hôn thê

Vietnamese

Etymology

Clipping of vị hôn thê, with vị (“not yet”, unproductive Chinese prefix) being misinterpreted as vị (formal classifier for people).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [hon˧˧ tʰe˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [hoŋ˧˧ tʰej˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [hoŋ˧˧ tʰej˧˧]

Noun

hôn thê

1. Misconstruction of vị hôn thê (“fiancée”)