bây

See also: bay, Bay, bẫy, bảy, and baþ

Vietnamese

Pronunciation
  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔɓəj˧˧]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɓəj˧˧]
  • (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [ʔɓəj˧˧]
  • Audio (Hà Nội)(file)
  • Audio (Hồ Chí Minh City)(file)

Etymology 1

From Proto-Mon-Khmer *piʔ; cognate with Khasi phi, Pacoh ipe, Central Nicobarese [Nancowry] ifē and possibly Mon ဗှ်ေ.

Alternative forms

Pronoun

bây

  1. (informal) you (second-person plural)

Etymology 2

Part of the b-series of demonstratives, along with bao, bấy.

Determiner

bây • (拜, 悲, 𣊾, 碑)

  1. of this extent, of this amount
    Con cua này chỉ bây lớn thôi.
    This (species of) crab only grows to this size.
See also
Derived terms
Vietnamese demonstratives
Laurence Thompson (1965), Vietnamese Grammar
UnspecifiedClose to the
speaker or
newly introduced		Remote,
already identified
PLACE
đ- (first register)		 đâu
‘wherever’		 đây
‘here’		 đấy
‘there’
REFERENCE
n- (second register)		 nào
‘whichever’		 này
‘this’		 nọ
‘that’
PROPORTION
b- (first register)		 bao
‘to whatever extent’		 bây
‘to this extent’		 bấy
‘to that extent’
MANNER
s- (first register)
v- (second register)		 sao
‘however’		 vầy
‘this way’		 vậy
‘that way’
Nguyễn Phú Phong (1992), “Vietnamese Demonstratives Revisited”
D•
(Indefinite)		D1
(Proximal)		D2
(Medial)		D3
(Distal)
+NOM(inal) đâu
place-what		 đây
place-this		 đấy
place-that1
±NOM(inal) đó
(place-)that1		 kia
(place-)that2
–NOM(inal) nào
what		 nầy
this		 nấy/ấy
that1		 nọ
that2
Vietnamese demonstratives (alternative version)
Proximal
(*-iː)		 Distal 1
(*-iːʔ)		 Distal 2
(*-əːʔ)		 Distal 3/
Remote
(*-ɔːʔ)		 Interrogative
(rime was a rounded
back vowel)
Place, attributive1
n-		 ni
nì
này		 nấy nớ nọ nào
Place, nominal2
đ-		 đây đí
đấy		 — đó đâu
Manner
r-		 ri
rày		 — rứa — ru
sao3
Extent 14
b-		 bây bấy — — bao
Extent 25
v-		 vầy vậy — — —
1 Originally can only follow a nominal (being used attributively), hence nơi này (“this place; here”), nơi nào (“where”) (no longer completely true in the modern language).
2 Can be used on its own/is itself nominal, hence đây (“here”), đâu (“where”).
3 From earlier *C-raːw (where *C is nonspecific consonant).
4 Placed before the head: bây nhiêu (“this much”), bấy nhiêu (“that much”), bao nhiêu (“how much”).
5 Placed after the head: nhanh vầy (“this fast”), nhanh vậy (“that fast/so fast”).
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