nhonha

See also: nhônha

Macanese

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly from either:

Malay nyonya or directly from below
Hokkien 娘仔 (*niô͘-niá, “young lady”) with an older obsolete form of the diminutive suffix 仔 (á)^[1] as a weak form of 囝 (kiáⁿ) with the initial undergoing nasal assimilation from the previous syllable, because Hokkien syllables that start with nasal initials (e.g. /n-/, /ŋ-/, /m-/) tend to also allophonically have a nasalized rime or not,^[2] which for 娘 (niô͘, IPA: /niɔ̃/), it is indeed recorded to be nasalized even during the early 1600s.^[3]
Portuguese dona (“noble lady; proprietress; housekeeper; governess; housewife”) or Portuguese senhora (“lady”)

See also modern Hokkien 娘娘 (niô͘-niô͘, “lady”), 娘仔 (niô͘-á, “young lady”), 娘惹 (nō͘-niâ / niû-nia / niô͘-nia, “female peranakan”), Spanish doña (“lady”).

Noun

nhonha (plural nhonhonha)

girl; young woman (married or single)
Synonym: amui

Coordinate term: nhum

Nhonha canta. ― A girl sings.

References

^ Medhurst, Walter Henry (1832), “Yëá 仔”, in A Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms: Containing About 12,000 Characters, (overall work in Hokkien and English), Macao: The Honorable East India Company's Press by G. J. Steyn and Brother, page 736
^ Van der Loon, Piet (1967), “The Manila Incunabula and Early Hokkien Studies, Part 2”, in Asia Major (New Series)‎^[1], volume 13, page 142
^ Dictionario Hispánico-Sinicum‎^[2] (overall work in Early Modern Spanish, Hokkien, and Classical Mandarin), kept as Vocabulario Español-Chino con caracteres chinos (TOMO 215) in the University of Santo Tomás Archives, Manila: Dominican Order of Preachers, 1626-1642; republished as Fabio Yuchung Lee (李毓中), Chen Tsung-jen (陳宗仁), Regalado Trota José, José Luis Caño Ortigosa, editors, Hokkien Spanish Historical Document Series I: Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum‎^[3], Hsinchu: National Tsing Hua University Press, 2018, →ISBN

[1] Medhurst, Walter Henry (1832), “Yëá 仔”, in A Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms: Containing About 12,000 Characters, (overall work in Hokkien and English), Macao: The Honorable East India Company's Press by G. J. Steyn and Brother, page 736

[2] Van der Loon, Piet (1967), “The Manila Incunabula and Early Hokkien Studies, Part 2”, in Asia Major (New Series)‎^[1], volume 13, page 142

[3] Dictionario Hispánico-Sinicum‎^[2] (overall work in Early Modern Spanish, Hokkien, and Classical Mandarin), kept as Vocabulario Español-Chino con caracteres chinos (TOMO 215) in the University of Santo Tomás Archives, Manila: Dominican Order of Preachers, 1626-1642; republished as Fabio Yuchung Lee (李毓中), Chen Tsung-jen (陳宗仁), Regalado Trota José, José Luis Caño Ortigosa, editors, Hokkien Spanish Historical Document Series I: Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum‎^[3], Hsinchu: National Tsing Hua University Press, 2018, →ISBN

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