cà phê

Etymology
Adapted from an earlier form (Martini, 1958; Michaud et al., 2015), as attested in scholar 's Cours d'annamite parlé [A course in spoken Annamese] (1894). This is a, matching the first syllable with the existing Sino-Vietnamese word ; literally, this name could be interpreted as: “a kind of tea with the phê attribute” (whatever that attribute may mean).

Naming coffee as a type of tea acclimatises the new beverage, introducing it into a set that already included, , , , and so on (Martini, 1958; Michaud et al., 2015). An example is found in Cours d'annamite parlé:

Later on, the form trà phê underwent re-foreignisation, influenced by French-speaking Vietnamese who pronounce French café as ‹ca phê› (Michaud et al., 2015). A hybrid form of cà phê emerged as a consequence, retaining the original in the donor language and the tone of trà, and this form eventually became the standard (Nguyễn, 1999).

An alternative theory for the unexpected tone on cà was put forth by Emeneau (1951: 4, 158), who tentatively proposed that it was due to association with, in a fashion similar to. However, this is now deemed to be very unlikely.

Compare, as well as 🇨🇬.

Noun

 * 1) coffee
 * cà phê hòa tan - instant coffee
 * cà phê hòa tan - instant coffee
 * cà phê hòa tan - instant coffee