How do I say these terms in Hokkien...

jilang · Post by **jilang** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 8:52 am

Hi

I was wondering, how can I, while speaking in Hokkien, describe it?
To be specific, what is the Hokkien word/phrase for terms such as:

1. Tone - In a sentence how would I say, "This word is the 3rd tone."
2. Glottal stop
3. fluent
4. vocabulary

Thanks
~Jilang

duaaagiii · Post by **duaaagiii** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:07 am

tone - 聲調 siann1-tiau7
the nth tone - 第 n 聲 te7 n siann1

glottal stop - 喉塞音 au5-sat4-im1

fluent - 輾轉 lian3-tng2 (I wonder if this phrase is specific to Taiwan)

vocabulary - 詞彙 su5-lui7

jilang · Post by **jilang** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:51 am

Thanks very much duaaagiii!
Could I ask, how do I say colloqial/vernacular and literary?

duaaagiii · Post by **duaaagiii** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 8:21 am

You're welcome.

colloquial/vernacular - 白話 peh8-ue7 (the PO in POJ)
colloquial/vernacular pronunciation - 白話音 peh8-ue7-im1

literary - 文言 bun5-gian5
literary pronunciation - 文言音 bun5-gian5-im1 or 讀冊音 thak8-tsheh4-im1

jilang · Post by **jilang** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:51 am

Would this sentence make sense: "Che1 si7 chit4 e5 ji7 e5 peh8 ue7 im1."?

How would I use each of those words in a sentance and are there more than one use of each word?

Thanks

duaaagiii · Post by **duaaagiii** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:00 am

Would this sentence make sense: "Che1 si7 chit4 e5 ji7 e5 peh8 ue7 im1."?

Sure-- "This is the colloquial pronunciation of this character."

How would I use each of those words in a sentance and are there more than one use of each word?

白話 peh8-ue7 and 文言 bun5-gian5 can either be used as adjectives (colloquial/vernacular, literary) or as nouns (the vernacular, the literary language) ("literary" in the sense of Classical Chinese). There is gray area between the two notions, so one can say, for example, that a phrase is very peh8-ue7 ("in layman's terms") or more peh8-ue7 than another phrase. Also, 白話文 peh8-ue7-bun5 and 文言文 bun5-gian5-bun5 refer to the vernacular written language and Classical Chinese, respectively.

ong · Post by **ong** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:34 am

Just remember huian sect 言 is gen

jilang · Post by **jilang** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:00 am

Thank you very much again, duaaagiii!

that a phrase is very peh8-ue7 ("in layman's terms") or more peh8-ue7 than another phrase.

Can this also apply to bun5 gian5?

Also, 白話文 peh8-ue7-bun5 and 文言文 bun5-gian5-bun5 refer to the vernacular written language and Classical Chinese, respectively.

I don't quite understand this. How can there be a vernacular written language as opposed to Classical Chinese?

Ong, I appreciate very much your pointing out the correct pronounciation for my particular dialect! How do you know so much about different varients?

duaaagiii · Post by **duaaagiii** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 5:38 am

Thank you very much again, duaaagiii!

that a phrase is very peh8-ue7 ("in layman's terms") or more peh8-ue7 than another phrase.
Can this also apply to bun5 gian5?

Yes.

Also, 白話文 peh8-ue7-bun5 and 文言文 bun5-gian5-bun5 refer to the vernacular written language and Classical Chinese, respectively.
I don't quite understand this. How can there be a vernacular written language as opposed to Classical Chinese?

By "vernacular written language", I mean any written form of the spoken language (e.g. "li2 beh4 khi3 to2-ui7?), which is vastly different from Classical Chinese (e.g. 「汝何往」), which is not specific to any "dialect" of Chinese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_Chinese (written Mandarin; the term 白話文 most often refers to this)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese (written Cantonese; in Cantonese, 白話 is a synonym for "Cantonese")