Sinitic-Vietnamese : Chinese and the Vietnamese Basic Vocabulary Stock

Evidence of a Shared Yue Continuum

by dchph

The relationship between Chinese and Vietnamese has long been framed in terms of borrowing: Vietnamese is often described as having absorbed thousands of words from Chinese through centuries of contact. Yet this perspective obscures a deeper reality. At the level of basic vocabulary – kinship terms, body parts, natural elements, and everyday verbs – the overlap between the two languages points not simply to borrowing but to shared ancestry and substratal layering. This article, drawn from Section III of Chapter 7, isolates the evidence for a common stock of basic vocabulary and argues for its significance in reframing the origins of Vietnamese within a Sinitic–Yue continuum.

The Vietnamese lexicon is saturated with Chinese forms, from high literary registers to everyday speech. Many basic words–terms for kinship, body parts, natural elements, and daily activities–show clear Sinitic correspondences. These entered through multiple channels: formal Sino‑Vietnamese readings, colloquial borrowings from Yue and Minnan dialects, and shared Yue inheritance. Doublets such as sôngnúi # nonsông 江山 (jiāngshān, 'country') or âmthanh # thanhâm 聲音 (shēngyīn, 'sound') illustrate how both orders and multiple sources were absorbed. Without these Sinitic layers, modern Vietnamese would be stripped of much of its expressive power.

It comes as no surprise that a substantial portion of Vietnamese basic vocabulary, at the very least, appears to share common linguistic roots with Chinese, as previously enumerated. This convergence stems from prolonged and intimate contact between the two cultures, dating back at least 1,500 years prior to the documented onset of Chinese linguistic influence during the Warring States period (403–221 B.C.), as recorded in Chinese historical annals.

I) Shared core vocabulary

Basic vocabulary is the most resistant to change. Words for ‘mother’, ‘water’, ‘fire’, or ‘hand’ are rarely replaced wholesale by borrowings; they persist across generations and dialects. In both Chinese and Vietnamese, we find striking correspondences in these domains. For example, Vietnamese mẹ ‘mother’ aligns with Old Chinese mjieʔ, while nước ‘water’ resonates with Chinese shuǐ but also with substratal Yue forms. Kinship terms such as anh ‘elder brother’ and em ‘younger sibling’ parallel Chinese xiong and di, yet their phonological shape suggests a deeper layering rather than direct loan. These examples illustrate that the overlap is not confined to elite vocabulary but embedded in the everyday lexicon.

In fact, a significant number of culturally embedded Vietnamese words are demonstrably cognate with ancient Chinese etyma, including but not limited to what is listed in Table 1 below.

Table 1 - Vietnamese words cognate with Ancient Chinese etyma

Vietnamese	Chinese	Gloss/	Notes
nạ	娘 niáng	‘mother’ (old Vietnamese); Doublet: 奶 năi (SV nãi).
nhà	家 jiā	‘home’; SV gia; < MC kaɨ < OC *kra:	¶ /ji- ~ nh-/.
chén	盞 zhàn	‘bowl’; SV tràn; < MC can < OC *tsjre:nʔ.
mâm	盤 pán	‘tray’; SV bàn; < MC bwan < OC ba:n; cf. bàn* 案 àn (SV án) ‘table’.
bát, tô, tộ	砵 bō	‘large bowl’; SV bát; < MC bo < OC po:d, pa:t; Cant. /but3/, Hẹ /bat7/; Sanskrit loan (< Skr. pa:tra*).
đũa	箸 zhú	‘chopsticks’; SV trợ, chừ, trừ; < MC ɖɨə̆ < OC tas, das*; cf. Hainanese /duə2/.
thìa, chìa	匙 chí	‘spoon’; SV thi, chuỷ; < MC tʂe < OC dje.
cằm	含 hán	‘chin’; VS cắn, ngậm, mĩm, hàm; < MC ɦəm < OC ɡɯːm; cf. Tibetan PC kɒ:m.
sọ	首 shǒu	‘cranium, head’; SV thủ; < MC ɕiu < OC hljuʔ; cf. VS sọ ‘skull’.
mắt	目 mù	‘eye’; SV mục; < MC muwk < OC mug; cf. Hainanese /mat7/.
bếp	庖 páo	‘kitchen’; SV bào; < MC baɨw < OC bruː.
tấmcám	糝糠 sănkāng	‘broken rice chaff’; SV tầmkhang; < MC tsham, səm < OC sluːmʔ; cf. Tibetan, Lushei parallels.
canh	羹 gēng	‘broth, soup’; < MC kaɨjŋ < OC kraŋ; cf. modern M 湯 tāng ‘thang’ (loan in VS).
bàn	案 àn	‘table’; SV án; < MC ʔan < OC qaːns; cf. 按 àn ‘press’; 香案 xiāng’àn ‘altar’.
ghế	椅 yǐ	‘chair’; SV ỷ; < MC ʔe, ʔɯiɛ < OC ʔaj, qralʔ*; doublet 几 jǐ (SV kỷ).
tủ	櫝 dú	‘cupboard’; SV độc; < MC duk < OC l’o:g.
guốc	屐 jī	‘wooden sandals’; SV kịch; < MC ɡɯiak < OC ɡreɡ; Cant. kek6, Hakka kiak8.

