What Kou Iu Bhung has said . . .

In the last post I pointed out some of what Kou Iu Bhung 許友文 has said about mispronunciations.

Upon hearing the video again, I have heard more words / phrases been mispronounced.

ig4kiong5ri6bêh8	一窮二白｜一穷二白	improvised, backward both economically and culturally
ig4cêng1ri6co2	一清二楚	to be very clear about something
gian5ze1	行書｜行书	running script, semi-cursive script (Chinese calligraphic style)
dui3bo5gong1deng5	對薄公堂｜对簿公堂	public courtroom accusation, a legal confrontation

I think there is a problem with our Teochew language because

A] many imported Mandarin words have been self-translated by Mandarin educated people and therefore translated incorrectly and mispronounced;

B] too many Teochew people do not use or do not know how to use Teochew dictionaries to self-correct their pronunciation;

C] some people refuse to learn and master the language;

D] many parents are not willing or not capable of teaching their children the language;

E] many teachers do not have the capability to teach pupils our Teochew language as Mandarin has been the medium of instruction for several decades;

F] some of us have no teachers to teach us to master our own mother tongue.

What do you reckon?

I think it is possible for us overseas Teochew people to learn our mother tongue and learn it independently because their are learning media galore on the Internet to learn Teochew. 

The current situation of the Teochew langauge

The man in the video is talking about the current situation of our Teochew language.  He speaks mainly with a Swatow accent. 

I have typed out a line of what he has said. Towards the end of the video, he explains why we have to maintain our Teochew language.

Ua2 sion6 Dio5suan1 Uê7 zi2zung5 gai7 cu3gêng2 ia7 si6 bi2ga3 nguin5hiam2, hui1sion5 dan1iu1

我想潮汕話衹陣個處境也是比較危險非常擔憂｜我想潮汕话只阵个处境也是比较危险非常担忧

I think the current situation of the Teochew language is also relatively dangerous, (is) very concerning.

 

What do you about what he said in the video? 

He said:

bung2tou2 gai7 Dio5suan1 nang5 bho5mih4 oi6 dan3 Dio5suan1 Uê7

本土個潮汕人無乜會呾潮汕話｜本土个潮汕人无乜会呾潮汕话

Local Teochew people [i.e. those living in our homeland] are not able to speak Teochew.

If the local people in our homeland are unable to speak our Teochew language fluently, then it will be very difficult for people like us living overseas to be able to master our mother tongue. 

The speaker then went on to illustrate the following in the list below.

bhag8re2	木耳	wood ear fungus
bhag8min5huê1	木棉花	kapok flower
Seng1 Ngo6Kong1	孫悟空｜孙悟空	The Monkey King
zong2 gêng1 li2	總經理｜总经理	General Manager CEO
buê6hog8	佩服	to admire
gam3gai3	尷尬｜尴尬	awkward, embarrassed
gi6gou3 not said as gi’dou and not gi’du	忌妒	to be jealous, envious Mandarin ji2du4 嫉妒
rui6tuang5	遺傳｜遗传	heredity: to inherit a trait, to pass on to an offspring

Mogher has a good example which we can remember the 8 tones

sing1kou2 zêng3 zoh4, nang5 u6 bung7 ziah8

辛苦種作 人有飯食｜ 辛苦种作 人有饭食

exhaustingly planting people have food to eat

 十五個聲母 - zab8ngou6 gai7 sian1bho2 - 15 initial consonants

liu2 柳	biang1 邊｜边	kiu5 求	he5 魚｜鱼	di7 地
tua1 拖	ka1 腳｜脚	zêng1 蒸	rib8 入	si5 時｜时
êng1 英	bhung5 文	ghe2 語｜语	cug4 出	hi2 喜

 

