Do isolating languages like Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. use portmanteaus at the syllable level to create new words? I understand that these languages can use this technique at the word level, but I’m wondering if there is evidence of this at the syllable level? I know there are contractions that happen in Chinese, such as 甭 béng which is a contraction of 不用 bú yòng, but this wouldn’t count as a portmanteau like the creation of the word “smog” from smoke and fog. I can’t think of any examples in Mandarin off the top of my head. Anyone? Edit - 2024-06-27: 2.5 years later, and I found examples! They're all organic chemistry terms, though. Examples: [巯](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/巰#Chinese) sulfhydryl; qiu2; The pronunciation is a blend of 氫／氢 (qīng, “hydrogen”) +‎ 硫 (liú, “sulfur”) [羟](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/羥#Chinese) hydroxy, hydroxyl; qiang3; The pronunciation is a blend of 氫／氢 (qīng, “hydrogen”) and 氧 (yǎng, “oxygen”). [羰](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/羰) carbonyl; tang1; The pronunciation is a blend of 氧 (yǎng, “oxygen”) +‎ 碳 (tàn, “carbon”) https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/s/tRJlcwTIbX