Hokkien Word Meanings?
When browsing through my "Douglas and Barclay" the other day, I came across an entry which I found rather interesting.
含眠 ham5-bin5 = "to talk or to walk in one's sleep", from 含 ham5 (literary pronunciation), kam5 (colloquial pronunciation) = "to enclose, to hold in the mouth", and 眠 bien5 (literary pronunciation), bin5 (colloquial pronunciation) = "to sleep". [The bin5 of 眠牀 bin5-chng5 = "bed".]
With my very poor knowledge of Hokkien, I have always used the phrase "ham5-bin5" to mean "nightmare". I asked my parents what the correct word for "nightmare" is, and they both say they aren't sure any more! My father thinks that in his variant "ham5-bin5" just means "a dream" (this doesn't match my usage at all - for "dream" I use "bang3"). He tried for about 5 minutes to remember the word he used for "nightmare", and came up with something like "ma3/7-mai1", but he's very, very unsure of it. My mother was unable to comment at all.
Does anyone know this word "ma3/7-mai1", and/or care to comment on the use of "ham5-bin5" to mean "nightmare"? Of course the two meanings "talk in one's sleep" and "nightmare" are distinct, but shade very easily into one another: to talk in one sleep could be interpreted as meaning one is having a nightmare.
含眠 ham5-bin5 = "to talk or to walk in one's sleep", from 含 ham5 (literary pronunciation), kam5 (colloquial pronunciation) = "to enclose, to hold in the mouth", and 眠 bien5 (literary pronunciation), bin5 (colloquial pronunciation) = "to sleep". [The bin5 of 眠牀 bin5-chng5 = "bed".]
With my very poor knowledge of Hokkien, I have always used the phrase "ham5-bin5" to mean "nightmare". I asked my parents what the correct word for "nightmare" is, and they both say they aren't sure any more! My father thinks that in his variant "ham5-bin5" just means "a dream" (this doesn't match my usage at all - for "dream" I use "bang3"). He tried for about 5 minutes to remember the word he used for "nightmare", and came up with something like "ma3/7-mai1", but he's very, very unsure of it. My mother was unable to comment at all.
Does anyone know this word "ma3/7-mai1", and/or care to comment on the use of "ham5-bin5" to mean "nightmare"? Of course the two meanings "talk in one's sleep" and "nightmare" are distinct, but shade very easily into one another: to talk in one sleep could be interpreted as meaning one is having a nightmare.
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www.chinese.fju.edu.tw/20070317/index.html