III) Comparative evidence

Linguistic scholarship has documented these overlaps with increasing precision. Brindley’s work on Yue identity situates Vietnamese within a broader Baiyue context. Henry’s Submerged History of Yue highlights substratal survivals in both Chinese and Vietnamese. Yue Anne O.’s chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics provides a systematic account of Yue phonology and its echoes in Vietnamese. Vietnamese scholars such as Nguyễn Tài Cẩn and Nguyễn Ngọc San have emphasized the indigenous roots of Vietnamese vocabulary, while Leith’s thesis on Tai‑Kadai substratum demonstrates the persistence of non‑Sinitic elements. Archaeological and genetic studies further corroborate this picture, showing admixture between Han and Yue populations that aligns with the linguistic evidence. including other early Old Chinese and Mandarin compounds, including examples as listed in the table below.

Table 2 - Selected Sino‑Vietnamese and Vietnamese lexical items

Vietnamese	Chinese	Gloss	Notes
TânMão	辛卯 XīnMăo	‘Year of the Cat’ [NOT Chinese ‘Year of the Hare’; also NămMão ~ NămMèo 卯年 Măonián (SV Mãoniên) ‘Year of the Cat’]
TânHợi	辛亥 XīnHài	‘Year of the Boar’ [Also NămHợi 亥年 Hàinián (SV Hợiniên) ‘Year of the Pig’]
thángchạp	臘月 làyuè	‘12th lunar month’
ăntấtniên	過小年 guòxiăonián	‘Feast before Lunar New Year Eve’
bâygiờ	者番 zhěfān	‘right now’
vuquy	于歸 yúguī	‘bridal wedding ceremony’
sínhlễ	聘禮 pìnlǐ	‘betrothal dowry’
thànhphố	城舖 chéngpǔ	‘city’
chợbúa	市舖 shìpǔ (~ phốchợ)	‘market’
khaigiảng	開講 kāijiăng	‘start of school year’ [modern M ‘beginning a lecture’]
thơmộng	詩夢 shīmèng	‘romantic’
đườngcái	街道 jièdào	‘road’
đòngang	渡江 dùjiāng	‘riverboat’
xinlỗi	見諒 jiànliàng	‘apology’; possible cognate of 道歉 dàoqiàn [ancient Chinese had >15 apology forms: e.g. 謝罪 xièzuì (SV tạtiội), 請罪 qǐngzuì (VS xinlỗi)]
cảlũ	大伙 dàhuǒ	‘the whole group’; M 大 (đại, thái) < MC daj < OC da:d; M 伙 huǒ < MC ɦwa < OC qʰʷaːlʔ	cf. 火 huǒ (VS lửa)
đồngloã	同夥 tónghuǒ	‘accomplice’; M 夥 huǒ < MC ɦwaɨj < OC *qʰloːlʔ	cf. 火 huǒ (VS lửa)
ungthư	癰疽 yōngjū	‘cancer’; cf. VS ungthối, ươngthối (‘spoiled’); M 癰 yōng < MC ʔoʊŋ < OC ʔoŋ
chồmhỗm	犬坐 quánzuò	‘squat’; M 犬 quăn < MC kʰʷen < OC kʰʷeːnʔ; 坐 zuò < MC ʑwʌ < OC dzuaj*

