中 four pronunciations

This simple character 中 has four pronunciations. Pronunciation is said as tag8im1 讀音。I thought I will share with you some examples of the use of the character 中 in Teochew. 

dêng3

bung1 huê1buah4 dêng3 dioh4 tao5  分花缽中著頭｜分花钵中着头

A plant pot smashed onto [a person’s] head.

被花盆砸到頭｜被花盆砸到头

bung1 分 is a passive voice grammatical clause 

huê1buah4 花缽 is a flower pot

dêng3dioh4 中著 means smashed onto

tao5 頭 is head 

and this sentence does not inform us who's head got smashed with a flower pot

bho5dêng3êng7  無中用｜无中用

useless, good for nothing, unfit for anything

bu4zhong1yong4 不中用wu2yong4 無用｜无用

dang1

kong1dang1 空中	in the sky, in the air	kong1zhong1 空中
kong1dang1 sio2zia2 空中小姐	air stewardess	kong1zhong1xiao3jie3  空中小姐

dong1

Dong1gog4 中國｜中国

China

Zhong1guo2 中國｜中国

dong3

dong3dag8 中毒	being poisoned	zhong4du2 中毒
dong3su2 中暑	got a heatstroke, got sunstroke	zhong4shu3 中暑

Getting a heatstroke can also said as hiag4 dioh4 su2  暍著暑｜暍着暑 see Lim Lung Lung page 305

In Mandarin 中 is said either as zhong1 or zhong4 and all zhong4 is said as dong3 in Teochew. And zhong1 could be said dêng3 or dang1 or dong1 depending. 

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.