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8/5/2005 9:27 pmLast Read: |
Penang Hokkien is a local variant of Min Nan (Southern Min) spoken in Penang, characterised by the widespread use of Malay and English borrowed words. It is predominantly a spoken dialect: it is rarely if ever written in Chinese characters, and there is no standard romanisation. This article uses the Missionary Romanisation or Peh8-oe7-ji7 (白話字 which is common in Taiwan.Minnan is one of the sub-languages of the Chinese language and is mainly spoken in southern Fujian and Taiwan. It is also spoken by many overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, and is known in Southeast Asia as "Hokkien" (福建話; pinyin Fújiàn huà; Minnan: Hok4-kien3-oa7). Strictly speaking, it should be known as Southern Hokkien to distinguish it from Minbei (Northern Min) and Mindong (Eastern Min), the language of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. Penang Hokkien is based on the dialect of Minnan spoken in the Zhangzhou (漳州 Hokkien: Chiang1-chiu1) prefecture of Fujian. It is said that it most closely resembles the dialect spoken in Longhai (龍海 Hokkien: Liong5-hai2) county, around the city of Haicheng (海澄 Hokkien: Hai2-teng5). In Southeast Asia, similar dialects are spoken in the states bordering Penang, and in Medan. Tones The tones in Penang Hokkien are: 陰平 Yin-ping |44| 上聲 Shang-sheng |52| 陰去 Yin-qu |21| 陰入 Yin-ru |2| 陽平 Yang-ping |24| 陽去 Yang-qu |22| 陽入 Yang-ru |4| The numbers in | | reflect the tone contours, with 5 being the highest and 1 the lowest. As in the Xiamen (Amoy) standard, the Shangsheng is not distinguished into Yin and Yang, and there is thus no 6th tone. However, as in the Zhangzhou dialect the two Qu tones are virtually identical, except in their sandhi forms. Borrowed words from Malay Like other dialects in Malaysia and Singapore, Penang Hokkien borrows heavily from Malay, but sometimes to a greater extent, e.g.: balai: police station balu (baru): new(ly), just now batu: stone berlian: diamond jamban: toilet jambu: guava kisien (kesihan): pity mana: as if?, since when? mata: police manik: bead loti (roti): bread (borrowing by the Malay language from the Sanskrit language) sabun, soap (borrowing by the Malay language from the Portuguese language; also present in Taiwanese) suka, to like tapi, but tuala, towel (borrowing by the Malay language from the English language) Borrowed words from English Penang Hokkien has also borrowed numerous words from English, but these tend to be more technical and less well embedded than the Malay words, e.g. bulek: brake pak: park am: aim Borrowed words from either English or Malay There are also several words which may have either originated from English or Malay or both. Because the Malay word is borrowed and quite similar to the English word, it is not possible to ascertain the source of the word in Penang Hokkien (it could also have came from both) paip: pipe pam: pump |
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8/7/2005 11:21 pm |
AHuhahahahaahahahhahahhahahaha yeah  hey! yer good in baba nyonya language lolz
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8/6/2005 7:08 pm |
toukki lass,....that's sarawakian lingo you said....it diff in penang, wait till you hear the baba-nyonya of malacca. Minta ma'af...wa dari generasi lama,...dalam masa senior cambridge, bukan spm macham lu.
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8/6/2005 12:41 am |
Firstly, u have to understand, penang are hokkien - teochiew chinese. If you know, there are differences between hokkien and teochiew. The tones you put for hokkien are incorrect. For example, the first word. It should be prounanced ing peng. (dont ask me do all the translation, im lazy). Batu, berlian are straight malay words, have no influences or used by the chinese. Borrowed words from malay. There are a few mistakes but i will point out one for you to see. Mata (police) is not malay words. It is hokkien/fujien word. MANIK is pure malay word (btw u need to brush up your malay), the chinese dont call it manik, we called it JU. No such thing as kisien. We only know kor lien! loti is wrong , its called mi bao! tapi wrong.. dan xi. Tuala? wrong, moh gin. bulek, pak, am are all english slangs but AND not practiced by penang hokkien only. Its practiced by the whole malaysian, singapore, indonesian to.
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8/6/2005 12:40 am |
Spoke a smatter of Hokkien, but never know about these facts. Your article beh pai lah! Keep up the good words 
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