Note that all listings above and the likes are so numerous and seemingly inexhaustible. While some of those words are still common in contemporary usage in Vietnamese, in modern Mandarin the same forms may have already become obsolete, old-fashionable, or rare, even they still convey same denotation and meaning, though, for instance, 活 huó (SV hoạt) vs. 務 wù (SV vụ) for 'việc' (task), 睡 shuì (SV thuỵ) vs. 臥 wò (SV ngoạ) for 'ngủ' (sleep), etc., that is, some descend from Middle Chinese while other from vernacular Mandarin, so to speak.

The list will become much densely populated if we include more of old-timed literary words that both Chinese and Vietnamese are still using now. Specifically in this cultural context, it appears that Vietnamese adopted most of Chinese words of the same kind for its own use rather than they were evolved from common roots genetically, or, in other words, they are Chinese loanwords, for example:

"thánggiêng" #正月 zhèngyuè (January) [ ~ #元月 yuányuè ],
"TếtÐoanngọ" 端午節 duānwǔjié (Late Spring Festival),
"thángchạp" #臘月 làyuè (the 12th month [in the Lunar calendar ]),
"cúngTáoquân" 祭灶君 jìZàojūn (sacrificial offerings to send Kitchen God to pay homage the Emperor of Heaven),
"ăntấtniên" 過小年 (feast on the week of "cúngTáoquân" starting from the 23rd day of the 12th month of the Lunar Calendar),
"Tết" 節 jié (Spring Festival),
"xinchào" 見過 jiànguò (hello),
"giãbiệt" 辭別 cíbié (good-bye),
"kháchsáo" 客套 kètào (polite),
"caosang" 高尚 gāoshàng (high class) [ SV 'caothượng' (noble)],
"bợmtrợn" 霸道 bàdào (high-handed),

"dulịch" 遊歷 yóulì (travel),
"kháchsạn" 客棧 kèzàn (hotel),
"duhọc" 遊學 yóuxué (study abroad),
"lydị" 離異 líyí (divorce),

