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Please don't think I'm nuts for asking this, but... I collect "cat" stamps and have just acquired some from Vietnam. Because I file my collection according to cat breed, I'd like to know what the following words on these stamps say (I have a feeling some may refer to breeds but am not sure). Obviously "meo" means "cat" but I have no clue what the other words mean. Can anyone help? The words are:
"Meo tam the"
"Meo muop"
"Meo khoang"
"Meo dom van"
"Meo muop dom"
"Meo vang"
"Meo xiem" (this one looks like a Siamese, so I wondered if "xiem" = "Siam"??)
Love to help you, Skywings!
Those words: "meo tam the, meo muop, meo khoang.." are used to name various vietnamese cat breeds.
Vietnamese people often based on a cat's single color ( meo vang- cat with yellow fur..) or combination of some color (meo tam the- a cat which has 3 different fur colors...) to name cat breed.
I feel a little bit surprised that you guessed the right name of "meo xiem"
xiem = Siam or Thailand. "xiem" is just an old term refers to Thailand.
I hope you find those useful.
Cheers from Hanoi
Thanks so much for your help! The cats on these stamps are depicted as drawings/paintings rather than photographs, so other than the Siamese it's not easy to guess what breed each represents. I sort my collection according to "established" breeds (Persian, Russian Blue, Sphynx, etc etc) so the "Meo xiam" will be put with my other Siamese Cat stamps but the other Vietnamese stamps had me puzzled. This is the set of eight stamps that was issued in 1979, by the way.
So the other phrases refer to color. Hmmm. Yes, the "Meo tam the" is a tricolor shorthair and "Meo vang" is a yellow tabby! Could you tell me what colors or characteristics the other names represent? ("Meo muop", "Meo muop dom", "Meo dom van", "Meo van am", and "Meo khoang"). The cats shown as Meo muop and Meo muop dom are both grey tabbies but "Meo muop dom" has more white on the body... does "dom" mean "white" or "lighter"?
They are all shorthaired cats, by the way. The "Meo khoang" has a bit of a different look from the others: lots of white, some black, and a white tipped tail. Does "khoang" maybe mean "two colors" or "bicolor"?
Again, thanks so much! It would be useful to know what the common cat-related words are in Vietnamese because there are a few other stamp issues that I'm still looking for, and this will help me to 'translate'!
Ok, so you got the right name for "meo vang" and "meo tam the".
"tam= tri"
Let's me try to help you sort out other names.
"meo muop" refers to a cat that has grey fur sometimes with little spot or small marks.
"dom" actually means "spots" or small marks. You probably recognize "dom" from your stamps.
( this breed is quite small in size and very common in vietnam's rural area)
"muop" is a kind of fruit that vietnamese people use to cook some dishes. It is a small, long fruit. It's quite hard to explain to you though. So I guess the reason people call "meo muop" is partially atrributed to a cat's size ( just as the fruit)
So you can "translate" "meo muop" and "meo muop dom" now!
^^
next to"meo dom van". you can understand "meo" and "dom" now. "van" means little, narrow strips. Can easily understand "van".Vietnamese peple call zebra "ngua van" for those horse have long, little, thin lines (strips) on their body. So you can understand "meo dom van" right?
"meo khoang" has clearly different fur pattern. "khoang" means a area or a large spot of something. "meo khoang" has some different color furs on its body, it can have 3 or more color, it does not matter. "khoang" just means large area of fur which has different color from other area on a cat's body.
Sorry, I can help you on "meo van am". I've myself never heard about this breed. ^^ .
I do not know "van am" means in vietnamese. You know vietnamese language use what we call "da^u' " to refers to a certain word. Maybe in you can see a word like "cho"( 1 cho= a dog; 2 cho= give somebody something..and so on..)
but in vietnamese it can have a set of different meaning depends on "da^u'"
Maybe some none can help you later with "meo van am".
^^
Actually that is all a GREAT help! Now I do understand what the names mean.
The cat shown on as "Meo muop" is a grey tabby, and the one as "Meo muop dom" is a grey tabby that is a little bit more spotted than "Meo muop". So your explanation makes perfect sense!
The "Meo dom van" is also a tabby, but is a darker color giving more of a tiger- or zebra-striped effect along with some spots, so yes: "Striped spotted cat" or "Spotted striped cat".
The "Meo khoang" shows a very large area of white on the body, in fact the only dark areas are on top of its head, along the top of its back, and about 3/4 of its tail. So this fits perfectly too.
The last cat, "Meo van am", looks very much like Meo dom van except that it is more grey and less brown, and less spotted. In other breeds it might be called a "tortoiseshell" coloring. Oh, and in the word "am" there is an accent mark like this ' (but slanted, not straight) over the A in "am". Maybe it means "grey striped cat"?
Not at all
I'm glad to help you understand those quite confusion names.
I still have a litte problem with "meo van am"
"van" = stripped
But I do not sure about "am"
Is this "am" or "âm" or "ám" or "à m" or "ấm" or "ầm" or "ắm" or "ằm"..
hix ^^ That's Vietnamese language!
If you can point out the right form of "am" in vietnamese characters above, I can help you.
At last, I can help you. I feel happy too.
I have just look the word up in a vietnamese- vietnamese dictionary and have clear meaning of the word.
"ám" is a quite old and informal word. This kind of word is not very common in standard vietnamese. We here do not often use that word any ( maybe just the elderly use this).
"ám" refers ( in this case) to the color of (how to say?) something which gets dirts or other "grey" substance on in (not actually grey but a little bit different. This types of color is close to the color of rice plant ashes when burnt out.
So I hope you get what you want now.
I'm logging out. So no need to thanks me again ^^ cause I like to help any one who wish to learn more about vietnam, vietnamese people..And I just can help them!
Goodbye.
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I collect "cat" stamps and have just acquired some from Vietnam. Because I file my collection according to cat breed, I'd like to know what the following words on these stamps say (I have a feeling some may refer to breeds but am not sure). Obviously "meo" means "cat" but I have no clue what the other words mean. Can anyone help? The words are: 
vietnamese cat names
