâu
• nghé