(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Diachronically, this is probably a Northern Vietnamese innovation occured some time between the stages of Proto-Vietnamese and attested Northern Old Vietnamese. It is amply attested in the oldest Nôm texts (which are all in Northern Old Vietnamese or its offshoot(s)), yet has no cognate in the Muong lects, and usage of this morpheme by Central and Southern speakers clearly indicates borrowing. It also does not neatly fit into Proto-Vietnamese demonstrative paradigm with its zero-initial.
The situation can probably be hypothesized as:
| Proto-Vietnamese | Old Vietnamese | Modern Vietnamese | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern dialects | Full paradigm of demonstratives. (The ancestral forms of) ấy and tê not yet innovated. Ancestral forms of đấy (đ-series, distal 1), đó (đ-series, distal 3), nấy (n-series, distal 1), nớ (n-series, distal 2), nọ (n-series, distal 3) in full use. | Northern Old Vietnamese innovated the ancestral form of ấy, probably from an irregular loss of the alveolar stop onset of the corresponding form of đấy. Ancestral forms of đó and nớ fell into disuse. | Inherited đấy from Proto-Vietnamese and ấy from Northern Old Vietnamese. Borrowed đó from Southern dialects, with limited usage.1 The rest of the paradigm became obsolete, literary, or restricted to idioms. |
| Central dialects | Heterogeneous unattested Old Vietnamese dialects ancestral to modern Central and Southern dialects. Ancestral form of đấy likely fell into disuse, with ancestral forms of nớ and đó filling its place. | Inherited nớ from Proto-Vietnamese, innovated tê at unknown stage. Borrowed đấy and ấy from Northern dialects and đó from Southern dialects, with limited usage. The rest of the paradigm became obsolete, literary, or restricted to idioms. | |
| Southern dialects | Inherited đó from Proto-Vietnamese. Borrowed đấy and ấy from Northern dialects, with limited usage. The rest of the paradigm became obsolete, literary, or restricted to idioms. | ||
| 1 There is attestation of đó (spelled 妬) in Hồng Đức quốc âm thi tập (洪德國音詩集, late 15th century), so it was probably borrowed already by then (or it was a poem composed by a speaker of a non-Northern dialect, but attributed to Lê Thánh Tông). Earlier texts like Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh (佛說大報父母恩重經, 12th or early 15th century), Cư trần lạc đạo phú (居塵樂道賦, 13th century), or Quốc âm thi tập (國音詩集, early 15th century) only show đấy and ấy. | |||
| 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/nầy nây |
nấy | nớ | nọ (nó) |
nào | |
| Place, nominal2 đ- |
đây | đấy (ấy) |
— | 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”). | ||||||
| Visibility/evidentiality6 | ||||||
| Distal (ngang) |
Remote (huyền) | |||||
| Northern-Southern | kia (cơ) |
kìa (cờ) | ||||
| Central | tê | tề | ||||
| 6 Originally, these demonstratives might have been used to assert that something is visible and/or verifiable. They have been bleached quite thoroughly and currently are usually used like other distal demonstratives. The biggest trace of their evidentiality might be in their usage as final particles, often in reduced forms cơ/cờ: ừ đấy về tới Hà Nội, còn những ba cái cầu nữa cơ mà! ("From there to Hanoi, there're still three more bridges to cross!") (Ba ngày luân lạc, 1943). | ||||||
ấy
ấy