Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
This word was borrowed at a stage when the Sinitic word still retained the preinitial, thus causing lenition:*-t- > Middle Vietnamesedĕao[ðj-] > modern[z- ~ j-]. The Sino-Vietnamese readingđao, on the other hand, derived from Middle Chinese刀 (MC taw) when the onset already simplified and resulted in a stop. The North Centralđao, although formally identical to the more recent Sino-Vietnamese reading, belongs to the same stratum asdao, as indicated by the meaning "knife", due to the fact that these dialects did not undergo lenition to as large an extent.
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