lằng

Vietnamese

Etymology

From Proto-Vietic *-laŋ (“bluebottle fly”); non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 蠅 (SV: dăng). Cognate with Chut [Rục] məlaŋ¹.

This is an example of a Sinitic loanword borrowed at the stage when the shift *m-r- > *m-l- already happened. Compare lẽ (“reason”) < Middle Vietnamese mlẽ, from Chinese 理 (lǐ) (phonetic 里 (OC *m(ə).rəʔ)).

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [laŋ˨˩]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [laŋ˦˩]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [laŋ˨˩]

Noun

lằng

Lucilia sericata, common green bottle fly
Synonyms: ruồi lằng, lằng xanh, nhặng xanh

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