2 Most of the younger Chinese characters are just speaking Mandarin in Hokkien. When I returned to America, I did some research on these two recherch characters, [+], and I found that they were rare characters dug up from some obscure Song Dynasty lexicon to serve as the supposed bnz ("original characters") to match the morphemes of the Taiwanese word chhit-tho ("play"). In the end they had to write out the transaction for this book by hand, because the computer just couldn't handle it. There are lot of words that sound the same between Japanese, Korean and Minnan language, not they copy each other but they actually have their root from Tang Dynasty. walao this must be the most common expression in Spore walao, walao weiIt's difficult to translate, a bit like "Gosh, OMG, good grief". Mr. Mair, what was the book that You bought that had in the title? The tones don't line up, and they usually do. northern and southern Taiwanese, as in the common polite ritual There is a Caf Flneur / Tshit-tho (thit-tho) Ka-pi [+] in Tainan, Taiwan, which is supposed to be one of the coolest coffee shops in Taiwan. Paternities and Expatriotism: Li Yongpings Zhu Ling Manyou Xianjing and the Politics of Rupture. Tamkang Review 29, 2 (Winter 1998): 22-44. : Hokkien for "beautiful". This makes me recall a meeting I had at AAS with a professor from Taiwan. Get to know you 'lah', 'leh, 'lor' and some basic slang words to up your Singlish game. ), 7 things Singapore does better than anyone else, 9 things you've definitely said or done after living in Singapore for three months. :D The writing-off effect is stronger outside of Taiwan and China because there Mandarin itself is also seen as a language of in-group solidarity. It would be interesting to find out if Taiwan Hokkien has the same usage. Any connection to wallah? Website: https://LearnDialect.sg. Probably equivalent to English's "frigging " or how Hongkongese say "" in place of "".
The two characters [+] were printed large on the cover of the book. A Malay-Hokkien connection wouldn't have to imply a loan one way or the other, though. The writing is curious, since the characters literally mean "seven peaches". the pronunciation lot of these words might differ from the original version.
ju on in kelantanese means gloomy sky, could be from hokian means jit um Tua-elder
But I could tell from the context that what they were saying is the Hokkien word that is usually written [+]. Pick up commonly-used Singapore Hokkien words and phrases at :These are all discourse particles that are mentioned at the end of sentences. Bojio.. No doubt Ge Zai Xi was from Taiwan. In the old days (maybe even now), each village in Singapore had its unique Hokkien, mainly because the villagers probably came from same village in China or at least were influenced by such local variants growing up. by Min-min Liang. ), I didnt know you have to do it like thatleh. (Here, leh is used to show uncertainty, a little more doubtful compared to lah. : I'mpaisehto ask Chris Hemsworth for a selfie.. :Hokkien for crazy. :Letschopethe table by leaving a pack of tissues there.. Actually the first time I ran across Li Yongping was when I read a chapter by David Wang on Shen Congwen, Song Zelai, and Li in a seminar at Princeton with Perry Link while I was at Penn.
bewtween chhit-tho vs. thit-tho as one test to differentiate between
I've also heard a Cantonese reflex of the word in Saigon Cantonese, pronounced like but in the tone. :Those kiasu aunties pushed through thecrowdfor the free goodies.. D. diss. Imaginary Nostalgia: Shen Congwen, Song Zelai, Mo Yan, and Li Yongping. In Ellen. The only difference is that there is a Singapore accent present. The next challenge, as pointed out, is that Hokkien is usually written in Mandarin. Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. Here is some information about the scope and aims of the program itself: "New Hokkien drama aimed at seniors to be launched on Sep 9" (Channel NewsAsia, 9/1/16).
It's similar to what she will be using in real life. :He is tooatasto be caught dead eating at a hawkercentre.. Example:"Mygirlfriend made me carry all her shopping bags around Orchard Road, now I'm so shag.".
In this film you can hear our tones are comparatively flatter than Taiwanese. Sian.. One of your correspondents identifies "diam diam" as a Malay word, but tim-tim is used in Amoy Hokkien and Taiwanese too. 1947). Thank you for the link. Bojio.. Rojas, Carlos.
Also at 18:09. David Der-wei Wang, eds., Global Chinese Literature: Critical Essays.
in Rojas, The Naked Gaze: Reflections on Chinese Modernity. It's likely TIM, , and DIAM just sound alike by coincidence. I took them to be the title.
I have watched the first part of the episode, and found it rather curious. Pick up commonly-used Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew words in Singapore. She says "b/pe", the man says "b/puey".
