Where does “phải không” come from?

phải không (Vietnamese) comes from Vietnamese phải, from Chinese 派, from English Pi, from Ancient Greek πῖ, from Ancient Greek πεῖ, from Proto-Semitic pay- — the mouth.

phải không (Vietnamese): is that true or not?; yes?; no?

Definitions

  1. is that true or not?; yes?; no?

Ancestry of “phải không”, step by step

phải không traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Vietnamese phải

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Vietnamesephảiright; correct; obverse
2Chinese
3EnglishPiThe sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek
4Ancient GreekπῖAlternative form of πεῖ
5Ancient Greekπεῖpi, the name for the sixteenth letter Π, π of the...
6Proto-Semiticpay-the mouth

via Vietnamese không

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Vietnamesekhôngnot; idly, without doing anything; not have; to...
2Chineseempty, hollow
3Proto-Sino-Tibetan(g/k)uŋhole; orifice; hole; orifice; inner part
Every word from Proto-Semitic pay-