ngũ mã phanh thây

Vietnamese

Etymology

Partial calque of Chinese 五馬分屍／五马分尸 (ngũ mã phân thi), but with the substitution of phân (分) with the etymologically unrelated phanh through phono-semantic matching.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ŋu˦ˀ˥ maː˦ˀ˥ fajŋ̟˧˧ tʰəj˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ŋʊw˧˨ maː˧˨ fɛɲ˧˧ tʰəj˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ŋʊw˨˩˦ maː˨˩˦ fan˧˧ tʰəj˧˧]

• Audio (Hà Nội):

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Noun

ngũ mã phanh thây

1. (historical) dismemberment with five horses

See also

• tứ mã phanh thây (“dismemberment with four horses”)