5 The Teochew-Hokkien bilingual dialog between the Bird King and the clerk at the clinic was boocoo interesting.
Orang, malay means human, the fujian in ancient times most proablly call the dark skin malay olang means dark human. -. Contemporary Chinese Writers (Cambridge: MIT). I heard of one movie by Jack Neo where he "forced" his cast to speak Hokkien day in and day out to achieve fluency with the right tones. Meaning: We know what you're thinking, but it means to feel physically exhausted in Singlish. 7:18-8:00 The female nurse speaks in Teochew , not Hokkien. 19:37 Here "gang rui" is used for "wages", but compare "guli gang" discussed above (15:24). On the concept of "original character", search for bnz in this paper: Victor H. Mair, "How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language". ), Ive got no choice, So I just did itlor. (Here, lor is used to express acceptance or resignation. Robert E. Hall Jr., "Chinese Pidgin English Grammar and Texts", Journal of the American Oriental Society 64(3):95-113.
Not surprising to find its Royston Tan at the helm. Is Prof Victor Mair comparing the Hokkien he used to hear in Singapore or elsewhere? You have to do it like that? (Here, meh is used with a rhetorical question to serve disbelief without actually being shocked or surprised.). I should have mentioned this book in the Cambria Sinophone World Series before: Sinophone Malaysian Literature: Not Made in China. RECOMMENDED:7 things Singapore does better than anyone else and 9 things you've definitely said or done after living in Singapore for three months. I asked them why they groaned when I wanted to buy one of their books. The beauty of it is the fact that its melting pot of words originating from various languages such as English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, MalayandTamil, and it's used universally in the country no matter ones mother tongue a true reflection of multiculturalism. Meaning:Sure, this means able to, permitted to or to request something, but this can also be used variously with a Singlish modifier. Comments and bibliography by Bert Scruggs: Im happy to hear that Mark was able to help you out. 9.44 9.48 The doctor (Doctor Tay) and the man pronounce the word "fly" differently. Aside from the collection of short stories called chhit-tho [+] ([+][+]) (Play) published in 2003 that so intrigued me, he also wrote a short story with the interesting title Zhn("China") (2001) and many other works that wrestled with China's writing system and topolectal web, and with his own ethnic identity. Dictionary of Literature Biography, vol. [+] were simply arbitrarily chosen to transcribe the sounds of this common Taiwanese word. suka ( "like") "Taiwanese Morphemes in Search of Chinese Characters" Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 6.2 (June): 306-314. When I wrote that article Chinese Christians were still using the Hokkien Bible and singing Hokkien hymns, so they knew the literary vocabulary of the language, but when I did my research on Christians in Singapore and Penang from 1997-2004 I found that even that was changing and Christian leaders were promoting Mandarin use. on the cover and was immediately intrigued by it because I had never come across those characters before in my life. a. English is used: Meaning: A Hokkien way of saying something is embarrassing.
Chiu, Kuei-Fen. Example:"It's Friday, Ibo chapalready. Singapore Hokkien WLU (not sure on the tones) is probably just Hokkien + , as in my parent. Example:Alamak! gang is (TL/POJ kang), which as others pointed out means labor laborer work worker. :A popular Hokkien term to mean afraid of losing out, describing someone as selfish and trying to get ahead of others in a negative manner. But usually when this sort of "revival" takes place, it's already too late. They said that it was because their computer system didn't have either of those characters in the software. 18:43 The word "ngiao" ("cat") is used for "stingy". I spotted a book with [+] on the cover and was immediately intrigued by it because I had never come across those characters before in my life.
ruit (from Malay duit, "money") Suspect this relaxation of policy on use of Hokkien by broadcasters in Singapore is related to the passing last year of long-time Prime Minister (later Minister Mentor) Lee Kuan Yew, a great man in many respects.
:Usually used at hawkercentresto when placing an order to say takeaway. In SIngapore and Penang "I" is "wa" not "gua." They are very enjoyable to watch.The older generation speaks so naturally, and you can hear their Hokkien is smooth. Over the years with the influence of Teochew and mix of Hokkien from different places, our Hokkien is almost a big mix. From Jean DeBernardi, author of "Linguistic Nationalism: The Case of Southern Min", Sino-Platonic Papers, 25 (Aug. 1991): I've been meaning to forward an email from a friend in Singapore. Each one serves different purposes, and it all depends on tone, syntax, andcontext. Makes sense, though. The first was this: "Eurasian eureka" (9/12/16).]. As Janet says, "Once again, the clip contains many common Malay words. The connection between TIM and Chinese is doubtful. With the help of Mark Swofford, I have identified the author in question as Li Yongping (b. Here are some example of malay words taht may have been borrow from fujian, Because of those two strange characters on the cover alone, I decided that I had to have this book. Sian.. Theres many others like it, such as Hokkien GIN vs. Malay INGIN and PENGEN. Ph.
