A Vietnamese question

[fernando]

Thank you Jeff,
It is not an easy question
Let me put you within the context:
According to Pierre Huard/Maurice Durand, in their work CONNAISSANCE DU VIET-NAM (Hanoi: Ecole Francaise de l'Extreme-Orient, 1954), primitive Vietnamese hand cannons were called "sung ma truong". At same time, in a website dedicated to cannon selling, i have noticed that they name Vietnamese hand cannons as of "chong" type.
After this, i have tested a web translating engine, and the closest i got to "sung ma truong" was "súng trýờng". I observed that the meaning of words in vietnamese depends a lot in the accentuation of the letters that compose them, which makes it rather complex for a stranger.
But while i couldn't get a related equivalence for the term "ma", i have no doubt that "súng" is translatable (to english) as "rifle" (a semanthic connotation?), whereas "trýờng" would mean "long".
On the other hand a temptative translation for "Chong" would be (burning) torch; this could (also) be an interpretation for hand cannon/gun . The fact is that in the various chronicles that one can read about the Vietnamese-Chinese ancient conflicts, hand cannons (or hand guns) are referred to as "chuong" or "huochong" or even "shenji chong".
Naturally the Chong variations could be of Chinese ethimology, whereas sung ma truong (or 'phonetized' súng ? trýờng), would be the actual correct vietnamese terminology.
Could you, Jeff, extract the juice of this long story and ask your coleagues whether they are within this matter?
I will understand if they are not familiar with these ethimological problematics, specially if they are not relative to early weapons collecting or history.
Thans a lot in advance.
Fernando

Here is a picture of one of these hand cannons ... obviously the wooden pole is missing.

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