Hokkien Word Meanings?

jilang · Post by **jilang** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:00 am

Hi

I've heard a couple of words in some Hokkien songs that I would like to know the meaning of. If you know them could you please tell me the meaning?

1) hiong hiong ciann cai iann. - I think the "ciann cai iann" just means "really knows" but I don't know what "hiong hiong" means.

2) ling sing

Thanks

~Jilang

ong · Post by **ong** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:39 am

it means suddenly

ong · Post by **ong** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:55 am

ling-sing 灵性 spiritualism

duaaagiii · Post by **duaaagiii** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:16 pm

Other possibilities:

hiong5 hiong5 ciah4 cai1 iann2 - suddenly found out / realized
lin5 (or jin5) sing1 (人生) - life

jilang · Post by **jilang** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:43 pm

Thank you ong and duaaagiii!

For you other possibilities, duaaagiii, I thought 人 was pronounced lang5? And what would that ciah mean?

Thanks

SimL · Post by **SimL** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:15 am

Hi Jilang,

I think with "ciah4" duaaagiii means the Malay/Penang Hokkien "ba3-lu2" (only, just, recently), which I mentioned in a recent posting.

"i1 ciah8-lai3" (= he's only just recently arrived).

A slightly different use is in this example: "i1 khuann3--tioh8 e7-si5 ciah8-e7 cai1" (literally: "he sees [it] (possessive, attributive)'s time [he] only/just can know", i.e. "he'll only know when he sees it".

Perhaps another use is: "i1 ciah8-u7 lak4-koo1 (nia3)" (= "he has only six dollars"). I'm not sure of this last usage. In Penang Hokkien, it would be more usual to say "ka3-nia3" for "only", so "i1 ka3-nia3 u7 lak4-koo1".

Sim.

P.S. Please forgive my tones. I'm getting better at them, but it will still be years before I really get them right, because in many cases I don't know the citation (non-sandhi) form of a syllable, so I'm not sure which sandhi-tone it is.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 5:19 pm

SimL wrote:Hi Jilang,

I think with "ciah4" duaaagiii means the Malay/Penang Hokkien "ba3-lu2" (only, just, recently), which I mentioned in a recent posting.

"i1 ciah8-lai3" (= he's only just recently arrived).

I'm not familiar with this usage = Mandarin 剛剛, in Penang would be balu.

A slightly different use is in this example: "i1 khuann3--tioh8 e7-si5 ciah8-e7 cai1" (literally: "he sees [it] (possessive, attributive)'s time [he] only/just can know", i.e. "he'll only know when he sees it".

Or the famous "ai-piann, ciah-e-iann", = Mandarin 才, in Penang would be kah

Perhaps another use is: "i1 ciah8-u7 lak4-koo1 (nia3)" (= "he has only six dollars"). I'm not sure of this last usage. In Penang Hokkien, it would be more usual to say "ka3-nia3" for "only", so "i1 ka3-nia3 u7 lak4-koo1".

Not familiar with this either, =Mandarin 只 , in Penang kan1-na7 or nia7.

jilang · Post by **jilang** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 9:32 am

Hi all

I've never heard of ciah used to mean balu, I've only ever used cim. Thanks for that explanation.

Some other words I've heard in some songs that I don't know:

khi pue
ong su
kai sue

SimL · Post by **SimL** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:43 am

Andrew wrote:
SimL wrote: "i1 ciah8-lai3" (= he's only just recently arrived).
I'm not familiar with this usage = Mandarin 剛剛, in Penang would be balu.

Hmmm... perhaps I'm being influenced by my mother's non-Penang Hokkien usage then. Suddenly it doesn't sound very Penang Hokkien to me either.

Andrew wrote:
SimL wrote:Perhaps another use is: "i1 ciah8-u7 lak4-koo1 (nia3)" (= "he has only six dollars"). I'm not sure of this last usage. In Penang Hokkien, it would be more usual to say "ka3-nia3" for "only", so "i1 ka3-nia3 u7 lak4-koo1".
Not familiar with this either, =Mandarin 只 , in Penang kan1-na7 or nia7.

Thanks for correcting my "ka" to "kan" (and the tone). Not being familiar with the hanzi, I can only go by the sound, and there is no real way of distinguishing kan-nia from ka-nia.

Sim.

duaaagiii · Post by **duaaagiii** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:02 pm

khi2-pue1 (起飛) - to take flight
ong2-su7 (往事) - the past; bygones
kai2-sueh4 (解說) - to explain