“Swallow” and “Swallow Whole”

According to the above, writing “nụất trưng” is a misspelling. However, in reality, it is not.

Dozens of dictionaries we have on hand record both the spellings “nụất gụ” and “nụất trưng”:

- Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe, editor- Vietlex) entry “nuọt trưng”, notes that this is the “old or dialect” way of writing, and gives instructions on how to read “nuọt hùng”. Thus, the dictionary compiler still records “nuọt trưng” but aims for the more common way of writing “nuọt hùng”.

- Vietnamese dictionary (Khai Tri Tien Duc Association - 1931) collected “nuot truong”, with the meaning “Swallow something without chewing”, and used the example “Put a pill in the mouth and swallow it whole”. This book does not put “nuot truong” in a separate section, but in the “chung” section, explaining it as “Upright, not entangled”, and used the example “Nuot truong, bo chung”.

- Vietnamese dictionary (Le Van Duc - 1970) does not record “chùng” and “nuọt trong”. In the “trùng” section, this book explains it as “Trông, nhon, tron mot ngay”, and gives an example: “The dog swallowed a piece of meat; the job was not finished but he swallowed a thousand silver coins!”. In the “nuọt trung” section, it explains it as “Nuọt trong”, and notes it as “Nuut trong and nựt trong”.

- Vietnamese orthography dictionary (Le Ngoc Tru - 1967) only records the word "nuất trùng", not "nuất thân".

- The Vietnamese General Dictionary (Dao Van Tap - 1951) only records the word "swallow".

- The new Vietnamese dictionary (Thanh Nghi - 1951) also only records the word "swallow".

- Annamite - Francais Dictionary (LM.

Génibrel (1898), also only recorded the word “swallow”.

Notably, many books collect the word “nuọt trong” with the same meaning as “nuọt mật” or “nuọt trưng”. For example, the Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe - Vietlex) explains “nuọt trong” as “nuọt trong” and gives the example “the boy swallowed the whole piece of cake”. The Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoi Khai Tri Tien Duc) also records “nuọt trong” and explains it as “The same meaning as swallowing”.

Many ancient dictionaries only record "nuọt trong" and not "nuọt trùng", such as: Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi (Huỳnh Tinh Paulus Của - 1885, 1896); Annam - Latin Dictionary (GM.

Taberd - 1883); French - Anamite Dictionary (Truong Vinh Ky - 1884).

Notably, Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi explains “trong” as “Large, quite large and intact”; “trong trong” = “Medium large, not small”; “trong tron = Large but intact. Smooth rice grain”; “Trong hot = large grain”; “trong bé = Large kid, not small”; “An com trong” = “Eat whole rice; eat by yourself without having to chew. (Children)”; “Nuot trong = “Swallow something large without chewing first”.

Thus, based on the appearance of words in dictionaries from ancient times to the present, "trong" (swallowing) is the earliest, followed by "trưng" (swallowing) and the latest is "chưng" (swallowing).

So, etymologically speaking, where does trongg↔trưng↔chưng come from?

The answer is "trong" which comes from the word "trong" 重.

The character 重 (another pronunciation is “trung” in the word “trung lap”) has one meaning: “large” (the 22nd meaning that the Chinese dictionary has explained). “Nuot trong” means to swallow a large piece, leaving it intact without chewing. Trong hot = large seed, just like people often say to choose the “trong”, which means to choose the largest one among the things that are chopped or cut into small pieces.

The relationship between ONG ↔ONG (trong ↔ trongg) we see in many other cases such as letting loose ↔ letting loose; wandering ↔ wandering,...

From the word “nuọt trongg”, it becomes “nuọt trưng” ( Thanh Hoa dialect pronounces it as “trang” or “trưng”). The relationship ONG↔UNG, we still see in Thanh Hoa dialect such as di đồng↔di dung; đến cùng↔ đến công. As for the relationship TR↔CH, we can also cite many examples, such as tea↔che; truong↔chuong,...

Thus, “nuọt trong” and “nuọt trưng” are the earliest recorded ways of speaking and writing, followed by “nuọt trùng”. Nowadays, the way of speaking and writing “nuọt trùng” is considered common, but that does not mean that the way of writing “nuọt trưng” is incorrect. Accordingly, “nuọt trùng” and “nuọt trưng” must be classified as “ambiguous” (both ways of writing are acceptable).

Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nuot-chung-nbsp-va-nuot-trung-254254.htm