Vietnamese	Mandarin	MC (Baxter)	MC (Pulleyblank)	OC (Baxter-Sagart)	OC (Zhengzhang)	Gloss & Notes
cha, tía	爹 diē	tɛ / tʌ	tɛ	ta:j	tˤra	Father. Tía matches modern M diē closely; cha reflects older MC reading linked to 知 zhī phonetic series.
mẹ, mợ	母 mǔ	mjɨuX	muwX	mjaʔ	mʷəʔ	Mother. Multiple VS variants (mái, cái, mệ, mạ, mợ). Retains OC final glottal stop.
chị	姊 zǐ / jiě	tsjɨX	tsɨX	ɕjəjʔ	ʑeʔ	Older sister. Shares root with 姐 jiě; SV tỷ, tỉ.
em	妹 mèi	mjejH	mjejH	mˤi[t]-s	mˤi[t]-s	Younger sister. VS em may be contraction of 妹妹 mèimèi.
anh	兄 xiōng	xjʉŋ	xjɨwŋ	smraŋ	s.mˤraŋ	Older brother. SV huynh retains aspirated onset lost in VS anh.
em	俺 ǎn	ʔəm	ʔəm	ʔamʔ	ʔamʔ	Younger brother/self-reference. Northeastern Mandarin colloquial form.
lửa	火 huǒ	xwɑX	xwaX	qʷʰajʔ	qʷʰaʔ	Fire. VS onset shift /hw- ~ l-/.
lá	葉 yè	jep	jep	lap	lap	Leaf. Cognate forms in Tibeto-Burman (Tib. ldeb, Burm. ɑhlap).
đất	土 tǔ	thuX	thuX	thaʔ	tʰaʔ	Soil, earth. Retains OC final glottal stop.
cúng	供 gòng	kuŋ	kuŋ	kˤoŋ	koŋ	Offer to spirits. SV cống in formal register.
giỗ	祭 jì	tsjejH	tsjejH	tsˤi[t]-s	tsˤi[t]-s	Ancestor memorial ceremony.
xơi	食 shí	ʑik	ʑik	ljək	lək	Eat. SV thực. VS xơi colloquial; cf. Cant. /sjək8/.
uống	飲 yǐn	ʔimX	ʔimX	ʔjəmʔ	ʔəmʔ	Drink. SV ẩm.
bú	哺 bǔ	buX	buX	paʔ	paʔ	Breastfeed, suck. SV bộ.
thịt	膱 zhí	tɕɨk	tɕɨk	tjək	tək	Meat. SV thức. Shares phonetic stem 戠.
lúa	來 lái	ljəj	laj	rˤə	rə	Unhusked rice. Starostin links to 稻 dào in OC.
chả	炸 zhà	tsræH	tsræH	tsˤrak-s	tsˤrak-s	Fried meatloaf; in VS, boiled ham (chả lụa).
gỏi	膾 kuài	khwajH	khwajH	kʰˤwat-s	kʰˤwat-s	Minced meat salad.
ruột	乙 yǐ	ʔit	ʔit	ʔit	ʔit	Intestine (arch.).
tôm	鰕 xiā	ɣæ	ɣæ	[ɢ]ˤra	[ɢ]ra	Prawn.
tép	蝦 xiā	ha	ha	[g]ˤra	[g]ra	Shrimp.
gà	雞 jī	kej	kej	ke	ke	Chicken. SV kê.
mèo	貓 māo	maw	maw	mrhaw	mrew	Cat. SV miêu. VS mèo colloquial.
chuột	鼠 shǔ	ʂjoX	ʂjoX	hljaʔ	hlaʔ	Mouse, rat. SV thử.
trâu	牛 niú	ŋjuw	ŋjuw	ŋʷə	ŋʷə	Water buffalo. SV ngưu.
diều	鷂 yào	jewH	jewH	ɢʷˤew-s	ɢʷew-s	Kite. SV ngao.
chó	狗 gǒu	kuwX	kuwX	koʔ	koʔ	Dog. SV cẩu.
cọp	虎 hǔ	xuX	xuX	qʰˤaʔ	qʰaʔ	Tiger. SV hổ.
gấu	熊 xióng	ɣjuŋ	ɣjuŋ	ɢʷʰəm	ɢʷəm	Bear. SV hùng.
voi	為 wēi	we	we	waj	waj	Elephant (in VS usage). OC gloss in Shuowen: ‘female monkey’; semantic shift in VS.

"ruốc" 肉 ròu (meat) [ VS 'nhục' = VS "thịt" 膱 zhí (SV thức) | M 肉 ròu < MC ȵuwk < OC *njuɡ ] as opposed to "ruốc" 蟹 xiè (small long-legged crab) that has it own variants:

"ghẹ" 蟹 xiè (small long-legged crab), and variants
"riêu (rêu)" 蟹 xiè (baby crab),
"cua" 蟹 xiè (crab),
"cáy" 蟹 xiè (crab),

"bún" 粉 fěn (vermicelli) [ M 粉 fěn, fèn < MC pun < OC *pɯnʔ | cf. 粉條 fěntiáo: (1) búntàu (mung bean vermicelli), (2) phởtiếu (rice noodles), (3) hủtiếu (rice noodles) ], and its variants:

"bột" 粉 fěn (flour),
"phở" 粉 fěn (noodle),
"phấn" 粉 fěn (chalk),
"bụi'' 粉 fěn (dust),

as more of them will be enumerated later in this survey.

IV) Mechanisms of overlap

Several mechanisms explain this convergence:

Substratum influence: Vietnamese retains Yue and Tai‑Kadai elements that were also present in southern Chinese dialects. This substratal continuity accounts for shared forms that predate Sino‑Vietnamese borrowing.
Early Sino‑Vietnamese doublets: Many words exist in parallel forms – one native, one Sinitic – revealing a layered history of contact. For instance, trời ‘sky’ coexists with Sino‑Vietnamese thiên.
Cultural contact zones: Trade, migration, and political incorporation created environments where vocabulary was exchanged and stabilized across communities. The Red River Delta and central coast were especially fertile zones of hybridization.

