Hi Jilang,
For Hokkien -> English dictionaries, I *LOVE* my Douglas/Barclay.
It was published in 1873 (Douglas) and 1923 (Barclay), so it records a stage of the language which no longer exists, but that is for me also one of its attractive features: there are entries for "the gong that the underling strikes at 12 noon in front of the yamen every day", or "the sum of money paid to the matchmaker after the initial introduction is considered a success", or "the way a sedan chair carrier feels tired after he has had to carry the magistrate to an emergency trial in the next prefecture", etc. These all make browsing through the dictionary a real pleasure - they paint a very nice picture of the social conditions of the time.
Cheers,
Sim.
P.S. The examples I gave above can't actually be found in the dictionary - they are just things I (semi-humorously) made up to illustrate my point.
Taiwan M.O.E.: List of recommended characters, etc.
Having an old book like that does sound useful and sounds like it would be interesting. When you say they have entries for those things, are they essays/written pieces done by the people that Douglas or Barcley met at that time or have I got it all wrong?
Are there any books actually written in Hokkien, romanized or in characters? I've read on these forums about dictionaries and bibles. Are there any normal dictionaries which are just for common use such as the everyday Chinese (Mandarin) Dictionaries?
Are there any books actually written in Hokkien, romanized or in characters? I've read on these forums about dictionaries and bibles. Are there any normal dictionaries which are just for common use such as the everyday Chinese (Mandarin) Dictionaries?
Hi Jilang,
>> are they essays/written pieces done by the people
>> that Douglas or Barcley met
No, there are no actual essays written in the dictionary. The "examples" I gave were just *definitions* of Hokkien words and phrases, so you kind of just stumble upon them.
I'll keep a lookout from now onwards and note where they occur when I see them, so in 3-6 months I'll post a list here of the "quaint" definitions I came across.
>> Are there any books actually written in Hokkien,
>> romanized or in characters
I'm afraid I can't give you any information on other materials. Once I start learning Hokkien serious (in a couple of years), I'll post what I have.
Aurelio posted a reply here, about 2 years ago, where he gave a list of all the materials he was using for learning Hokkien - including a Hokkien-English and an English-Hokkien dictionary from the Mary Knoll Center. I'll try and find his entry, and put a link to it here in the next few days.
Regards,
Sim.
>> are they essays/written pieces done by the people
>> that Douglas or Barcley met
No, there are no actual essays written in the dictionary. The "examples" I gave were just *definitions* of Hokkien words and phrases, so you kind of just stumble upon them.
I'll keep a lookout from now onwards and note where they occur when I see them, so in 3-6 months I'll post a list here of the "quaint" definitions I came across.
>> Are there any books actually written in Hokkien,
>> romanized or in characters
I'm afraid I can't give you any information on other materials. Once I start learning Hokkien serious (in a couple of years), I'll post what I have.
Aurelio posted a reply here, about 2 years ago, where he gave a list of all the materials he was using for learning Hokkien - including a Hokkien-English and an English-Hokkien dictionary from the Mary Knoll Center. I'll try and find his entry, and put a link to it here in the next few days.
Regards,
Sim.
Jilang,
I had a search on the Forum, but can't find anything. It turned out that my memory was faulty, and probably Aurelio told me these things only in a personal mail (the mail is quite old - May 2004).
I don't think he'd mind if I post some of that information here, so I've just extracted the relevant parts of his mail. I hope this information is helpful to you. The one time I rang them up, Reverend Flanigan was back in the U.S., and the guy I got on the phone didn't speak any English, and my Mandarin being what it is, the whole conversation was rather awkward!
I get the impression he tends to go back to the U.S. in the Summer, so if you want to ring to make inquiries, you might want to have someone in the background who can speak Mandarin, to help out, just in case.
Cheers,
Sim.
--------------
Extract from Aurelio's mail:
... I’ve come across a Hokkien-English and an English-Hokkien dictionary with characters. Thought you might be interested. The characters are mandarinized (see the example I posted on unilang), i.e. it writes Mandarin ni3 你 instead of Hokkien lu2 汝 etc. But it is still useful for a lot of words. Missionary Romanization and BoPoMoFo are used. The price is NT$ 1,000 for Taiwanese-English and NT$ 800 for English-Amoy (about US$ 60 in total). The contact information is:
Reverend Edward J Flanigan
Maryknoll Language Service Center, Taichung Taiwan
... They have some other interesting books, too, including dialogues (books and tapes), talks on Chinese Culture and Aesop’s fables (!) Tongbut e kosu (NT$ 50). Their telephone number is 04-2375-8433.
