嬲 hiao5

When I think of hiao5 嬲 I cannot stop laughing. I am not thinking of the strange ways people think of hiao5.  

I am going to just translate hiao5 嬲 from the dictionary.

First meaning

a pleasant feeling as described by 快感


Second meaning

a joke, an entertainment


I was listening to a siaobing 小品 last evening and the grandmother told the grandchild's teacher that Mandarin is guêhiao 過嬲.  In this aspect, the grandmother is using the second meaning of hiao5 嬲.  Guêhiao 過嬲 means very funny.

I think the above is guêhiao 過嬲.

There is another meaning for this character 嬲.

And this time it is said as niao1 嬲 and some people nasal this and others do not.  The dictionary says this as 抓撓別人使發癢.And this means to scratch another person to cause them to itch - which is to tickle. 

niao1 嬲

rig8dao3

rig8dao3 means zhong1wu3 中午 - or midday / noon

We know dao3 is written as [日|斗] and this character does not have a unicode.  However, I read the 本字 of this dao is actually written as 昼 in LLL page 301 and the full character is 晝.

19th April 2022 dao3 character 𪰍 as in rig8dao3 日𪰍 for mid-day

Therefore we can now write rig8dao3 as 日晝. We therefore do not have to put a square or an empty space for the dao3 character.  Thanks to LLL.

rig8dao3 日晝 midday

虎頭蛇尾

houⁿ2 tao5 zua5 bhuê2 虎頭蛇尾

This is a Chinese idiom: and what does a tiger's head, a snake's tail mean?

It means to have an excellent start and a disappointing finish.

Please God don't let this happen to this blog.  ^_~

zai 栽

zai1 栽

What is a zai1 栽?

Zai1 are babies of animals.

For example de1zai1 - piglets

de1zai1 豬栽 piglets

another example

he5zai1 魚栽 - fish fry, also known as fingerling

he5zai1 魚栽 fish fry - baby fish

oi5 dion2 鞋底

What do you think an oi5 dioⁿ2 鞋底 mean? - An inside sole of a shoe? Wrong!

It is translated in the dictionary as 鰨目魚

oi5 dioⁿ2 鞋底 

Yes oi5 dioⁿ2 鞋底  is a sole.  The first character of 鰨目魚 ta3 means sole and the last two characters muyu 目魚 also means sole.  

So, you have learnt something today - oi5 dioⁿ2 鞋底 is a sole according to my word dictionary on page 454!

Lang6hiam2

The above is the official character for lang6 as in lang6hiam2.

However, Yanwu wrote me a story about seven days ago which I think is a very interesting one.  He wrote that some people would say lang6hiam2 should be written as 浪險.  As you know the lang6 浪 means waves.

Could this be 浪險?

As you know, DioSua nang always live by the sea and try to make a living from the sea.  They see the tide everyday and sometimes one escapes from huge stormy waves and their friends would praise them highly from surviving the big wave and hence lang6hiam2 浪險.

Yanwu is not sure if this is a true story, but it is a rather fascinating one to help us understand the meaning of langhiam. 

Going back to the above character again:

 In the Kangxi dictionary, which has over 47,000 characters, it is said as long3 in Mandarin.  Long3 actually means fierce and malicious.  However, for us Diosua nang, it means gather up.  And therefore langhiam in DioSua Ue, according to Yanwu, does not mean dangerous.  It actually means great or surprise.

Thank you Yanwu for explaining this for us.  Zoisia le. 

uang1 io1 彎腰

What does uang1 io1彎腰 mean?

It means to stoop. It literally means to bend your waist.  Uang1彎 is to bend and io1 腰 is one's waist.

uang1 io1彎腰

uang1 io1 彎腰

The number 1 after uang and io is the tone of that particular character.

However, I have looked at my study notes and uang1 io1彎腰 is actually the same as io1gu1 腰痀 which means hunchback.  In Mandarin hunchback is said as tuo2bei4 駝背. Tuo2 駝 means camel and bei4 背 means back - so hunchback in Mandarin is camel-back.  Don't you find this interesting?

sug4 tang2 摔桶

The picture below does not show a cêg4diam6 粟簟

It is a sug4 tang2  摔桶 

kim5siu3 禽獸

When I was young, I heard people scold others as kimsiu and I sort of knew it was referring to an animal.  However, kim5siu3 禽獸 is actually a beast or brutal person.

kim5siu3 禽獸 a beast

The correct word for animal is dong6muêh 動物.

dong6muêh 動物 animals

How to say cheetah in DioSua Uê is another matter ^_~

天公老爺保賀潮汕!

peng4 研 in 广州话, 客家话, 潮汕话, 与普通话对照词典 (2005)

The word dictionary gives three different explanations for peng4 研 on page 236.

First as to meet accidentally.  It can be said as pong3 研  or ngo 遇.  For an example, 

Ua2 pong3 dioh8 i1 liao5. 