Many fundamental items in Vietnamese display simultaneous traces of shared origin and identifiable loanword status in both Vietnamese and Chinese. It is reasonable to postulate that a portion of these terms evolved from the same root, particularly where they are basic vocabulary items unlikely to have been borrowed, or which predate the introduction of loanwords. For a term to be treated as a loanword, its provenance must be clearly traceable to Chinese or “Yue” sources, in either direction. While Austroasiatic theorists have conducted studies attributing certain Vietnamese words to Mon–Khmer origins, this paper treats them as of "Yue" origin, for example: sông 江 jiāng ('river'), dừa 椰 yé ('coconut'), chuối 蕉 jiāo ('banana').

Beyond these basic words of shared root, there is no doubt that Vietnamese has, since ancient times, acquired numerous Chinese words of similar fundamental nature. Historically, this phenomenon can be interpreted as the result of an active process of adoption, terms picked up by native wives of Chinese foot soldiers stationed in the Annamese colony, and taught by local scholars in village schools, continuing long after Vietnam’s independence from China. As late as the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century (Nguyễn Tài Cẩn, 1979), when China ruled Annam from 1407 to 1427, carved wooden tablets unearthed in Vietnam in the late 1970s revealed late Sinitic–Vietnamese usages. These inscriptions provide tangible evidence that Ming–era Chinese lexicons were still being actively adopted.

It is probable that many of these Chinese words entered Vietnamese through forms of vernacular Mandarin, a recurring phenomenon that persists today. For example, Sino-Vietnamese usage adapted from modern Chinese, especially in the Northern dialect, expanded steadily after the division of Vietnam into North and South in 1954, and continued long after reunification in April 1975. This process solidified a new set of modern Sinitic–Vietnamese and Sino–Vietnamese terms semantically closer to contemporary Chinese, such as SV khẩntrương 緊張 jǐnzhāng ('urgent') used casually in the milder sense of 'quickly', contrasting with the more intense Chinese meaning equivalent to VS căngthẳng ('strained'); SV đảmbảo 擔保 dànbǎo ('guarantee') instead of bảođảm in Southern usage; and other similar loanwords such as SV sựcố 事故 shìgù ('incident'), SV đạocụ 道具 dàojù ('stage prop'), khaisân 開場 kāichǎng ('start a show'), giaođãi 交待 jiāodài ('instruction').

Beyond new loanwords or deviations from older usage, Chinese linguistic influence on Vietnamese has been a continuous process into the modern era, producing up-to-date colloquial and specialized terms such as:

chuồn 滾 gǔn ('get out') [cf. VS cút, partially cognate to cútđi 去去 qùqù]

lặn 溜 liù ('slip out')

khôngdámđâu 不敢當 bùgǎndāng ('it’s not so')

nóichuyện 聊天 liáotiān ('talk')

bahoa 大話 dàhuà ('pompous')

baphải 廢話 fèihuò ('be all mouth')

ẩutả 苟且 gǒuqiě ('unattentively')

bạtmạng 拼命 pìnmìng ('recklessly')

bênhvực 包庇 pāopì ('take side')

bậnviệc 忙活 mánghuó ('busy')

dêxồm 婬蟲 yínchóng ('lecherous')

phaocâu 屁股 pìgǔ ('chicken’s butt' as a delicacy)

tiếtcanh 血羹 xuěgēng ('concentrated duck blood broth')

suỷcảo 水餃 shuǐjiǎo ('dumpling')

mìchính 味精 wèijīng (SV vịtinh, 'monosodium glutamate')

tầmbậy 三八 sānbā ('nonsense'; derogatory term ridiculing women on International Women’s Day, March 8)

biểutình 表情 biǎoqíng ('demonstration') [cf. modern M 遊行 yóuxíng (SV duhành, VS diễuhành)]

xơitái 吃生 chīshēng ('eat raw'; figuratively 'to butcher') [cf. 生 shēng; Hai. /te1/ 'đẻ'; Cant. 食生 /shejk8 shang1/]

chếtyểu 夭折 yāozhé ('die young')

trúnggió 中風 zhòngfēng ('stroke'; folk concept)

