truyện

See also: truyền

Vietnamese

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 傳 (“story”), from Middle Chinese 傳 (MC drjwenH). Cognate with Mandarin 傳 / 传 (zhuàn) and Cantonese 傳 / 传 (zyun6). An alternative reading, Middle Chinese 傳 (trjwenH), yields the unattested *truyến which is listed in Thiều Chửu's dictionary. Doublet of chuyện, truyền, chuyền, and đồn.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕwiən˧˨ʔ]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʈwiəŋ˨˩ʔ]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʈ⁽ʷ⁾iəŋ˨˩˨]

Noun

(classifier cuốn, quyển) truyện

1. Synonym of chuyện (“story; tale”)

   Truyện Kiều ― The Tale of Kiều

   truyện ngắn ― short story

   truyện cười ― funny story

   truyện phim ― film script

   truyện thơ ― narrative poem

2. (chiefly in compounds) biography

   Synonyms: (literary) truyện kí, kí

   tự truyện ― autobiography

3. novel

   truyện tranh; tranh truyện ― an illustrated storybook, a comic book, a graphic novel

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with chuyện.
• In certain compounds, such as câu chuyện and hỏi chuyện, the forms with chuyện are currently the prestige forms, although the forms with truyện (câu truyện, etc.), which are often proscribed against presently, also appeared in the works of many past writers.

Derived terms

• ngoại truyện
• truyện ngắn
• truyện tranh