我研著伊了!

I have already bumped into him. 

In Standard Chinese it is written as: 我碰見他了

幸好遇到你

幸好遇到你 

Hêng6ho2 ngo6gao3 le2

It is fortunate to have ran into you. 


The second meaning is: to hit, to collide, to knock into something which is 觸研 in Standard Chinese.  In DioSua Ue, we say kab4 dioh8 磕著.

An example of use is

Zi2 gai7 buê1 mai3 kab4 dioh8

只個杯勿磕著

Do not knock over this cup. 

磕著杯

And this is explained as 別碰這杯子 in Standard Chinese.

The final explanation give on page 236 of the dictionary is to hit or knock or bump or collide into something. In DioSua Ue we say this as kab4 pua3 磕破.

For example of use: gai7 tao5 kab4 pua3 liao5

which means his head is glazed.

個頭磕破了

In Standard Chinese it is written as 碰破了頭.

堵著 vs 遇著

There seems to be confusion amongst some people between du2 dioh8 堵著 and ngo6 dioh8 遇著. 

In LLL, page 161, you can read du2 堵 as to mean 碰巧遇上  which means to meet or to encounter by chance or concidence.  

碰巧遇上

Then how about ngo6 遇. In the word dictionary, on page 376, it explains ngo6 dioh8 遇著.  In Mandarin, it means yu4dao4 遇到 or peng4dao4 碰到 which means to run into or meet by chance. 

Neither dictionary explain their difference.  I was taught my ZiHong this and I cannot forget the difference

遇著個人 - to meet a person by chance 

堵著個事 - to meet an event by chance 

遇著

摩托車 motoh cia

One way to learn to read Chinese characters is to listen to songs, especially karaoke - where the characters are high lighted as you sing along. And guess what I have found?  The word for motorcycle.  LOL

mo5 toh4 cia1 摩托車

motoh cia - mo5(7)toh4 cia1 摩托車 - for motor cycle / motorbike.

Who would have guessed this? Of course this is a loan word.  






mo5(7)toh4 cia1 means you say mo tone 7 and not five.  You will get the hang of it after awhile.

Now you can sing along too!

Tones changes in DioSua Ue

We have 8 tones in our DioSua Ue.  4 and 8 are found when the PengIm ends with b, g or h

for example duck is ah4

but if you were to say ah teng - duck soup - it becomes ah(8) teung - a higher tone for ah - duck

same with bag for others - it is bag4 normally

but if you were to say bag nang - other people - you would raise the tone from 4 to 8 - bag(8) nang5


We have already covered diam diam in the last posting.

If you need to have a revision on this, you need to visit other Teochew websites, which have lots and lots of resources on this topic and it seems silly of me to repeat what you can find elsewhere.  I recommend Gaginang and I know Ty Lim has spent much time, energy and effort on this area.  There is this website on Teochew dialect also explains this topic, including Wikipedia.  In addition, there is a blog which has links to many other websites.

Enjoy learning the 8 tones and their changes.  

扂 diam7

diam7 扂 is explained  as diam7 zêⁿ6 扂靜｜扂静  which means an1jing4 安靜｜安静 – quiet, peaceful, calm, tranquil

The second explanation for diam7 扂 is an1ran2 安然 - peacefully, at rest, safely or tan3ran2 坦然 – which means calm, undisturbed

There is an idiom 

扂風靜浪｜扂风静浪

diam7 huang1 zêⁿ6 lang6

扂風靜浪 diam7 huang1 zêⁿ6 lang6

The Mandarin equivalent of this idiom is 風平浪靜｜风平浪静 - an idiom which means a tranquil environment; all is quiet; a dead calm and the literal meaning is still breeze; quiet waves

Another use of this diam7 扂 character is

i1 gai7 nang5 diam7 diam7 

伊個人扂扂｜ 伊个人扂扂

文靜得很

and the Mandarin direct translation is 她文靜得很｜她文静得很

which means "She is very quiet."

DioSua Ue is a language of great charm with traditional rhyming style

My friend Yanwu wrote to me today and it brought me great joy to read his email.  I am going to share with you what he has written - sharing with you one paragraph of his email. 

Yanwu is not an old guy and he just got married last year.  I imagine he is in his 30s. 

Yanwu wrote: "To read Classical Chinese in DioSua Ue is much more singularly interesting and original.  I remember quite clearly we chanted ancient poems and prose in language classes when I used to live in DioSua.  What a wonderful day!  DioSua Ue is a language of great charm with a traditional rhyming style."

Now why am I sharing with you part of Yanwu's email.  I am doing this to encourage to learn our language systematically.  It is really a beautiful language.  

潮汕

Adjectives

Where do we place adjectives with a word?  In English we say sharp knife - but with DioSua Ue we place the adjective after the noun.  For example - 

1. sharp knife is said as do lai
2. tall mountains - suan guin

etc.  Hope this is of help for you to improve your bhoghe. Do you remember what is bhoghe 母語? Your mother tongue. 

