Hokkien grammar

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
Locked
hong

Post by hong »

Another example of minnan/mindong/teochew own invention meaning for this hanzi 批=letter.phue1.This word is not mentioned as letter in every chinese dict.Prof.Li says it could be from 廣韻﹐批-示也。
I found this 尊稱人家的來信---來示敬悉
Casey

Post by Casey »

>> 八 pak8 is for chiangchiu but chiangchiu in malaysia say in xia/chuan style =pat.It is a 引 伸 use from ?e ?some say 言 + ?e

In Ciangciu, we also say: pat4 or bat4. "Pak4" is Tiociu (Chaozhou).
hong

Post by hong »

Prof.Li say it is pak8 for chiangchiu along with teochew and 雷州.Again it is not my invention and has nothing to do with me actually.I don't think he can make a mistake like that .
This had been mentioned by friends from china in another forum,young chiangchiu people lost k ending due to too much contact with xiamen.
Casey

Post by Casey »

Prof. Li may have his reasons. If "pak8"? (I think it is "pak4") is used in the Ciangciu area (greater Ciangciu, not Ciangciu City itself), I would think that it is Zhao-an or some part of Yun-Xiao he was referring to. In Ciangciu, "pat4" or "bat4" is used, I am sure.
However, there is no "right or wrong" problem here. It really depends on how people are using it.
hong

Post by hong »

I am sure the chiangchiu qing period dict did put it as k ending for this and 發 huak as well.The reason he puts pak8 is due to the benzi should be 別 or with 言as a radical. 別引申自八pak4,so he just put tone 8 for all min dialect although there is 4th tone for this word as well.
It is the problem of xiamen is too strong in last 150 years,chuan/chiang are under heavy pressure from their new sound.
Another greater change in Chiangchiu is n become ng .A lot of words in Chiangchiu are in fact ended with n compare to ng of xia/chuan.
Eng Wai

He is Bigger Than Me :)

Post by Eng Wai »

niuc wrote: 4. A 較 adj B -> 伊較大我 i1 kha4-tua7 gua0 [0=neutral tone]
?? I have never encountered such or similar sentence structure in my Hokkien. There must be a conjuction between tua (adjective) and gua (particle), which in my case is "kui".

Eng Wai
Andrew

Post by Andrew »

Sim: Thanks for your corroboration of #3. I was beginning to doubt my hearing! How is it that we use ka instead of koe in #3?
Guest

Post by Guest »

Sim wrote: Niuc: Thank you for a BRILLIANT exposition of the possible forms :D! A lot of them I recognise as being valid in my variant of Hokkien, although some - #7 and #8 - may not be ones I would actively use.
Sim, you are most welcome. Actually I just tried to write down what comparison forms are used in my dialect. Thanks to Andrew for this topic. :)
Sim wrote: The only one that sounds downright "wrong" (this is NOT a criticism Niuc, just a comment about my own variant), is #2.
No worry at all! :D Each dialect/variant has its own characteristics. So each of us (including Andrew, Casey, Hong, etc) may find certain forms unnatural.

For superlative form we also use te2 (te7-it4 第一) and siong7 上. Cue3 最 is more for literary usage. Our sandhi form of te2 is also te5, similar as Sim's. Actually our sandhi form for tone 2 is not exactly tone 5, but closer - if not identical - to tone 2 in Mandarin. However if mapped to existing base tones, it should be tone 5. Tone 2 in Mandarin is similar to tone 5 in Hokkien but not identical. I think tone 5 in Hokkien is closer to tone 3 in Beijing Mandarin (with the raising end that usually lost in combination). However, from what I hear in SE Asia and Taiwanese TV, most people don't have the raising end for tone 3 in Mandarin so it become like tone 3 in Hokkien (at least my dialect). And tone 2 in Mandarin is pronounced as identical with tone 5 in Hokkien.

Hong mentioned that using of 過 for comparison may due to Cantonese influence. From what I know, people in my hometown didn't have much chance to interact with Cantonese speakers so the influence was unlikely.
niuc

Post by niuc »

Sorry, I forgot to put my name on the posting above. And for the term "Beijing Mandarin", may be I should say "Standard Mandarin".
hong

Post by hong »

Niu,
Yes,I read that our weakness is in tone3 for mandarin with not enough rising.This is the same for taiwan.But we have to careful about mandarin sandhi for tone3 .
I already sent email to Prof.Chiu in Xiamen university about 過 to try my luck.If Prof.Chiu of Singapore know that 過is used in minnan like cantonese,he would have mentioned it rather than saying it is a bad influence from cantonese.
www.hxdb.com.cn/docc/v_news.asp?vid=23372
Chiangchiu dict project with cd and vcd.
This is part of the minnanfangyandacidian which I think will be keep on delaying for good.
Locked