中

I have noticed there are a few ways of saying this character 中.

In the middle of one's journey - en route - we say tu5dang1 途中 - but we change the tone for tu5 途 to a lower tone. 

Then for China, we read Dong1gog4 中國 - we normally say Deng5suan1 唐山 - do remember the n after each word means you nasal the word, like sua in this case.

And as Mid-autumn festival is coming [27 September Sunday this year 2015], we call this festival as Dong1ciu1 中秋 and not Dong1ciu1 zioh4 中秋節 - don't know why! I just notice we say less compare with Mandarin.

So I have given examples of dong1 and dang1.

Then we have something else - like for bùzhōngyòng 不中用 as in useless, no good for anything, unfit for anything, we say bho5dêng3êng7 無中用 - and here the dêng3 is like 釘 dêng3 as in nail. They are homophones. AND thank goodness there is no changing tone for the dêng3 中 but we have to tone bho5 無 down - technically to tone 7 but you can tone it tone 1 if you want. 

You can also say the opposite dêng3êng7 中用 for of good use - again no changing tones. 

And 中 in Mandarin is all zhong and you do not have to twist your head round to think if it is dong1 or dang1 or dêng3!

So many characters have many ways of saying them, and we also have changing tones and you will really have fun if you are learning Teochew and if this language is not your mother tongue. 

And if you are serious about mastering Teochew, then I suggest you also read about the theories of language acquisition for this will help you to be a better learner of Teochew Uê and gain mastery in this very difficult mother tongue of ours. 

hing7do6

I was listening to a comedy sketch and the husband was saying to his wife - hing7do6 - and the wife replied and said to him, "mih4 hing7do6" - what "hing'do"?

I suppose some people in our home land are speaking in such a Mandarin version of Teochew that we no longer know what they are saying and they have made this into comedy sketches. 

So, I was driving and thinking about this hing7do6 and I thought he must have been saying "現在". And this hing'do means "now".

I have heard people saying hing7zai6 現在 for "now". 

However, these words are not listed as Teochew words in ZXS.

So what is our word for "now" which our ancestors have used for millennia? 

It is zi2zung7 - 只陣 and ZXS explains zi2zung7 as 這時. 

and if you were to look up your Mandarin dictionary, you would see na4zhen4 那陣 to mean "at that time" and we say at that time as he2zung7 許陣 [he2 is said like "her" in English]

Thank you for reading this post.

I am now learning to read Tang Dynasty poems in Teochew and loving every minute of it.  I cannot access these poems in Mandarin as they sound so strange in Mandarin, but really lovely in Teochew. 

BTW: Like the way we have HanYu PinYin 漢語拼音 we also have our Teochew PinYin 潮洲拼音 [Dio'Ziu Pêng'Im] and Teochew is an English word like Swatow.  However, these are now spelled as DioZiu and Sua'Tao - and you nasal the sua. AND our people prefer us to call our land and our language as Dio'Sua - Dio for Teochew and Sua from Swatow.

I use the Pêng'Im as spelled in my dictionaries except for changing the R to Dz. One of my Teochew dictionaries uses dz for r like dzi 二 for second as second after first and not second as in time. Second as in time is called miao 秒. 

In my next post, I want to talk about the character 中.

Useful words for food and in the kitchen

I was reading last night and saw ka3pua3 叩破 in my dictionary by Zhang XiaoShan as da3sui4 打碎 shuai1 sui4 摔碎.  I woke up this morning and thought of ciu3 碎. I then thought how useful it would be for people to know some useful words pertaining to food.

First is ciu3 碎. It means in pieces, not necessarily the same size pieces but in small pieces. So you might say dog8 ciu3 碎碎 to chop into small pieces. 

Then a very useful word is si7 - as in goin1si7 薑絲 which means julienne of ginger.

In the dictionary, you will see liab8 粒 and this is the same as the Mandarin word ding1 丁 as in ji1ding1 雞丁 and we would say this as goi1liab8 雞粒. Here the pieces must be of the same size and shape no larger than 1 cm cube.

Then there is bhuah8 沫 like cang1bhuah8 蔥沫. Teochew people call spring onions, also know as salad onions as cang1. In the States, they would call these as green onions. The spring onion would be sliced, chopped finely to be called bhuah8.  I never heard my mum using such a word but they use in Teochew cooking shows and my mum would say dog8 gao3 mi5 斫到糜. 

As for pieces, I cannot remember what my mother would say. She has gone to see Jesus and it would be difficult for me to phone her and ask her.  However, I remember she said piang3 片 but a friend from E'Meung said it would be actually pin3 and not piang3. However, she is a HogGiang nang [Hokkien in English] and I have no idea what Teochew people would say - pin3 or piang3 and the dictionaries which I have have not said anything about this. Perhaps this is because these dictionaries are written by men and what do they know about the kitchen.

We have already covered dog8 which means to chop as to mince with a large knife or a cleaver.  

If you were to cut a chicken into half - a longitudinal section - then that would be called pua3boin5 破畔.  This is in ZXS's dictionary and I also heard a chef on Teochew TV using this word. However, my Teochew teacher said he has never heard of such word.

Then there is zam2 斬 as to chop - the same zam as in zam2tao5 斬頭.^-~

Then we also have guah4 割 and this is to take a knife and slice or cut.

Another word for to cut is zioh4 截.

Then finally, there is mince - as in minced meat - and this is co3 脞 as in nêg8co3 肉脞.

Now you can go to the kitchen and help and you should understand most of the words use in a Teochew kitchen which has reference to using a knife to do something.

Thank you for reading this post.