Some thoughts and observations after watching the first two episodes: 1 This shows got moxie. My nephew wanted to act in Jack Neo's movie but was rejected because his Hokkien was not good enough. sack (spoken by the boss) I'ma look for Mr Li's books next time I'm in Taiwan.
Anyway, it looks like there's a Hokkien revival of sorts in Singapore, but the new Hokkien is not quite the same as the old Hokkien. Well, there's nothing "original" about them at all. For example, the pedestrian paths used to be called "ngou kaki" in Teochew, literally 5-foot-way. Meaning:These are all discourse particles that are mentioned at the end of sentences. 6:16 A man tries to say "take care of yourself" in Cantonese. :Who busks withhorse masks in this heat?
:Literally translates to "don't care" from Hokkien, indicating someone who's indifferent or doesn't take the initiative. 14:04 "Mana" ("where") from Malay. Go forth and use your new knowledge by charming aunties at the kopitiam. I'm curious to see if someone who knows something about Malay can chip in. Occupying the Literary Heartland. dukun = lo kun = doctor, there is a diety in medicine call Tai Siang Lo Kun (For both, cf. I'm pretty sure You're right on LUI. , and I found that they were rare characters dug up from some obscure Song Dynasty lexicon to serve as the supposed bnz ("original characters") to match the morphemes of the Taiwanese word. coolie gang would mean a coolie worker, and gang rui would mean payment for labor, with rui being a malay loan word that replaces tsnn (). I pinpointed the Malay words in the Hokkien in Spore / Malaysia to you, to show you that our Hokkien is rather different from Taiwanese. 19:24 An Indian lady says "you can tell me" in Hokkien. Li Yongping. Empire of the Chinese Sign: The Question of Chinese Diasporic Imagination in Transnational Literary Production. The Journal of Asian Studies 67, 2 (2008): 593-620. The program itself sounded more like what I'm used to hearing in Singapore and Penang, and I easily understood it. Meaning:A Hokkien expression for boring, tiring or bothersome. Example:Those kiasu aunties pushed through thecrowdfor the free goodies..
This experience had a profound effect upon me, because chhit-tho ("play") was one of the first Taiwanese words that I learned when I was teaching in Taichung during 1970-72, and here we had to go through all these graphic gymnastics to write this high frequency word in characters! This also goes back to the ingrained belief inherited from the elders that Chinese is just one language. I'm very proud to say that one of the site co-directors is my former student Min-Min Liang and another is my friend Emma Teng. Indeed; how about specifically from the older Chinese Pidgin English "missy"? Photograph: British Council Singapore/Flickr. For a monumentally important article on the inadequacy of the Chinese script for writing Taiwanese, see: Cheng, Robert L. (Zheng Liangwei) 1978. The register of the characters is fairly different from what I am used to hearing. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2013, 149-56.
4 In the first two episodes, they slipped in not one but two Indians that speak fluent Hokkien. Li Yongping. In Edward Davis, ed., Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. Challenging.
Apart from its content, you may find the language of the episode quite interesting. So I took it up to the checkout area, and the clerks groaned. A + (ln) etymology for WLU never occurred to me. Also at 14:33, 15:54, and 17:40. Cambridge: MIT), Ng, Kim-chew. :Malay for up, but is usually used as an adjective to describe something as luxe, upper class or high SES. ), "what was the book that You bought that had in the title?".
Durham: Duke UP, forthcoming. Lots of Malay is used throughout:
@Kirin/David, walau is probably a bastardization of walan, to make it less harsh while expressing the same thing. What may interest you most is that it is in Hokkien, that long overlooked dialect / topolect. As I understand it, chhit-tho has a more nuanced meaning than play in as much as it can also be used to describe someone as a loafer or slacker. Minnan use to be the lingua franca trade in Fujian ports city and fujian people had been traveling out from China since ancient times. "cooley". Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010. lorong = road + channel The subtitles are in Mandarin and English. The expression "guli gang" is used many times in this clip.
langkah = skip + leg He mentioned that many young people in Singapore can't speak Hokkien well, and that someone (I think his nephew) tried out for the Hokkien show you blogged about about and was told that his Hokkien was not good enough. Alternatively, its to express a sense of shame or that you are simply shy.
So I took it up to the checkout area, and the clerks groaned.
The fact that the Indians spoke real Hokkien while most of the younger Chinese characters spoke Mandarin in Hokkien reveals the nature of the beast. Example:Can you do this for me? Can lah, no worries. Can meh? Sure can.. Don't ask me to do more work.". The mother tried to get a day off (cuti). Minnan fujian language had it root since ancient China as early as Han and Tang Dynasty. And I think 'simmih' ("what") is 'hammit' in Penang, not sure about Singapore. However, she did agree that the script was likely written in Mandarin. Chen, Yaling. We know the script was written in Mandarin, as with all Hokkien programs anywhere, because slim to no chance the writers can write in Hokkien, and slimmer chance the actors could read it if they did. The name was picked up by the Portuguese, who used it in southern India (where by coincidence kuli in Tamil meant "hire") and in China.
