Chinese Translation of County-Level Place Names in Southeastern Vietnam: A Preliminary Study

Southeastern Vietnam is home to a diverse population, and its place names clearly reflect the cultural, historical, and linguistic imprints of each ethnic group. In addition to place names composed of Sino-Vietnamese words, the region also features purely Vietnamese names and those derived from minority languages. However, due to the diverse origins of these names and the lack of attention from local authorities, unified translation standards have yet to be established. Existing Chinese translations often fall short in in reflecting Vietnamese cultural, historical, and linguistic dimensions, and do not fully exploitthe phonological and semantic compatibility of Chinese characters. This article aims to describe and classify the word-formation types of southeastern place names, and identify the limitations of existing translations. It then proposes translation principles tailored to this region, and introduces new schemes for county-level place name translation into Chinese.