Too much, too much...

Mark Yong · Post by **Mark Yong** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:09 pm

What's the Hanzi for 'siau', meaning "too..." (as in siau-tua "too big", siau-ce "too many", etc.) ? I got 傷 from somewhere - that really doesn't sound right at all!

Because I never found out the Hanzi for 'siau', I tend to avoid using it, preferring the more elegant 'thai' 太, or very occasionally 'kue thau' 過頭 (when I feel like dropping my otherwise-strict linguistic guard!). Although, 過頭 normally appears in Yue as a suffix to adjectives (e.g. 大過頭), not as a prefix, as is often heard in Minnan (as in 過頭大).

hong · Post by **hong** » Wed May 18, 2005 11:43 pm

North malaysian say 伤 chiang-sionn,xia/chuan-siunn with a completely wrong sound.I did mention earlier sometimes it can be in wendu siong/siang for siong /siunn tang for different meanings.
I don't think that in minnan we have 过 used like cantonese.It is wrong grammar for mandarin,hakka as well.

hong · Post by **hong** » Thu May 19, 2005 1:14 am

The sound of chianchu ioonn is like people saying surname 張=Teoh in English and perhaps 粱 =Neo ,楊=Yeoh as well .I think this is the same in Singapore.
It turns every chuan/xia people with surname 張, 楊﹐粱 into chiangchiu.

hong · Post by **hong** » Thu May 19, 2005 12:24 pm

Other words say it a wrong way are 廠﹐想﹐唱﹐羊﹐溶。I don't know who invented this sound---siaonn in North malaysia.I am surprised why people like Sim and andrew didn't bring this up.I have trouble about this for a long time.I am not interested to know are they going to say it in correct chiangchiu sound or not but I did correct chuanchiu people to say siunn.,etc

hong · Post by **hong** » Thu May 19, 2005 2:44 pm

also 箱﹐娘 is wrongly pronunced as well。I suspect nyonya 娘娘 is chiang/xia mixed nio+nia.

Sim · Post by **Sim** » Thu May 19, 2005 5:09 pm

Hi Mark,

I think (as Hong implicitly pointed out), that it should be nasalized. So "siau*/siu*" or "siaunn/siunn" or "siau~/siu~".

Sorry for being picky

.

Have a nice weekend!

Sim.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Thu May 19, 2005 6:38 pm

I did write in the wikipedia article on Penang Hokkien that -iO" and iau" are both used in Penang. I am not sure where the -iau" came from.

hong · Post by **hong** » Thu May 19, 2005 11:43 pm

Sim,
There are no siaunn sound (I cannot find a correct spelling for it ) for you or anyone.There is no this kind of sound in minnan.Just say it in ionn like (nyonya) for you as a chiangchiu for all the words above or else people from Taiwan/china will not understand it at all.
.Another mistake is in 量= measure.

hong · Post by **hong** » Thu May 19, 2005 11:54 pm

Another mistake is steal-搶=chiunn2/chionn2
I have a friend who own a factory in Seberang Prai use the word factory 工廠kang-chiaunn to taiwanese.Of course taiwanese partners will ask him back is that a teochew sound or what?

hong · Post by **hong** » Fri May 20, 2005 12:06 am

I think I have to write in a more polite way above to Sim,I was trying to say Sim shouldn't write to Mark that is a siaunn sound..It is a misleading theory for Mark who is trying to learn proper minnan.If any North malaysian still want to say( iaunn) for common mistakes above,so be it.But surely not for people who are interested to learn the correct sound in any style and benzi.