Next time I go to Tainan I'll do that! "I believe that gang in guli gang means work/labor (as in chor gangdo work) or kang tow labor head".
Take malay words for example, lot of people think malaysian and singaporean fujian borrow from malay but it acttualy the other way around. Tong, Tee Kim. 7 Hokkien songs are almost always sung in Amoy dialect or a similar Tailam type of dialect, no matter what dialects the singer and songwriter speak. The funny thing is that I never realized those were Hokkien words until someone fluent in Bahasa told me that I was using Hokkien pronouns and the rest was Malay. :Just do it like thatlah (Here, lah has a sense of exasperation, but can alsobeusedas a finality. walao this must be the most common expression in Spore walao, walao weiIt's difficult to translate, a bit like "Gosh, OMG, good grief". Twitter: https://twitter.com/learndialect It can also be used as a verb. Malay "salah" is used for "wrong". When I was in Taiwan my friends complained that my Hokkien was not 'pure', and was 'crude', and lacking intonation. The Taiwanese professor was very intrigued because she said she distinctly heard a few Hokkien words when I spoke to him and then for the rest she b zhdo n shu shnme" ("I don't know what you're saying"). longkang = channel + river
About ten-fifteen years ago, I went to a famous bookstore for scholars in Taipei, Lexis. Unless one knows Mandarin or so called "Mandarin Hokkien" as one might hear in Hokkien Operas, it is different to understand. Of Motherlands and Maternities: Spectal Topographies in Li Yongpings Haidong Qing. In David Wang and Joyce Liu, eds., Writing Taiwan: Strategies of Representation. @Kirin, Duit was a unit of measurement in Dutch currency. :You guys are having dinner together? There was a book by a Teochew language researcher in China in the National Library about Teochew word etymology, where he states that Malay-originated words like "kaki", "mata", "lui" are used by China Teochews due to the influence from Malayan/Singapore Teochews.
:To describe something delicious or simply good. I will do that today. So if we listen to malaysian, singaporean or indonesian fujianese people using word sound malay it could possibly malay borrow from minnan then return back to fujian. 13:53 "Patut" ("correct, fair") from Malay, also again at 14:00 and 14:04. Just a few days ago, Singapore's Ministry of communications and information released a set of TV programs, aimed at seniors. 3) Humour and tongue in cheek in some parts, mixing English with Hokkien (rhyming) (eg, Medisave to save your life) actually are quite well done. Its not that the younger Chinese actors lack something (i.e. and the list go on. Liang, Min Min. .
The idea that speaking Mandarin in Hokkien is not the same as speaking Hokkien is nonsense to a lot of younger Singaporeans. In the song of , the character subtitles used are more vernacular.
As I said in my now very old article, the loss of literacy in Hokkien was a serious setback for the language since it pushed its status down. 11.18 Another "baru / baharu" ("just now") from Malay. Chau Wu, whose work I discussed in "Eurasian eureka" (9/12/16), suggested that "It would be great if you perused the book by the same name (by Li Yongping ) while enjoying a cup of coffee in that coffee shop." Tomorrow afternoon, we have a guy from Taiping, Perak, Malaysia, known popularly as Ah Kew, here in Singapore to give a talk on Hokkien in Malaysia. By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. were simply arbitrarily chosen to transcribe the sounds of this common Taiwanese word. Diam in original malay meaning probably meant "to be still" instead of "to be quiet", but I'm speculating here. They said that it was because their computer system didn't have either of those characters in the software. Example:Just do it like thatlah (Here, lah has a sense of exasperation, but can alsobeusedas a finality. 10.28 The Teochew nurse says "rui" (from "duit" from Malay) for "money". Dj vu! Li Yongping. In Thomas Moran and Ye (Dianna) Xu, eds., Chinese Fiction Writers, 1950-2000. Here are some examples: Geok Hoon (Janet) Williams (a Chinese teacher from Singapore and Malaysia): 1) Great to see my familiar actor / actresses speaking Hokkien. Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!
Example:"Wah, your dance moves superswee!". London: Taylor and Francis, 2005, 460. I remember the Radio and Rediffusion news in various Chinese languages worked from the same Mandarin script. Malay is mostly spoken by Muslims after all. For example, to sack / fire / dismiss is pok tao lo (spoken by the mother), so natural, more emotional than when you say kich (as in Mandarin). This experience had a profound effect upon me, because, "New Hokkien drama aimed at seniors to be launched on Sep 9", How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language, Everything You Know About English Is Wrong. Widmer and David Wang, eds., From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentiety-Century China.
