mềnh

Vietnamese

Etymology

Historically, this is the Northern form with more conservative nucleus, while the currently common in writing mình is the Central-Southern form.

However, it is not clear if the current usage of mềnh as a pronoun, which is mostly seen in the Internet and carries a jocular or humorous undertone, is a direct continuation of the Northern form, or simply a later alteration of the Central-Southern mình. There is a significant gap in written continuation of mềnh between the works of Alexandre de Rhodes, which recorded dialect(s) of Northern Vietnam, and the modern usage.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

mềnh

(obsolete) Alternative form of mình (“torso; body”)

Pronoun

mềnh

(text messaging, humorous) I/me

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