cộng hoà

See also: cộng hòa

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• cộng-hoà, cộng hòa, cộng-hòa

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 共和, composed of 共 (“to join”) and 和 (“to harmonize”), from Japanese 共和 (kyōwa, kyōka, “republican”), from Literary Chinese 共和 (gònghé, literally “cooperation and harmony”). In other East Asian languages, 共和 (gònghé, “republican”) alone is an attributive form, effectively adjectival in meaning and syntax; the proper words for "republican country/state" are Mandarin 共和國／共和国 (gònghé guó), Japanese 共和国 (kyōwakoku) and Korean 공화국 (gonghwaguk). While historical evidence (in the Bamboo Annals and Tsinghua Bamboo Slips) indicates that 共和 describes the Gonghe Regency, the single rule by the Earl of Gong (共伯), whose name was He (和), 共和 is incorrectly interpreted as joint rule by ducal ministers in the absence of a king (e.g. by Sima Qian). The idea of "government without a king" was later adopted by Japanese geographer Mitsukuri Shōgo in reference to the United States, which he dubbed 共和政治州 (Kyōwa-Seiji-Shū, literally “the States with Cooperative and Harmonious Government”); Mitsukuri anecdotally took this suggestion from a Ruist acquaintance who could only think of the aforementioned regency as the sole example of an East Asian government with no monarch. Later Japanese authors used 共和 in a rather indiscriminate way, for anything from commonwealth, to republic, to democracy. The original translation into Chinese of English republican was Chinese 民主 (mínzhǔ), whence Vietnamese dân chủ (“democracy”).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kəwŋ͡m˧˨ʔ hwaː˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kəwŋ͡m˨˩ʔ hwaː˦˩]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [kəwŋ͡m˨˩˨ waː˨˩]

Noun

cộng hoà

1. a republic