warm, drenched, dull, miserable

In the previous issue of the “Cà ke truyện chữ nghĩa” column, we pointed out four compound words that were mistakenly recognized as reduplicative by the Vietnamese Reduplicated Words Dictionary: nao nao, con ngang, co cuc, cuc grumpy. In this article, we continue to analyze the independent meanings of the four words: dam am, dam dia, dan du, day doa (the part in quotation marks after the item number is the original text of the Vietnamese Reduplicated Words Dictionary - Institute of Linguistics - editor-in-chief Hoang Van Hanh; the line breaks are our discussion):

1 - “WARMTH tt. Has the effect of creating a feeling of warmth due to harmony, love and mutual support. The atmosphere of the meeting is happy and warm. The family scene is warm”.

Warm is a compound word [contemporary meaning], in which: warm (or deep) means having a feeling of gentleness, richness, and calmness (like Wine kept for a long time is very gentle/deep; She is very calm); warm means: having a feeling of gentleness and comfort (like I feel my heart warm again):

- In all the dictionaries we have in hand, only the Vietnamese dictionary (Le Van Duc) records dam with the meaning of "Quiet, not stirring - moving, not urging - the enemy" and its figurative meaning is "gentle, harmonious - harmonious". Dam here corresponds to the meaning of gentle in the context of Wine kept for a long time so it is very gentle to drink..., which we cited above. On the other hand, dam or dam with this meaning is also dam/dam in the word dam tham/dam tham. The Vietnamese dictionary (the book cited), the entry "dam tham" explains it as "Gentle, quiet, not flirtatious - joking" and gives the example "Girls must be dam - tham".

- The Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe, editor-in-chief) explains the word "warm" as "having the effect of causing a feeling of comfort and ease. Her heart is now warm again, The dead love has been revived by someone. (Nguyen Binh) ~ The lyrics are not strange, but her voice is very warm, as if lulling people into a dreamland. (Vo Huy Tam)".

Thus, "dầm am" is a compound word, not a reduplicated word.

2 - “THE TEAR AND SWEAT (tears and sweat) were so much that they flowed continuously. Tears were so profuse. Sweat poured out profusely like a bath. “If I carelessly leaned to the other side, Whose eyes would the drops of sorrow flow into?” (Nguyen Duy)”.

Dam dia is a Sino-Vietnamese compound word [contemporary]: dam comes from the word dam 潭 meaning deep pond; dia comes from the word tri 池 meaning pond.

In Chinese, there is no word for pond 潭池 (swamp), but there is Trì Đàm 池潭 (swamp), which the Great Chinese Dictionary explains as deep pond (指深水池 - meaning deep water pond).

In Vietnamese, "dam" and "dia" originally refer to a low, deep place in the middle of a field, where during a drought, water and fish gather in abundance (like "Now we drain the dam, tomorrow we drain the pond, the day after the death anniversary; The face is gloomy, the pond does not dry up" - Proverb). Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi (Huỳnh Tịnh Paulus Của) explains "dam dia" as "ponds, where fish live". Later, "dam" and "dia" were understood in a broader, figurative sense as being soaked, abundant, too much (like "Uot dam wet dia"; "Nô dam debt dia"; "Back drenched in sweat").

Thus, in the compound word "dam dia", both "dam" and "dia" are independent words in function, having an independent relationship, not a reduplicated relationship.

Reference: swamp comes from the word dam 潭 which means deep pond. We can also see the phonetic relationship AM ↔ SAM in other cases such as ham 含↔ am; dia comes from the word tri 池 which means pond. The phonetic relationship TR ↔ Đ, like tri 置↔de; I ↔ IA like thi 匙↔thia.

3 - “STUPID tt. Appearing slow and incompetent in understanding and behavior. “The girls in the village also said he was stupid, no girl would dream of him” (Vu Thi Thuong)”.

"Dần dù" is a compound word [with the same meaning], in which: "đần" means foolish, not wise (like that guy is very stupid; dull; standing there dumbly); "đụ" means having a foolish appearance, slow, not quick-witted (like a stupid person; His face looks very stupid).

All the dictionaries we have in hand only record and explain “du” or “dú” as a swear word. However, the Nghe Dictionary collects and explains “du” as “Khu kho - du do (repetition)”.

Thanh Hoa people also use "du" to mean slow and not agile, for example: If you stay at home too long, you will become dull.

It should also be added here that the Nghe Dictionary collects “dù” as a word, but considers “dù đù” to be a reduplicated word. In fact, “dù đù” is also a compound word: “đù” = slow; “đờ” = dumb, absent-minded (like sluggish; dull; sitting dumb). Le Van Duc Dictionary shows us the independent meaning of “đờ”: “đờ • bt. C/g. Dumb, dumb, not, moving, not knowing how to eat or speak: Being exposed, being dumb and accepting”.

So, at least in terms of dialect, "dần dù" is not a reduplicated word.

4 - “TORMENT. Like torture. “People like him, endure so many poisons, torture and hardship but never get sick” (Nam Cao)”.

Dau/dua dang, is just one word with two ways of writing. Dau/doa dang is a compound word [contemporary meaning], in which: dau means to suffer humiliation (like I am lucky to be alive/My mother died early, God exiled me to write poetry - Nguyen Binh).

Falling also means having to endure humiliation; exile, suffering (like Living in misery, dying in misery; Having been born into a life of play / Then heaven sends one to a place where one must work - Kieu):

- Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe editor) “đòa • đg. [id] [heaven] makes one suffer a miserable life, according to the old concept: “Or what was one's previous life like?/Heaven punishes one by causing one to be a monster.” (CC)”.

So all four words: warm, drenched, stupid, and tormented, that we analyzed above are all equal compound words, not reduplicative words.

Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ve-mot-so-tu-lay-dam-am-dam-dia-dan-du-day-doa-236095.htm