From Cantonese
How did Chinese vendors advertise Pho?
Pho
Hue and Eugèn Gouin (1957) both define ' by itself as an abbreviation of '. Elucidating on the 1931 dictionary, Gouin and Lê Ngọc Trụ (1970) both give ' as a corruption of ' (), which was commonly sold by Chinese immigrants in Hanoi. Some scholars argue that pho (the dish) evolved from ', a Vietnamese dish common in Hanoi at the turn of the century. Originally eaten by commoners near the Red River, it consisted of stir fried strips of water buffalo meat served in broth atop rice vermicelli. Around 1908–1909, the shipping industry brought an influx of laborers. Vietnamese and Chinese cooks set up ' to serve them ' but later switched to inexpensive scraps of beef set aside by butchers who sold to the French. Chinese vendors advertised this ' by crying out, "Beef and noodles!" (). Eventually the street cry became "Meat and noodles!" (), with the last syllable elongated. The French author Jean Marquet spells it "!" in his 1919 novel "Du village-à-la cité". This is likely what the Vietnamese poet Tản Đà calls "" in "" ("Gambling"), written around 1915–1917.