Professor Lim talking about various Teochew words

 Let us improve our Teochew by listening to Professor Lim Lung Lung talking about various Teochew words. 

I wrote the notes below yesterday when I was feeling well. 

Here are my notes to help you, in listening to Professor Lim, and understanding him better. There is a homophone by some of the words to help you say it better. 

For example, when I want to say cioⁿ6 I think of an elephant and when I want to say zioⁿ6 I think about going to the market zioⁿ6 ci6 上市 and you need these scaffoldings to help you perfect your pronunciation.  You need to choose your own scaffolding, depending on what your parents have taught. 

cion6 象	elephant – homophone cion6 象
cion6 上	becoming, in the process of
cion6 ou1 gui1上烏鮭｜上乌鲑	things becoming mouldy	東西發霉｜东西发霉
cion6bhuê5 上霉	things becoming mouldy	東西發霉｜东西发霉
cion6 cên1 cion6 lêg8 上青上綠｜上青上绿	things becoming mouldy	東西發霉｜东西发霉

 

sên1mo5 生毛	things becoming mouldy	東西發霉｜东西发霉
sên1gou1 生菇	things becoming mouldy	東西發霉｜东西发霉

 

zion6ê6 上下

up - down

shang4xia4 上下

 

zion6 癢	itchy – homophone zion6 癢
zion6 上	to go to
zion6hang5 上行	to go to a market to buy things		上集市買東西｜上集市买东西
Ke3 zion6hang5 to2 cai3 lai2 bhoi7 去上行討菜來賣		Gone to the market to get vegetables to sell. NOTE: lai takes tone 2 when it is after a ke3
zion6 dang1si1 上東司｜上东司	to go to a toilet		上廁所｜上厕所
zion6 cê3so2 上廁所｜上厕所	to go to a toilet		上廁所｜上厕所
zion6 soi2ciu2goin1 上洗手間｜上洗手间	to go to a toilet [the politest way of saying one is going to the toilet]		上廁所｜上厕所

 

siang6 上	superlative suffix	zui4 最
guê3siang6 怪上	very	hen3 很
siang6ho2 上好	the best	zui4hao3 最好

 

sian5 城	city – homophone sian5 城
sian5成	one tenth	shi2fen1zhi1yi1 十分之一
san1 sian5 三成	three tenth	十分之三

sêng5 成	sêng5gong1 成功 - success, successful
sêng5nang5 成人	to become an adult	cheng2nian2ren2 成年人

 

cian2 請	invite, please
cian5 le2 ho2 成汝好	to help you accomplish your aim, to help you succeed	讓你得了好處
sêng5cuang5 le2 成全汝	to help you accomplish your aim, to help you succeed	cheng2quan2 成全
gian6 se7 zo3 cian5 件事做成	Completed this task.	這件事做完

 

zian5 成	approximately
zian5 zab8 gai5 成十個	approximately ten (10)	近十個

 

go6 muêh8 oi6 zian5 nang5 個物會成人	This person will grow up and become an adult.	這個人會長大成人
zian5nang5 成人	to become an adult	cheng2ren2 成人
sêng5nang5 成人	to become an adult	cheng2ren2 成人
go6 muêh8 nguang5lai5 guê3 pai2, zi2deng2 bin3 gao3 zian5 nang5 zian5 gui2 個物原來過痞只轉變到成人成鬼	Originally, this person was very bad. He has changed recently and is now like a human.
zian5 nang5 zian5 gui2 成人成鬼	A little bit like a human.	有一點兒像人 像個人樣

 

gou2 zian5 le2 鼓成汝

to encourage you

I realise that it could be difficult for you in fully understanding the video if you have not mastered Teochew. I hope these notes I have made are of some help for you to learn our mother tongue. You may need to listen to this video several times in order to be able to fully understand what Professor Him has said. 

I hope you know my history. When I first begun learning Teochew, my Teochew was so bad that I could not even say "le2 si6 di7diang5" i.e. who are you. My sister tried her best to help me and then I was taught by a native speaker from Swatow for eight months until I could learn independently. My cousin told me that it would not be possible for someone to completely forget the person's mother tongue and this encouraged me to keep learning. It took me 15 years to get to a point to be able to understand a native speaker speaking Teochew. 

I encourage you to learn our Romanised Teochew. If you don't, then even if you can read or write Chinese characters, it will be very difficult for you to use our Teochew dictionaries. 

The most important thing I can say to you is not to give up mastering our mother tongue.