During our meeting, an Indonesian Chinese came up to reserve a few books and we spoke in Malay (well, he in Bahasa and me in my Peranakan Malay). How do you say "Thank You" in Singapore Hokkien? If a younger speaker can speak Mandarin in Hokkien fluidly with good Hokkien pronunciation, that passes for decent Hokkien.
We have a few Hokkien groups in Facebook, including one that tries to share the Chinese scripts for Hokkien words that are non-existent in Mandarin. Relatively closeto the term FOMO (fear of missing out). :A Hokkien expression for boring, tiring or bothersome. hahaha. Example: I'mpaisehto ask Chris Hemsworth for a selfie.. Filed by Victor Mair under Borrowing, Multilingualism, Topolects, [This is the second in a series of four planned posts on Hokkien and related Southern Min / Minnan language issues.
The two characters [+] were printed large on the cover of the book. A Malay-Hokkien connection wouldn't have to imply a loan one way or the other, though. The writing is curious, since the characters literally mean "seven peaches". the pronunciation lot of these words might differ from the original version.
ju on in kelantanese means gloomy sky, could be from hokian means jit um Tua-elder
But I could tell from the context that what they were saying is the Hokkien word that is usually written [+]. Pick up commonly-used Singapore Hokkien words and phrases at :These are all discourse particles that are mentioned at the end of sentences. Bojio.. No doubt Ge Zai Xi was from Taiwan. In the old days (maybe even now), each village in Singapore had its unique Hokkien, mainly because the villagers probably came from same village in China or at least were influenced by such local variants growing up. by Min-min Liang. ), I didnt know you have to do it like thatleh. (Here, leh is used to show uncertainty, a little more doubtful compared to lah. : I'mpaisehto ask Chris Hemsworth for a selfie.. :Hokkien for crazy. :Letschopethe table by leaving a pack of tissues there.. Actually the first time I ran across Li Yongping was when I read a chapter by David Wang on Shen Congwen, Song Zelai, and Li in a seminar at Princeton with Perry Link while I was at Penn.
bewtween chhit-tho vs. thit-tho as one test to differentiate between
I've also heard a Cantonese reflex of the word in Saigon Cantonese, pronounced like but in the tone. :Those kiasu aunties pushed through thecrowdfor the free goodies.. D. diss. Imaginary Nostalgia: Shen Congwen, Song Zelai, Mo Yan, and Li Yongping. In Ellen. The only difference is that there is a Singapore accent present. The next challenge, as pointed out, is that Hokkien is usually written in Mandarin. Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. Here is some information about the scope and aims of the program itself: "New Hokkien drama aimed at seniors to be launched on Sep 9" (Channel NewsAsia, 9/1/16).
It's similar to what she will be using in real life. :He is tooatasto be caught dead eating at a hawkercentre.. Example:"Mygirlfriend made me carry all her shopping bags around Orchard Road, now I'm so shag.".
In this film you can hear our tones are comparatively flatter than Taiwanese. Sian.. One of your correspondents identifies "diam diam" as a Malay word, but tim-tim is used in Amoy Hokkien and Taiwanese too. 1947). Thank you for the link. Bojio.. Rojas, Carlos.
Also at 18:09. David Der-wei Wang, eds., Global Chinese Literature: Critical Essays.
in Rojas, The Naked Gaze: Reflections on Chinese Modernity. It's likely TIM, , and DIAM just sound alike by coincidence. I took them to be the title.
I have watched the first part of the episode, and found it rather curious. Pick up commonly-used Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew words in Singapore. She says "b/pe", the man says "b/puey".
5 The Teochew-Hokkien bilingual dialog between the Bird King and the clerk at the clinic was boocoo interesting.
Orang, malay means human, the fujian in ancient times most proablly call the dark skin malay olang means dark human. -. Contemporary Chinese Writers (Cambridge: MIT). I heard of one movie by Jack Neo where he "forced" his cast to speak Hokkien day in and day out to achieve fluency with the right tones. Meaning: We know what you're thinking, but it means to feel physically exhausted in Singlish. 7:18-8:00 The female nurse speaks in Teochew , not Hokkien. 19:37 Here "gang rui" is used for "wages", but compare "guli gang" discussed above (15:24). On the concept of "original character", search for bnz in this paper: Victor H. Mair, "How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language". ), Ive got no choice, So I just did itlor. (Here, lor is used to express acceptance or resignation. Robert E. Hall Jr., "Chinese Pidgin English Grammar and Texts", Journal of the American Oriental Society 64(3):95-113.
