Thursday 6 August 2015

Multiple use of 香

I was reading a post about learning Taiwanese MinNan Hua which is dialect of Teochew.

It is about the use of the xiang 香 character.

The writer gave an example in Mandarin 阿香去香港買回來的香很香 and the rest you can read from the link above.

So how we say the above sentence in Teochew.

Modern Teochew: 阿香去香港買轉來個香過芳

Ah-Hiang ke3 HiangKang bhoi2 deng2lai2 gai7-hion1 guê3 pang1

and my parents would say 阿香去香港買轉來個香真芳 where they would say zing1 pang1 rather than gue3 pang1 for very fragrant. 

Ah-Hiang went to HongKong bought [and took] home incense which is very fragrant. 

In this example, xiang 香, can be used as a name of a person, a name of a place, a word to mean fragrant or to mean incense as in joss sticks. Do note that in Teochew fragrant is said as pang1 .

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