十五個聲母 - zab8ngou6 gai7 sian1bho2 - 15 initial consonants

liu2 柳	biang1 邊｜边	kiu5 求	he5 魚｜鱼	di7 地
tua1 拖	ka1 腳｜脚	zêng1 蒸	rib8 入	si5 時｜时
êng1 英	bhung5 文	ghe2 語｜语	cug4 出	hi2 喜

 

Yam balls [Taro balls in the US]

In this video you will hear Teochew City accent.  The father asked why the son was yawning and if he was sleepy.

huah4hi3	哈欠	to yawn
mag8siab4	目𥍆	sleepy

There is a sentence worth analysing which is said by the father:

ain3 ziah8 iao1 pang1 zu6 dioh8 liah8 lai5 luah8 zêg8ê6

慾食夭芳就著掠來烙一下｜欲食夭芳就着掠来烙一下

If want to eat a tastier (one) then have to pan fry for a little while.

The subtitles in Mandarin wrote: 煎一下更香 – fry for a little while more tasty

Pang1 used to mean fragrant and now it also means tasty.

Liah8 normally means to catch or to purchase. However, it has a different meaning in this context.

crucian carp

In this video, the gentleman cooks little carps.  He uses a term tiab4uê1 and I would normally say niam1uê1.

zig4he5	鯽魚｜鲫鱼	crucian carp
tiab4uê1	貼鍋｜贴锅	to stick to a pot
niam1uê1	黏鍋｜黏锅	to stick to a pot
niam1uê1	粘鍋｜粘锅	to stick to a pot
kain3 gua3 kui1 dua7huê2
蓋蓋開大火｜盖盖开大火
I would have said: kam3 koin3 kui1 mên2huê2
蓋蓋開猛火｜盖盖开猛火
And later on, at 0:30 he said
kain3 kain3 guên1 huê2
蓋蓋關火｜盖盖关火
To cover with a lid and switch off the heat / fire

He said kaiⁿ3 gua3 kui1 dua7 huê2 – cover with a lid and turn on high heat and this shows that he speaks with a Gig’Ioⁿ accent because he said kaiⁿ3 instead of koiⁿ3.

He uses an interesting word “zuang2dong1 轉中｜转中” as in zuang2dong1 soi3huê2 轉中細火｜转中细火 to mean to turn down to low heat.

Finally, he uses another interesting term “tih4 gao3lag8 忒夠力｜忒够力” which means very awesome.

air conditioner

Dudu has asked her mother to turn on the air conditioner. An air conditioner is called kong1tiao5 空調 [a noun i.e. the equipment which makes cold air] and some overseas Teochew people may call air conditioning ngang5ki3 凝氣 following the people of Taiwan calling air conditioning nêⁿ2ki3 冷氣

Fewer than 2 percent of the people in the UK has air conditioning and when the weather gets too hot, some people go to the supermarkets to cool down and catch CoViD at the same time. 

Mixed accents

 It is interesting that Iab Hui, a man from Swatow would say ham5 hoiⁿ2 含蜆｜含蚬 as ham5 haiⁿ2. People in Swatow and Teochew should call this as ham5 hoiⁿ2.  

I do not dare to eat any shellfish because they take on heavy metals from polluted waters. Do you eat shellfish?

Cooking a carp

Let us watch this video and see how the gentleman cooks a carp.

Carp is called li2gou1 鯉鮕 in Teochew.

He cooked the fish in a sua1uê1 沙鍋 which is an earthenware casserole pot. Do not try to cook such pot on an electric ring burner!

He also added dou2nêg8 肚肉 which is pork belly.

He also added he5zab8 魚雜 which are the fish internal organs.

He said koiⁿ3 uê1 huê2 dua7 kui1 蓋鍋火大開 means to cover the pot and turn on to high heat.

He added tomatoes and he called tomatoes huang1gio5 番茄 .  If you are an overseas Teochew person, you may call tomatoes ang5mo5gio5 紅毛茄 and there is an Ang5mo5gio5 紅毛橋 in Singapore and this Ang5mo5gio5 is referring to the name of a bridge originally and now a constituency.  As Singapore uses Mandarin as standard Chinese, they have also changed the Chinese characters and do not follow Teochew and Hokkien pronunciation. 