Not surprising to find its Royston Tan at the helm. Is Prof Victor Mair comparing the Hokkien he used to hear in Singapore or elsewhere? You have to do it like that? (Here, meh is used with a rhetorical question to serve disbelief without actually being shocked or surprised.). I should have mentioned this book in the Cambria Sinophone World Series before: Sinophone Malaysian Literature: Not Made in China. RECOMMENDED:7 things Singapore does better than anyone else and 9 things you've definitely said or done after living in Singapore for three months. I asked them why they groaned when I wanted to buy one of their books. The beauty of it is the fact that its melting pot of words originating from various languages such as English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, MalayandTamil, and it's used universally in the country no matter ones mother tongue a true reflection of multiculturalism. Meaning:Sure, this means able to, permitted to or to request something, but this can also be used variously with a Singlish modifier. Comments and bibliography by Bert Scruggs: Im happy to hear that Mark was able to help you out. 9.44 9.48 The doctor (Doctor Tay) and the man pronounce the word "fly" differently. Aside from the collection of short stories called chhit-tho [+] ([+][+]) (Play) published in 2003 that so intrigued me, he also wrote a short story with the interesting title Zhn("China") (2001) and many other works that wrestled with China's writing system and topolectal web, and with his own ethnic identity. Dictionary of Literature Biography, vol. [+] were simply arbitrarily chosen to transcribe the sounds of this common Taiwanese word. suka ( "like") "Taiwanese Morphemes in Search of Chinese Characters" Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 6.2 (June): 306-314. When I wrote that article Chinese Christians were still using the Hokkien Bible and singing Hokkien hymns, so they knew the literary vocabulary of the language, but when I did my research on Christians in Singapore and Penang from 1997-2004 I found that even that was changing and Christian leaders were promoting Mandarin use. on the cover and was immediately intrigued by it because I had never come across those characters before in my life. a. English is used: Meaning: A Hokkien way of saying something is embarrassing.
Chiu, Kuei-Fen. Example:"It's Friday, Ibo chapalready. Singapore Hokkien WLU (not sure on the tones) is probably just Hokkien + , as in my parent. Example:Alamak! gang is (TL/POJ kang), which as others pointed out means labor laborer work worker. :A popular Hokkien term to mean afraid of losing out, describing someone as selfish and trying to get ahead of others in a negative manner. But usually when this sort of "revival" takes place, it's already too late. They said that it was because their computer system didn't have either of those characters in the software. 18:43 The word "ngiao" ("cat") is used for "stingy". I spotted a book with [+] on the cover and was immediately intrigued by it because I had never come across those characters before in my life.
ruit (from Malay duit, "money") Suspect this relaxation of policy on use of Hokkien by broadcasters in Singapore is related to the passing last year of long-time Prime Minister (later Minister Mentor) Lee Kuan Yew, a great man in many respects.
:Usually used at hawkercentresto when placing an order to say takeaway. In SIngapore and Penang "I" is "wa" not "gua." They are very enjoyable to watch.The older generation speaks so naturally, and you can hear their Hokkien is smooth. Over the years with the influence of Teochew and mix of Hokkien from different places, our Hokkien is almost a big mix. From Jean DeBernardi, author of "Linguistic Nationalism: The Case of Southern Min", Sino-Platonic Papers, 25 (Aug. 1991): I've been meaning to forward an email from a friend in Singapore. Each one serves different purposes, and it all depends on tone, syntax, andcontext. Makes sense, though. The first was this: "Eurasian eureka" (9/12/16).]. As Janet says, "Once again, the clip contains many common Malay words. The connection between TIM and Chinese is doubtful. With the help of Mark Swofford, I have identified the author in question as Li Yongping (b. Here are some example of malay words taht may have been borrow from fujian, Because of those two strange characters on the cover alone, I decided that I had to have this book. Sian.. Theres many others like it, such as Hokkien GIN vs. Malay INGIN and PENGEN. Ph.
Some thoughts and observations after watching the first two episodes: 1 This shows got moxie. My nephew wanted to act in Jack Neo's movie but was rejected because his Hokkien was not good enough. sack (spoken by the boss) I'ma look for Mr Li's books next time I'm in Taiwan.
Anyway, it looks like there's a Hokkien revival of sorts in Singapore, but the new Hokkien is not quite the same as the old Hokkien. Well, there's nothing "original" about them at all. For example, the pedestrian paths used to be called "ngou kaki" in Teochew, literally 5-foot-way. Meaning:These are all discourse particles that are mentioned at the end of sentences. 6:16 A man tries to say "take care of yourself" in Cantonese. :Who busks withhorse masks in this heat?
