lychee

Do you know how to say lychee in Teochew?

It is called noiⁿ7guaiⁿ2 荔果 and in Mandarin it is called li4zhi1 荔枝 and in Cantonese as lai6zi1 荔枝 where I think the English word lychee is derived.

If you were to listen to the video, you would hear Iab Hui calling it noiⁿ7guê2 荔果 a mispronunciation.

We, Teochew people call fruits 青果 cêⁿ1guaiⁿ2 and gingko nuts as 白果 bêh8guaiⁿ2.

Another way to pronounce this character is guaⁿ2 like in ru5guaⁿ2 如果 to mean “if”. 

Furthermore, this character can also be said as guê2 like in cao2guê2 草果 for black cardamom.

In London, they write hung2guê2 粉果 for one of our favourite Teochew snacks and obviously using the wrong character and it should be written as 粉粿 and in our homeland this snack is called ze5hung2guê2 薯粉粿。

Another way to say this character is guêⁿ2 like ing1guêⁿ2 因果 to mean “karma” or sêng5guêⁿ2 成果 to mean result or achievement or ag4guêⁿ2 惡果 to mean retributions or evil consequences.

In Mandarin, there is only ONE pronunciation for this character 果 which is guo3. Everything is guo3.

No wonder, people say Teochew Uê is the world’s most difficult language to learn.

Between you and I, I think they have put the cart before the horse. When we learnt from our parents, when did our parents write the characters out and confuse us? They say the word, we hear the sound, we then imitate them, and then we know how to say the word. Therefore, for those of us who cannot read or write in Chinese, you are at NO disadvantage because in language learning, we learn to listen and speak before we learn to read and write. If we were to learn Teochew like the way our parents taught us, then the many ways of pronouncing a character is irrelevant. Take courage and continue to speak our mother tongue and be proud that you are a Teochew nang, a descendant of the Tang Dynasty.