ôngchủ 主公 zhǔgōng ('master') [cf. 老闆 láobǎn]

tàixế 司機 sījī ('chauffeur')

láixe 駕車 jiàchē ('drive a car') [ Also: 'driver' | cf. chạyxe]

ngânquỹ 銀櫃 yínguì ('fund') [in place of 基金 jījīn]

băngtần 頻道 píndào ('TV channel')

These examples illustrate that the Chinese–Vietnamese lexical relationship is not a static historical residue but an ongoing, adaptive process, continually refreshed by contemporary contact and usage.

The emergence of many words in this list is open to speculation, given the long history of bustling cross-border movement between China and Vietnam via both land routes and sea passages. Until 1949, these borders remained effectively open, with no entry or exit visas required on either side, even under the watch of the French colonial administration. For example, in 1945, following the end of World War II, large numbers of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang troops entered northern Vietnam to disarm Japanese forces that had surrendered but remained in place after the withdrawal of the Chinese army.

This sustained freedom of movement undoubtedly injected vernacular forms from southern Chinese dialects, particularly those of Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong, into the Vietnamese vocabulary. Phonetically, many of these borrowings resemble twisted or imitated forms of "accented Mandarin", or at best, a kind of pidginization by the general populace, reflecting deviations in both modern Vietnamese pronunciation and orthography. For instance, 國 guó appears in Sino-Vietnamese as quốc /wəwk˧˥/, but also as quấc /kwəwk˧˥/ while the native Vietnamese is nước /nɨək˧˥/ (‘country’), or and Quanhoả imitates the sound 官話 Guānhuà (SV Quanthoại), etc. Even today, close observation of daily life along the border regions of both countries offers ample evidence of such linguistic interplay.

As for words in the basic stratum that seem cognate in both Mon-Khmer and Chinese, the commonality noted here is provisional, pending more extensive research into the genetic linguistic relationship between Chinese and Vietnamese. The present study’s aim is to establish a lexically meaningful connection between the two languages by exploring and elaborating on the significance of the many Vietnamese words, across all linguistic categories, that appear to have Chinese roots, some traceable to centuries before the first infantrymen of the Han Empire set foot on NamViệt 南越 NánYuè soil.

Figure 7 - King Triệu Đà's Mausoleum

View from the rear entrance of King Zhao Tuo's Mausoleum in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province (Source: photo by dchph - 4/2015)

Mausoleum of the kings of the ancient Kingdom of NamViệt 南越王國 NánYuè Wángguó, whose capital, Phiênngung 番禹 Fànyú,, was located in Guangzhou 廣州, now the provincial capital of China’s Guangdong Province. At its height, the kingdom also encompassed part of what is now northeastern Vietnam, homeland of the aboriginal ancestors of the ancient LuoYue (LạcViệt) people, or pre-Annamese, who had migrated from the regions surrounding Dongtinghu 洞庭湖 (Độngđìnhhồ) in present-day Hunan Province, China. (1)

V) Implications

The implications are profound. Vietnamese should not be understood merely as a borrower of Chinese vocabulary but as a language that shares a common stock with Chinese, rooted in the Yue substratum. This reframing positions Vietnamese as a co‑participant in the Sinitic–Yue continuum, with its basic vocabulary serving as evidence of shared ancestry and cultural hybridity. Recognizing this continuum challenges simplistic narratives of unilateral borrowing and opens new pathways for comparative historical linguistics in East and Southeast Asia.

In this study, questions of linguistic affiliation emerge naturally from the integration of historical overview and linguistic evidence, with particular attention to the layering of lexical strata. The Sinitic-Vietnamese investigation is framed as an effort to trace lines of kinship directly from Yue to both Vietnamese and Chinese, in reciprocal directions. This framework takes into account the historical amalgamation of Yue populations from the ancient states of southern China with Han colonists in ancient Annam.