:Literally translates to "don't care" from Hokkien, indicating someone who's indifferent or doesn't take the initiative. 14:04 "Mana" ("where") from Malay. Go forth and use your new knowledge by charming aunties at the kopitiam. I'm curious to see if someone who knows something about Malay can chip in. Occupying the Literary Heartland. dukun = lo kun = doctor, there is a diety in medicine call Tai Siang Lo Kun (For both, cf. I'm pretty sure You're right on LUI. , and I found that they were rare characters dug up from some obscure Song Dynasty lexicon to serve as the supposed bnz ("original characters") to match the morphemes of the Taiwanese word. coolie gang would mean a coolie worker, and gang rui would mean payment for labor, with rui being a malay loan word that replaces tsnn (). I pinpointed the Malay words in the Hokkien in Spore / Malaysia to you, to show you that our Hokkien is rather different from Taiwanese. 19:24 An Indian lady says "you can tell me" in Hokkien. Li Yongping. Empire of the Chinese Sign: The Question of Chinese Diasporic Imagination in Transnational Literary Production. The Journal of Asian Studies 67, 2 (2008): 593-620. The program itself sounded more like what I'm used to hearing in Singapore and Penang, and I easily understood it. Meaning:A Hokkien expression for boring, tiring or bothersome. Example:Those kiasu aunties pushed through thecrowdfor the free goodies..
This experience had a profound effect upon me, because chhit-tho ("play") was one of the first Taiwanese words that I learned when I was teaching in Taichung during 1970-72, and here we had to go through all these graphic gymnastics to write this high frequency word in characters! This also goes back to the ingrained belief inherited from the elders that Chinese is just one language. I'm very proud to say that one of the site co-directors is my former student Min-Min Liang and another is my friend Emma Teng. Indeed; how about specifically from the older Chinese Pidgin English "missy"? Photograph: British Council Singapore/Flickr. For a monumentally important article on the inadequacy of the Chinese script for writing Taiwanese, see: Cheng, Robert L. (Zheng Liangwei) 1978. The register of the characters is fairly different from what I am used to hearing. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2013, 149-56.
4 In the first two episodes, they slipped in not one but two Indians that speak fluent Hokkien. Li Yongping. In Edward Davis, ed., Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. Challenging.
Apart from its content, you may find the language of the episode quite interesting. So I took it up to the checkout area, and the clerks groaned. A + (ln) etymology for WLU never occurred to me. Also at 14:33, 15:54, and 17:40. Cambridge: MIT), Ng, Kim-chew. :Malay for up, but is usually used as an adjective to describe something as luxe, upper class or high SES. ), "what was the book that You bought that had in the title?".
Durham: Duke UP, forthcoming. Lots of Malay is used throughout:
@Kirin/David, walau is probably a bastardization of walan, to make it less harsh while expressing the same thing. What may interest you most is that it is in Hokkien, that long overlooked dialect / topolect. As I understand it, chhit-tho has a more nuanced meaning than play in as much as it can also be used to describe someone as a loafer or slacker. Minnan use to be the lingua franca trade in Fujian ports city and fujian people had been traveling out from China since ancient times. "cooley". Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010. lorong = road + channel The subtitles are in Mandarin and English. The expression "guli gang" is used many times in this clip.
langkah = skip + leg He mentioned that many young people in Singapore can't speak Hokkien well, and that someone (I think his nephew) tried out for the Hokkien show you blogged about about and was told that his Hokkien was not good enough. Alternatively, its to express a sense of shame or that you are simply shy.
So I took it up to the checkout area, and the clerks groaned.
The fact that the Indians spoke real Hokkien while most of the younger Chinese characters spoke Mandarin in Hokkien reveals the nature of the beast. Example:Can you do this for me? Can lah, no worries. Can meh? Sure can.. Don't ask me to do more work.". The mother tried to get a day off (cuti). Minnan fujian language had it root since ancient China as early as Han and Tang Dynasty. And I think 'simmih' ("what") is 'hammit' in Penang, not sure about Singapore. However, she did agree that the script was likely written in Mandarin. Chen, Yaling. We know the script was written in Mandarin, as with all Hokkien programs anywhere, because slim to no chance the writers can write in Hokkien, and slimmer chance the actors could read it if they did. The name was picked up by the Portuguese, who used it in southern India (where by coincidence kuli in Tamil meant "hire") and in China.
Next time I go to Tainan I'll do that! "I believe that gang in guli gang means work/labor (as in chor gangdo work) or kang tow labor head".