China has decided that there are certain words are unacceptable and anything with ang5mo5 in its name has been removed for these words are considered racist as ang5mo5 refers to Caucasian people.

He added Angelica sinensis or female ginseng which is called dang1gui1 當歸

If there were any words which he mentioned and you would like to know its meaning, please ask in the comment section. I did not explain simple things like giam5cai3 鹹菜 because I assume that all Teochew people what is giam5cai3.

Silence is golden

I have just heard this song which is called Dim5mig8 si6 Gim1 沉默是金 Silence is Golden.  The video is from Face Book. The song is sung in Mandarin Teochew and I think the original song was sung in Cantonese. 

dêng2 characters

In a previous post, I discussed two dêng1 when A’Hog’s mother was teaching him about two dêng1 one meaning a son and the other a lamp.

Let us consider three dêng2 characters today.

dêng2	戥	dêng2	to weigh
	秤	cing3	weighing scale
dêng2	等	siang6(2)dêng2	the best
dêng2	上等強	siang6(2)dêng2(6)   kiang3	the most capable
dêng2	樓頂	lao5(7)dêng2	upstairs

 

Pomfret

 

The fish in the picture is a pomfret and he says it is called gim1cioⁿ1he5 but do notice that the subtitle uses the wrong 槍 character, where 槍 is a gun.  

Gim1cioⁿ1he5 [a golden pomfret] should be written as 金鯧魚 and gim1cioⁿ1he5 金槍魚 is a tuna.

Do not be cheated, lied to, scammed . . .

At the end of this video, there are warnings for all of us written in Standard Chinese. I think these warnings apply to all of us so we do not get scammed, cheated, swindled etc. 

謹慎陌生來電 - be cautious of stranger's incoming calls

提高防範意識 - raise one's guard and awareness

謹防電話詐騙 - to be aware of scammed phone calls

How do you say it does not matter?

If you were to listen to A’Hang and Ri’Muê at the beginningof the video, they say “ruang6” different. I say ruang6 because this is my family’s accent.

A’Hang		Ri’Muê
ruêng6 亂｜乱	It does not matter OR As you wish.	ruang6 亂｜乱

How do you say ruang6?

to offend . . .

To offend somebody is said as 得罪 dig4zo6 but however people from Gig’Ioⁿ say dêg4sêg and I am not an expert on Gig’Io ⁿ Uê and I have no idea which character to use for sêg. Do you know? If so, please share.

We normally say this character 罪 as zuê6 and a rough translation of meaning of this character is “sin”.

Mandarin Teochew

I watched this drama this morning and the actors spoke in Mandarin Teochew.  

I use this drama to improve my Chinese.  There is not much point for me to give a word list because I started this blog to promote our original Teochew language i.e. to find a way to preserve our mother tongue and also to use the correct Teochew characters.

Do watch this drama and let me know what you think of it?

What did A'Hog's mother teach him . . .

Let us listen to the first minute of conversation between A'Hog and his mother

dêng1 丁 – a son

dêng1 燈 – a lamp

diam2 dêng1 點燈 – to light a lamp

iu5 kah4 u6 zah4 油𠹛有扱 – Have you brought some oil? I do not think there is a character for zah4 as "to bring" and I just conveniently use 扱 as shown by one of my dictionaries.

拜阿娘 bai3 A1nioⁿ5 – to pray to Tie3guan1yin1 鐵觀音 – the goddess of mercy

tiam1dêng1 添丁 to add a grandson to the family

At this point A’Hog gets confused between dêng1 丁 – as in a male heir and dêng1 燈 – a lamp and that is why he asked his mother “dêng1 mo2 ho2 diam2” and his mother then explained to him that this dêng1 丁 cannot be set a light.