Hello. I have a question about min-nan. I hope you could help me. Wikipedia suggests that the local prononciation of min-nan is something like Bân-lâm-gú (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Nan). There even exist a Wikipedia in this language that uses latin script (http://zh-min-nan.wikipedia.org/wiki/B% ... 2m-g%C3%BA). The problem is that the father of my girlfriend, who was born in Fujian and whose mothertongue is min-nan doesn't know this word. His min-nan pronounciation of 闽南语 is totally different from Bân-lâm-gú. So my questions are :
1/ What is Bân-lâm-gú ? Is it the equivalent of Min-nan or of one of its dialects (Taiwanese)
2/ What is the equivalent in sinograms for Bân-lâm-gú ? Is it really 闽南语 ?
I thank you very much for your help.
BrightRaven
What is Bân-lâm-gú
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Andrew
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BrightRaven
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun May 28, 2006 9:59 am
Hi BrightRaven,
Yes, it is exactly the same. It might look very different, but the sound correspondences with the Mandarin pronunciations are actually quite normal:
母 Mand.: mu3 Minnan: be2
馬 Mand.: ma3 Minnan: be2
米 Mand.: mi3 Minnan: bi2
難 Mand.: nan2 Minnan: lan5
男 Mand.: nan2 Minnaｎ: laｍ５
宜 Mand.: ｙｉ2 Minnaｎ: ｇｉ５
迎 Mand.: ｙｉｎｇ2 Minnaｎ: ｇｉｅｎｇ５
Ａｓ ｙｏｕ ｃａｎ ｓｅｅ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅｓｅ ｅｘａｍｐｌｅｓ， Ｍｉｎａｎ ｖｅｒｙ ｏｆｔｅｎ ｈａｓ ａ ’ｂ’ ｗｈｅｒｅ Ｍａｎｄａｒｉｎ ｈａｓ ａｎ ｍ， ａｎ ’ｌ’ ｗｈｅｒｅ Ｍａｎｄａｒｉｎ ｈａｓ ａｎ ’ｎ’ ａｎｄ ａ ’ｇ’ ｗｈｅｒｅ Ｍａｎｄａｒｉｎ ｓｈｏｗｓ ａ ’ｙ’ （ｏｒ， ｉｎ ｍｏｄｅｒｎ Ｐｕｔｏｎｇｈｕａ ｐｒｏｎｕｎｃｉａｔｉｏｎ ｎｏ ｃｏｎｓｏｎａｎｔ ｗｈａｔｓｏｅｖｅｒ： ｙｉ ＝ ［ｉ］）．
BTW: The pronunciations I have given are in Xiamen (E-mng) dialect, one of the many varieties of Minnanyu. Minnan separated very early on from the other branches of Chinese and even in ancient times officials from the Imperial Court complained that their language was like that of birds 'for it could not be understood' at all
Minnanyu is the correct technical term for the sum of the languages of this group, although many speakers will rather refer to their individual dialect like Hokkien (often called Taiwanese in Taiwan), Teochiu, etc.
Another note: 'Sinogram' is a cute term - sounds terribly formal, but it's actually a good translation for Hanzi ('Chinese character') 漢字. I believe, however, that most people are using hanzi instead.
Now I'm going to be ke-po - does your girlfriend speak a variety of Minnan, too? If she does, you probably know already what ke-po is
Best regards,
Aurelio
Yes, it is exactly the same. It might look very different, but the sound correspondences with the Mandarin pronunciations are actually quite normal:
母 Mand.: mu3 Minnan: be2
馬 Mand.: ma3 Minnan: be2
米 Mand.: mi3 Minnan: bi2
難 Mand.: nan2 Minnan: lan5
男 Mand.: nan2 Minnaｎ: laｍ５
宜 Mand.: ｙｉ2 Minnaｎ: ｇｉ５
迎 Mand.: ｙｉｎｇ2 Minnaｎ: ｇｉｅｎｇ５
Ａｓ ｙｏｕ ｃａｎ ｓｅｅ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅｓｅ ｅｘａｍｐｌｅｓ， Ｍｉｎａｎ ｖｅｒｙ ｏｆｔｅｎ ｈａｓ ａ ’ｂ’ ｗｈｅｒｅ Ｍａｎｄａｒｉｎ ｈａｓ ａｎ ｍ， ａｎ ’ｌ’ ｗｈｅｒｅ Ｍａｎｄａｒｉｎ ｈａｓ ａｎ ’ｎ’ ａｎｄ ａ ’ｇ’ ｗｈｅｒｅ Ｍａｎｄａｒｉｎ ｓｈｏｗｓ ａ ’ｙ’ （ｏｒ， ｉｎ ｍｏｄｅｒｎ Ｐｕｔｏｎｇｈｕａ ｐｒｏｎｕｎｃｉａｔｉｏｎ ｎｏ ｃｏｎｓｏｎａｎｔ ｗｈａｔｓｏｅｖｅｒ： ｙｉ ＝ ［ｉ］）．
BTW: The pronunciations I have given are in Xiamen (E-mng) dialect, one of the many varieties of Minnanyu. Minnan separated very early on from the other branches of Chinese and even in ancient times officials from the Imperial Court complained that their language was like that of birds 'for it could not be understood' at all
Minnanyu is the correct technical term for the sum of the languages of this group, although many speakers will rather refer to their individual dialect like Hokkien (often called Taiwanese in Taiwan), Teochiu, etc.
Another note: 'Sinogram' is a cute term - sounds terribly formal, but it's actually a good translation for Hanzi ('Chinese character') 漢字. I believe, however, that most people are using hanzi instead.
Now I'm going to be ke-po - does your girlfriend speak a variety of Minnan, too? If she does, you probably know already what ke-po is
Best regards,
Aurelio
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BrightRaven
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun May 28, 2006 9:59 am
My girlfriend only speaks Mandarin and Cantonese (like her mother), so I can't understant ke-po. 
My best guess : mother-in-law ????
I've seen 'ke-po' written as 家婆 (no offense) or 閨婆 . In any case, it means 'nosey' or 'busybody'.