Some terms in Hokkien that I never quite figured out...

[Mark Yong]

Another ragbag of Penang Hokkien words (some colloquial):

t'iong5 - I was told that this is a not-very-nice term used to describe women who "like to enjoy themselves a little too much" Is the Hanzi for it 暢?

lak1 - I learnt this word in a Penang factory. It is used in the context of ? 一個孔 lak1 jit5 le5 k'ang1 (drill a hole). How do you write it?

ham5-ban5 - tardy, slow, non-punctual. ? 慢

mor5-sin6 - crazy. ? 神

lo-mor5 - forgetful 老? I have heard "boh-ki-seng" 無記性 used by older folk.

Here's a term I have heard used only once: kae-siok5 (sorry, I only heard it once, so I cannot remember the tone for kae). It is Hokkien for the words 继续, or "to continue". I have only heard the word siok5 续 used in the context of lian5 siok5 连续 (in succession / in series).

[niuc]

Hi Mark

You are right that 暢 = thiong3. According to 廈門方言詞典, ham5-ban7 is 含慢.

I use lak4 also but don't know the hanji. lak4-cng3 _鑽 = a drill.

I haven't heard about mor-sin & lo-mor.

繼續 = ke3-siok8. Colloquial of 續 is sua3.

[Casey]

lo2 mO7 = 老（上老下毛)

[Casey]

mo5 sin5 = 魔神 (acting abnormally)

[hong]

I first hear of lo-mo ten years ago in Taiping for old man.I saw prof.Chiu's article put mo as chuanchiu baidu of 老 but he didn't put this word into his xiamen dict.Could it be chuanchiu only?

[hong]

sorry,he did put above two words into his dict mo-sin 本指鬼神﹐今形容精神不正常。but he only say lo-mo as old man.What I heard was meaning 老人痴呆.lau-thue and lau-thian-thoh are the correct version,it seems.
魔 is Indian word of Mara from Buddhist tran in han period.
lak4 is 錄 baidu.

[tangoloonokongo]

Hi Ladies and Gentlemen
I recently went back to Penang and Singapore, and quite obviously recharged my Hokkien. But more importantly, I about the book titled, "1421" written by a former Royal Navy submariner which describes the voyages of Zheng He's fleets in the time of the Ming empire. This book has brought many questions for answering, though some are quite controversial.

For those doubted what I said earlier on in this forum, I hope they look into this book and tell themselves several things. Among them, are
(1) the story of Columbus discovering the Americas is now challenged;
(2) the Ming had access to almost all corners of the world,and if they had any followers, so will the Chinese culture
(3) it seems that Mayan and the Hokkiens called chickens 'ki' or 'ke'
(4) it also seems that the Ming fleet deposited some Chinese in many parts of the world

The weakness of this book is that author is not familiar with dialects, and therefore his research needs help in that direction, particularly. Like most western authors, he seems to believe that whole of China speaks Mandrin from time in memorial. We know this is not true.

Perhaps this forum's participatns can help him in this direction.

My point here is to show that conventioal hisotry is now challenged, and seriously enough to the extent that it threatens to dislodge many old beliefs

[Sim]

>> "lo-mO" and "mO-sin".

Hi Mark,

Great words!

The tones I use for them are different from what others have indicated though.

I say "lo1-mO3" and "mO3-sin5" (with sandhi tones). The latter rhymes with the insect "fly" (hO3-sin5).

lo-mO:

My mother used to use the word "lo-mO" a lot when we were young, and she used it just to mean "forgetful". Now, with both my parents in their mid and late 70's, the number of times she uses the word is increasing rapidly(!), and she uses it more to mean "getting senile and demented"!!!

How do people in this forum use the word?

mO-sin:

This word was used to mean "crazy", "mad".

Regards,
Sim.

[Mark Yong]

lak4 is 錄 baidu.

I should have checked this out first before throwing the question into the forum, but anyway here goes:

The Kangxi dictionary defines the character 录 as 盧谷切 (luk), 刻木也 (to carve wood). Could this be the more likely Hanzi for lak4, given the closer definition?

[Mark Yong]

lo-mO:

My mother used to use the word "lo-mO" a lot when we were young, and she used it just to mean "forgetful". Now, with both my parents in their mid and late 70's, the number of times she uses the word is increasing rapidly(!), and she uses it more to mean "getting senile and demented"!!!

How do people in this forum use the word?

Yep... I know it as lo-mO (not lo-mo) , too...

When I first heard the word (I myself hardly use it), it was simply in the context of, as you say, "forgetful" or "absent-minded". The Penang lady I know who used it was barely into her 50's, so she cannot possibly have meant that she was getting senile!