The extensive body of Sinitic-Vietnamese vocabulary, together with a subset of Mon-Khmer basic cognates whose ultimate derivation from ancient Yue languages remains unresolved, highlights the need to examine Vietnamese in its holistic form. From a comparative standpoint, the structural and lexical characteristics of Vietnamese align more closely with Chinese than with any language within the Mon–Khmer subfamily. In fact, the degree of affinity between Vietnamese and Chinese surpasses that observed between many Chinese dialects and other branches of the Sino–Tibetan family, including Tibetan. This perspective positions Vietnamese not merely as a recipient of Chinese influence, but as a language whose historical development reflects deep and sustained contact with both Yue and Han linguistic traditions.

Conclusion

The evidence presented in this study demonstrates that the overlap between Chinese and Vietnamese extends far beyond the realm of elite or specialized vocabulary. At the level of basic stock – kinship terms, body parts, natural elements, and everyday verbs – the two languages share forms that cannot be explained solely by borrowing. Instead, they point to a deeper substratal connection rooted in the Yue cultural and linguistic continuum.

By situating Vietnamese within this Sinitic–Yue framework, we move away from narratives of unilateral influence and toward a recognition of shared ancestry and cultural hybridity. The persistence of doublets, substratal survivals, and phonological correspondences underscores that Vietnamese is not merely a recipient of Chinese vocabulary but a co‑participant in a broader historical process of contact, admixture, and mutual shaping.

This reframing has significant implications: it challenges conventional accounts of Vietnamese as a language defined by external borrowing, and instead positions it as a vital witness to the submerged history of Yue. In doing so, it opens new pathways for comparative historical linguistics, archaeology, and genetics to converge on a more nuanced understanding of East and Southeast Asian origins.

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FOOTNOTES

(1)^ Teeth from Chinese cave recast history of early human migration

A trove of 47 fossil human teeth from a cave in southern China is rewriting the history of the early migration of our species out of Africa, indicating Homo sapiens trekked into Asia far earlier than previously known and much earlier than into Europe.

[ Scientists has announced ] the discovery of teeth between 80,000 and 120,000 years old that they say provide the earliest evidence of fully modern humans outside Africa.

The teeth from the Fuyan Cave site in Hunan Province's Daoxian County place our species in southern China 30,000 to 70,000 years earlier than in the eastern Mediterranean or Europe.

"Until now, the majority of the scientific community thought that Homo sapiens was not present in Asia before 50,000 years ago," said paleoanthropologist Wu Liu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

Our species first appeared in East Africa about 200,000 years ago, then spread to other parts of the world, but the timing and location of these migrations has been unclear.

University College London paleoanthropologist María Martinón-Torres said our species made it to southern China tens of thousands of years before colonizing Europe perhaps because of the entrenched presence of our hardy cousins, the Neanderthals, in Europe and the harsh, cold European climate.

"This finding suggests that Homo sapiens is present in Asia much earlier than the classic, recent 'Out of Africa' hypothesis was suggesting: 50,000 years ago," Martinón-Torres said.

Liu said the teeth are about twice as old as the earliest evidence for modern humans in Europe.

"We hope our Daoxian human fossil discovery will make people understand that East Asia is one of the key areas for the study of the origin and evolution of modern humans," Liu said.

Martinón-Torres said some migrations out of Africa have been labeled "failed dispersals." Fossils from Israeli caves indicate modern humans about 90,000 years ago reached "the gates of Europe," Martinón-Torres said, but "never managed to enter."

It may have been hard to take over land Neanderthals had occupied for hundreds of thousands of years, Martinón-Torres said.

"In addition, it is logical to think that dispersals toward the east were likely environmentally easier than moving toward the north, given the cold winters of Europe," Martinón-Torres said.

Paleoanthropologist Xiujie Wu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology said the 47 teeth came from at least 13 individuals.

The research appears in the journal Nature.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler) Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/14/us-science-teeth-idUSKCN0S82CB20151014

Saturday, November 15, 2025

Chinese and the Vietnamese Basic Vocabulary Stock