Hi there,
1. I was wondering if someone could tell me whether the "keng1" in "seng1 keng1" (Bible) and in "liam7 keng1" (to chant (e.g. Buddhist) prayers) is the same character: 经 ? If I understand correctly, 经 means "classic", "scripture" so, the meaning "prayer" is close enough for it to possibly be the same character, but on the other hand not really *that* close, so perhaps it isn’t. Also, what is the character for "liam" (recite) ?
2. What is the original Hokkien word for those Chinese sausages - the reddish, waxy-looking things which have visible bits of white fat in them, and which are sweetish-salty to the taste? The only word I know for them is "lap4 chiOng5", but I have a suspicion that this is a borrowed word from Cantonese. Do Hokkiens traditionally make and eat these things?
On Aurelio’s recommendation, I have ordered the Hokkien-English and English-Hokkien dictionaries from the Maryknoll Center in Taiwan. I look forward to using them to find out the answers to more of these questions when they arrive. For this reason, I’m holding off asking a lot of the questions I presently have, but these two seemed innocent enough, so I’ll ask them now.
3. Just as an afterthought, what do people call *Western* sausages in Hokkien? Or isn’t there a word for them.
Thanks in advance,
Sim.
Chinese characters for Hokkien words
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hong
The hanzi jing is the same for Buddhist ,Muslim,christian,tao,etc.liam is 唸.Most taiwanese dict give sausage as ian-chhiang 煙腸and kuan-chhiang 灌腸.I have to ask them first privatey just to make sure.There are a lot of taiwanese dict mentioned lap chhiang.
I am not sure is that chang 腸 chuanchiu is chhiong or not because chiangchiu and xiamen are chhiang as one of the wendu.
I am not sure is that chang 腸 chuanchiu is chhiong or not because chiangchiu and xiamen are chhiang as one of the wendu.
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Sim
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hong
Sim,
I find that in english dict recite and chant are both the same.Maybe you mean chanting is the one with melody?
The word 誦(song)siong7 in dict in front of this web also give recite and chant.Many chinese buddhists say 誦經。
In Penang's Mahindarama Sinhala temple(behind hanjiang school),we call it morning chanting or reciting.
I find that in english dict recite and chant are both the same.Maybe you mean chanting is the one with melody?
The word 誦(song)siong7 in dict in front of this web also give recite and chant.Many chinese buddhists say 誦經。
In Penang's Mahindarama Sinhala temple(behind hanjiang school),we call it morning chanting or reciting.
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hong
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hong
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hong
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Sim
Hi Hong
>> Maybe you mean chanting is the one with melody?
Yes, that is the distinction I make in English. One can recite a poem (no melody at all), or one can chant prayers or incantations or magic spells (a sort of melody, but not *very* varied), or one can sing (a really distinctive melody). But you are right, in this context, "recite" and "chant" are very similar.
>> 唸 is wrong but this 念 is the correct
Thanks for this information. I noticed that in simplified characters, 唸 and 念 are both written 念.
>> Just one more thing to share. I find that Taiwanaese are very keen
>> to add (a) at the back even for modern word mobile phone...
Yes, I read that adding the diminutive "a" to nouns is a very striking feature of Taiwanese Hokkien. When I was there on a visit I was amused to hear that one of my favourite dishes "o7-ciEn1" (oysters fried with egg) is called "o7-a0-ciEn1". [ Personally, I felt that oysters are small enough without having to have a diminutive added; to me, it sounded like one was saying "little baby oysters"
]
Hi Andrew,
I just rang the Maryknoll Center today, because I hadn't heard back from the person I wrote to. Apparently he's in the US until September. The guy who answered the phone promised to try and find the email and respond to my request, but I'm not sure whether that's all going to work, so there might be some delay in getting the books.
I'm very excited about them. The two most important items are a Hokkien-English and an English-Hokkien dictionary. Both are quiet modest in their lemmata:
o) In the English-Hokkien dictionary, each English word is provided with just a list of Hokkien alternatives, WITH THEIR CHARACTER EQUIVALENTS. No further explanation is given on the usage of each of the alternatives.
o) In the Hokkien-English dictionary, each Hokkien (compound-)word is provided WITH THE CHINESE CHARACTERS, and then a short gloss of the meaning in English: a phrase, or a list of words separated by commas.
In this sense, they are more bilingual "word-lists" than "dictionaries". Obviously a Hokkien-English/English-Hokkien dictionary with extensive explanations would be even better, but I don't see the limitations of these two dictionaries as real negative points. Their main use for me will be to provide me with the character equivalents words I already know in Hokkien.
Aside from these, I ordered 7 other books and tapes. The whole lot came to the incredible amount of 100 euros (about US$130)! Where else could one get 9 languages books for this price!
Regards,
Sim.
>> Maybe you mean chanting is the one with melody?
Yes, that is the distinction I make in English. One can recite a poem (no melody at all), or one can chant prayers or incantations or magic spells (a sort of melody, but not *very* varied), or one can sing (a really distinctive melody). But you are right, in this context, "recite" and "chant" are very similar.
>> 唸 is wrong but this 念 is the correct
Thanks for this information. I noticed that in simplified characters, 唸 and 念 are both written 念.
>> Just one more thing to share. I find that Taiwanaese are very keen
>> to add (a) at the back even for modern word mobile phone...
Yes, I read that adding the diminutive "a" to nouns is a very striking feature of Taiwanese Hokkien. When I was there on a visit I was amused to hear that one of my favourite dishes "o7-ciEn1" (oysters fried with egg) is called "o7-a0-ciEn1". [ Personally, I felt that oysters are small enough without having to have a diminutive added; to me, it sounded like one was saying "little baby oysters"
]Hi Andrew,
I just rang the Maryknoll Center today, because I hadn't heard back from the person I wrote to. Apparently he's in the US until September. The guy who answered the phone promised to try and find the email and respond to my request, but I'm not sure whether that's all going to work, so there might be some delay in getting the books.
I'm very excited about them. The two most important items are a Hokkien-English and an English-Hokkien dictionary. Both are quiet modest in their lemmata:
o) In the English-Hokkien dictionary, each English word is provided with just a list of Hokkien alternatives, WITH THEIR CHARACTER EQUIVALENTS. No further explanation is given on the usage of each of the alternatives.
o) In the Hokkien-English dictionary, each Hokkien (compound-)word is provided WITH THE CHINESE CHARACTERS, and then a short gloss of the meaning in English: a phrase, or a list of words separated by commas.
In this sense, they are more bilingual "word-lists" than "dictionaries". Obviously a Hokkien-English/English-Hokkien dictionary with extensive explanations would be even better, but I don't see the limitations of these two dictionaries as real negative points. Their main use for me will be to provide me with the character equivalents words I already know in Hokkien.
Aside from these, I ordered 7 other books and tapes. The whole lot came to the incredible amount of 100 euros (about US$130)! Where else could one get 9 languages books for this price!
Regards,
Sim.