Sharp

How do you say sharp in DioSua Ue?  Well it depends.  

zam1 ziam1 針尖

For needles and pins and pointed objects - we say ziam1 and in Mandarin in jian1. Both use the same character 尖.

支刀過利

For knives, blades, scalpel - we say lai7 - LLL gives an example on page 46.

gi1 do1 guê3 lai7 支刀過利

This knife is very sharp.




Then how does one say not sharp.  

We say it as lu1 - on page 185 of LLL, he gives an example of use.

big4 tao5 lu1 lu1 筆頭夵夵

The pencil is not sharp.


My DioSua Ue teacher wrote to me this morning from China telling me of his delightful three year old daughter.  This little darling said ghua kao, cia lulu gio - she is saying in Swatow Ue, about the noice the cars are making.  I think she is so cute - and her father informs me nobody has taught her this and she came up with it herself.  Is this not wonderful?

For homework: Write out the characters for ghua kao cia lulu gio.  Might help if you have LLL ^_~

guin5 vs nguin5 危

This is a very interesting character 危. 

There are two examples given by 林伦伦. On page 84 of 新编潮州音字典, LLL gives his first example as nguiⁿ5 hiam2 危險 which is explained as dangerous or not safe with these Chinese explanations wei1xian3 危險 , 不安全

The second example LLL gives as guiⁿ5 危 to mean tall or high and in Chinese is gao1 高.  The two examples are:

1. tall mountain suaⁿ1 guiⁿ5 山危 

   

   高山水長

2. tall building lao5 guiⁿ5 樓危

   

   lao5 guiⁿ5 樓危

Lang6 hiam2 - so what does hiam2 險 actually mean. It means dangerous.  

Then what does lang6 actually mean - very and in LLL page 111, it describes lang6 as

1. sorrowful  悷
2. extremely 極, 非常

Hence, lang6 hiam2 means extremely dangerous.

bo2 hiam2 保險

So perhaps one need to have a bo2 hiam2 保險.  And what does bo2 hiam2 mean? It means insurance.

We know this bo2 from bo2 ho7 保賀. which means to bless and protect or blessings.

保賀 bo2 ho7

And finally to lang6 hiam2.  I cannot find the character for lang6 in LLL on page 111.  It has a sim character as a radical and the right hand is a lêng character and this could be represented as [忄|龙].  

If you have the electronic version of this lang6 [and HanYu PinYin is long3], please email me the character or place it in comments.

Zoi Sia - many thanks 

食焯 ziah8 cog4

I have just heard from my friend YanWu from SZ 深圳, China. He is also a DioSua nang who is fluent in French and his wife is fluent in English.  However, YanWu is also fluent in English.  He saw this blog and suggested an addendum to the hotpot / steamboat post and reminded me of a new relevant word. 

In the word dictionary 广州话, 客家话, 潮汕话, 与普通话对照词典 (2005) page 285, there is an entry on ziah8 dzuang2 lou5 食暖爐 which is explained by the Chinese word 涮鍋子 which also means 涮火鍋.

涮火鍋

This process of eating dzuang lou is also called ziah8 cog4 食焯.  He said that it is now very normal in China for our people to say huê2 uê1 火鍋 instead of dzuang lou. 

ang5 mo5 紅毛

Ang5 mo5 紅毛 is a termed used by our grandparents and perhaps even our parents to described things foreign.  It is now replaced by the prefix huang1 番.  Foreign means anything not Chinese.

紅毛丹

I have noticed in my Chinese dictionary hong2mao2dan1  紅毛丹 to mean rambutan.  However, anything angmo as a prefix may not be very PC.  So what do we call this angmodang?  I think we can safely read the characters 紅毛丹 in DioSua Ue and say it as ang5mo5dang1 -  as the angmo is not referring to race, but colour of the fruit. 




Then how about ang5mo5huê1 - and this is listed in the character dictionary on page 286.  What do you think this is? 

紅毛灰

Well 紅毛灰 ang5mo5huê1 is cement.

Well, we have not finished yet! Ciaⁿ2 bhuê7 請未!

紅毛橋

Then there is an ang5mo5gio5 and there is a place in Singapore which is also called Angmogio - but it is not this 紅毛茄 but rather is it is this 紅毛橋.







So what angmogio am I writing about? This ang5mo5gio5 紅毛茄 - I am referring to are tomatoes. 

紅毛茄

However, tomatoes are no longer known as ang5mo5gio5 紅毛茄 by DioSua Nang in China.  On page 328 of the character dictionary it is listed as huang1gio5 番茄. Any word which has the huang1 番 character in front of it means it is a foreign "thing" and not Chinese.

And for those of us who call Europeans - "angmo" has to know that this is so not PC in China and instead they are called 鬼佬, 鬼婆, 鬼妹, 鬼仔