lầu

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 樓 (SV: lâu).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ləw˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ləw˦˩]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ləw˨˩]

• Audio (Hà Nội):

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lầu

1. (historical) a multistory building
   • 1937 October 10 [8th century CE], “Hoàng Hạc lâu”, in Tản Đà, transl., Ngày Nay, number 80, translation of 《黃鶴樓》 by 崔顥 [Cui Hao] (in Literary Chinese); English translation from Peter Harris, transl., Three Hundred Tang Poems, 2009, page 39:

     Hạc vàng ai cưỡi đi đâu?
     Mà đây Hoàng Hạc riêng lầu còn trơ!

     [original: 昔人已乘黃鶴去，
     此地空餘黃鶴樓。]

     Long ago someone rode away on a yellow crane;
     All that’s left here, pointlessly, is Yellow Crane Tower.

   • 1987 [8th century CE], “Tại lầu Hoàng Hạc tiễn Mạnh Hạo Nhiên đi Quảng Lăng”, in Ngô Tất Tố, transl., Thơ Đường [Tang Poetry], volume 2, translation of 《黃鶴樓送孟浩然之廣陵》 by 李白 [Li Bai] (in Literary Chinese); English translation from “At the Yellow Crane Tower to Bid Meng Haoran Bon Voyage [to Guangling]”, in 黃宏發 [Andrew Wong], transl., Classical Chinese Poems in English, 2010:

     Bạn từ lầu Hạc lên đường
     Giữa mùa hoa khói châu Dương xuôi dòng

     [original: 故人西辭黃鶴樓，
     煙花三月下揚州。]

     At the Yellow Crane Tower, my friend, to the west you said goodbye;
     In this misty, flowery glorious spring, downstream for Yangzhou you ply.

2. (architecture, chiefly Southern Vietnam) floor/storey (except the ground floor/storey),

   Synonym: tầng

   lầu 2 ― floor one level above the ground floor; i.e. 2nd floor (US)

   nhà lầu ― multi-storey house (literally, “storeyed house”)

   nhảy lầu tự tử ― to jump off a [high] floor to kill oneself

3. (architecture, chiefly Southern Vietnam, rare, proscribed) floor/storey (including the ground floor/storey)

   Synonym: tầng

   lầu trệt ― ground floor

   lầu 1 ― floor one level above the ground floor; i.e. 1st floor (Europe)

   • 2021 May 4, “FV Tiếp Tục Hưởng Ứng Ngày Vệ Sinh Tay Thế Giới”, in Bệnh Viện FV; English version in “FV Continues To Respond To World Hand Hygiene Day”, in FV Hospital, 2021 May 4:

     Ngoài ra, Biệt đội Kiểm soát Nhiễm khuẩn (KSNK) của bệnh viện cũng tổ chức quầy thông tin tại lầu trệt, để hướng dẫn mọi người thực hiện rửa tay đúng cách.

     The Hospital’s Infection Control Unit will also organise an information counter on the ground floor to guide people in how to correctly wash their hands.

In southern and south-central Vietnamese, all floors are called lầu (as a result, lầu trệt (“ground floor”) is actually attested), although prescriptivists proscribe such usage and advocate for using lầu to denote only floors above the ground floor.^[1][2]

By contrast, in northern and north-central Vietnamese, floors are called tầng, the ground floor is called tầng trệt or numbered as tầng 1,^[1][2] and tầng 0 technically refers to a crawl space.

In central Vietnamese, floors are either called lầu or tầng.^[1][2]

• tầng