Cần Giờ

Vietnamese

Etymology

From Khmer កញ្ជើ (kɑñcəə, “basket”), as the local people often used "basket boats" to commute.

According to a folk etymology, when Nguyễn Ánh ran to the land of Cần Giờ to avoid the Tây Sơn army. He used big vases of water to make clocks, inside these vases contained water and hung a rod with ink engraved on it, so cần (“rod”) +‎ giờ (“hour”).

According to another folk etymology, when the merchant ships went to Saigon, to this land, they had to wait a while for the tide to rise, so cần (“to need”) +‎ giờ (“time”).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kən˨˩ zəː˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kəŋ˦˩ jəː˦˩]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kəŋ˨˩ jəː˨˩]

Proper noun

Cần Giờ

1. Cần Giờ (a district of Ho Chi Minh City)