Common words...

[Andrew]

...whose hanzi surprised you. I'm sure many of us have looked up words that we use all the time, and been surprised by the correct hanzi.

E.g.

尔 for nia7 (only)
下 for E7 (down), hE7 (put) and kE7 (short)

[niuc]

Thanks, Andrew! I never knew that 尔 [Trad. 爾 ?] is nia*7. While I had known that 下 = e7, he7, ha7; I didn't know that it's for ke7 (low, short) also... probably it's also for khe7 (to put down). Btw, in my dialect there is 'e' but not 'E' like in Penang; your 'e' usually is 'ue' or 'er' in mine.

上 = siong7/siang7 (up, above, on, over), ciu*7 (going up to), chiu*7 (to draw water from a well).

[niuc]

In Amoy Vernacular Bible, nia7 (only) is always rendered as na7-tia*7 [ 若定 in Hanji version].

Bｔｗ ciu*7 for 上 also means on/upon (same as siong7).
世上　se3-ciu*7 (or se3-siong7) = on earth (on this world)
上天　if read as ciu*7-thi*1 means "going up to heaven"; but if read as siong7-thian1 usually means "God / The Highest Heaven".

[Andrew]

Is chiu~7 used in Chiangchiu? The wen reading is siang7 but I haven't heard any Penang people use chiu~7 before.

[ong]

In ciangciu we can find chiunn and chionn ,but we are going to hear people saying chiaunn.It is better for me that people don't know this word at all.

[ong]

Other words like 上 which also belong to 禅 alphabet are 谁，成，石，十，什，拾。
old chinese is ts or s is stil a big problem.

[ong]

下 can have ke and khe reading because its alphabet 匣 belong to 群 alphabet g in old chinese.or become k in minnan and teochew.

[ong]

http://www.365.com.my/download.php?file ... cfd51814b9

[Andrew]

I didn't know this iO~ -> iau~ phenomenon also occurred in China - from the way you disapproved of it in Penang Hokkien I thought it was merely a Malaysian phenomenon.

[ong]

Andrew,
Did you misread?I type ionn.