Take malay words for example, lot of people think malaysian and singaporean fujian borrow from malay but it acttualy the other way around. Tong, Tee Kim. 7 Hokkien songs are almost always sung in Amoy dialect or a similar Tailam type of dialect, no matter what dialects the singer and songwriter speak. The funny thing is that I never realized those were Hokkien words until someone fluent in Bahasa told me that I was using Hokkien pronouns and the rest was Malay. :Just do it like thatlah (Here, lah has a sense of exasperation, but can alsobeusedas a finality. walao this must be the most common expression in Spore walao, walao weiIt's difficult to translate, a bit like "Gosh, OMG, good grief". Twitter: https://twitter.com/learndialect It can also be used as a verb. Malay "salah" is used for "wrong". When I was in Taiwan my friends complained that my Hokkien was not 'pure', and was 'crude', and lacking intonation. The Taiwanese professor was very intrigued because she said she distinctly heard a few Hokkien words when I spoke to him and then for the rest she b zhdo n shu shnme" ("I don't know what you're saying"). longkang = channel + river
About ten-fifteen years ago, I went to a famous bookstore for scholars in Taipei, Lexis. Unless one knows Mandarin or so called "Mandarin Hokkien" as one might hear in Hokkien Operas, it is different to understand. Of Motherlands and Maternities: Spectal Topographies in Li Yongpings Haidong Qing. In David Wang and Joyce Liu, eds., Writing Taiwan: Strategies of Representation. @Kirin, Duit was a unit of measurement in Dutch currency. :You guys are having dinner together? There was a book by a Teochew language researcher in China in the National Library about Teochew word etymology, where he states that Malay-originated words like "kaki", "mata", "lui" are used by China Teochews due to the influence from Malayan/Singapore Teochews.
:To describe something delicious or simply good. I will do that today. So if we listen to malaysian, singaporean or indonesian fujianese people using word sound malay it could possibly malay borrow from minnan then return back to fujian. 13:53 "Patut" ("correct, fair") from Malay, also again at 14:00 and 14:04. Just a few days ago, Singapore's Ministry of communications and information released a set of TV programs, aimed at seniors. 3) Humour and tongue in cheek in some parts, mixing English with Hokkien (rhyming) (eg, Medisave to save your life) actually are quite well done. Its not that the younger Chinese actors lack something (i.e. and the list go on. Liang, Min Min. .
The idea that speaking Mandarin in Hokkien is not the same as speaking Hokkien is nonsense to a lot of younger Singaporeans. In the song of , the character subtitles used are more vernacular.
As I said in my now very old article, the loss of literacy in Hokkien was a serious setback for the language since it pushed its status down. 11.18 Another "baru / baharu" ("just now") from Malay. Chau Wu, whose work I discussed in "Eurasian eureka" (9/12/16), suggested that "It would be great if you perused the book by the same name (by Li Yongping ) while enjoying a cup of coffee in that coffee shop." Tomorrow afternoon, we have a guy from Taiping, Perak, Malaysia, known popularly as Ah Kew, here in Singapore to give a talk on Hokkien in Malaysia. By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. were simply arbitrarily chosen to transcribe the sounds of this common Taiwanese word. Diam in original malay meaning probably meant "to be still" instead of "to be quiet", but I'm speculating here. They said that it was because their computer system didn't have either of those characters in the software. Example:Just do it like thatlah (Here, lah has a sense of exasperation, but can alsobeusedas a finality. 10.28 The Teochew nurse says "rui" (from "duit" from Malay) for "money". Dj vu! Li Yongping. In Thomas Moran and Ye (Dianna) Xu, eds., Chinese Fiction Writers, 1950-2000. Here are some examples: Geok Hoon (Janet) Williams (a Chinese teacher from Singapore and Malaysia): 1) Great to see my familiar actor / actresses speaking Hokkien. Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!
Example:"Wah, your dance moves superswee!". London: Taylor and Francis, 2005, 460. I remember the Radio and Rediffusion news in various Chinese languages worked from the same Mandarin script. Malay is mostly spoken by Muslims after all. For example, to sack / fire / dismiss is pok tao lo (spoken by the mother), so natural, more emotional than when you say kich (as in Mandarin). This experience had a profound effect upon me, because, "New Hokkien drama aimed at seniors to be launched on Sep 9", How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language, Everything You Know About English Is Wrong. Widmer and David Wang, eds., From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentiety-Century China.
During our meeting, an Indonesian Chinese came up to reserve a few books and we spoke in Malay (well, he in Bahasa and me in my Peranakan Malay). How do you say "Thank You" in Singapore Hokkien? If a younger speaker can speak Mandarin in Hokkien fluidly with good Hokkien pronunciation, that passes for decent Hokkien.
We have a few Hokkien groups in Facebook, including one that tries to share the Chinese scripts for Hokkien words that are non-existent in Mandarin. Relatively closeto the term FOMO (fear of missing out). :A Hokkien expression for boring, tiring or bothersome. hahaha. Example: I'mpaisehto ask Chris Hemsworth for a selfie.. Filed by Victor Mair under Borrowing, Multilingualism, Topolects, [This is the second in a series of four planned posts on Hokkien and related Southern Min / Minnan language issues.