I had a search on the Forum, but can't find anything. It turned out that my memory was faulty, and probably Aurelio told me these things only in a personal mail (the mail is quite old - May 2004).
I don't think he'd mind if I post some of that information here, so I've just extracted the relevant parts of his mail. I hope this information is helpful to you. The one time I rang them up, Reverend Flanigan was back in the U.S., and the guy I got on the phone didn't speak any English, and my Mandarin being what it is, the whole conversation was rather awkward!
I get the impression he tends to go back to the U.S. in the Summer, so if you want to ring to make inquiries, you might want to have someone in the background who can speak Mandarin, to help out, just in case.
Cheers,
Sim.
--------------
Extract from Aurelio's mail:
... I’ve come across a Hokkien-English and an English-Hokkien dictionary with characters. Thought you might be interested. The characters are mandarinized (see the example I posted on unilang), i.e. it writes Mandarin ni3 你 instead of Hokkien lu2 汝 etc. But it is still useful for a lot of words. Missionary Romanization and BoPoMoFo are used. The price is NT$ 1,000 for Taiwanese-English and NT$ 800 for English-Amoy (about US$ 60 in total). The contact information is:
Reverend Edward J Flanigan
Maryknoll Language Service Center, Taichung Taiwan
... They have some other interesting books, too, including dialogues (books and tapes), talks on Chinese Culture and Aesop’s fables (!) Tongbut e kosu (NT$ 50). Their telephone number is 04-2375-8433.
Thank you for going to so much trouble as to search for old topics.
How would you go about 'learning' Hokkien? I believe there aren't many formal courses available. Do you just mean speaking to more people and looking up words in dictionaries?
I'd appreciate that.>> are they essays/written pieces done by the people
>> that Douglas or Barcley met
No, there are no actual essays written in the dictionary. The "examples" I gave were just *definitions* of Hokkien words and phrases, so you kind of just stumble upon them.
I'll keep a lookout from now onwards and note where they
How would you go about 'learning' Hokkien? I believe there aren't many formal courses available. Do you just mean speaking to more people and looking up words in dictionaries?
A catalog containing books and websites about Hokkien or in Hokkien:
http://lomaji.com/bok-lok/hian-si
The English section:
http://lomaji.com/bok-lok/hian-si?lui=l ... at=english
I have a textbook entitled Harvard Taiwanese 101, written by Prof. 李勤岸 when he taught Taiwanese at Harvard. It is mainly in English except for a few Chinese sentences here and there, and it teaches TL romanization. It even comes with two audio CDs. http://203.64.42.21/iug/Ungian/POJ/siau ... ard101.asp
http://www.king-an.com.tw
contact number: 06-2585148
http://lomaji.com/bok-lok/hian-si
The English section:
http://lomaji.com/bok-lok/hian-si?lui=l ... at=english
I have a textbook entitled Harvard Taiwanese 101, written by Prof. 李勤岸 when he taught Taiwanese at Harvard. It is mainly in English except for a few Chinese sentences here and there, and it teaches TL romanization. It even comes with two audio CDs. http://203.64.42.21/iug/Ungian/POJ/siau ... ard101.asp
http://www.king-an.com.tw
contact number: 06-2585148
Last edited by duaaagiii on Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
duaaagiii: thanks - great resource, especially the English language stuff for me!
jilang: you're welcome! I don't know how I'll approach it yet. I've heard that there are some courses given for English speakers, by the missionary groups there (but that might be too basic for me, I don't know). The courses for Taiwanese who want to "recover their roots" will be unsuitable for me, as they will expect someone to be totally fluent in Mandarin and literate in hanzi. I'll only start looking into it when I start thinking seriously about doing it.
Sim.
jilang: you're welcome! I don't know how I'll approach it yet. I've heard that there are some courses given for English speakers, by the missionary groups there (but that might be too basic for me, I don't know). The courses for Taiwanese who want to "recover their roots" will be unsuitable for me, as they will expect someone to be totally fluent in Mandarin and literate in hanzi. I'll only start looking into it when I start thinking seriously about doing it.
Sim.