Thank you very much for your extensive two replies above, particularly for answering my numbered questions in detail. I have learnt a lot more about Hokkien and "som" because of this.
Please feel free to call me "Sim" - the "L" is just part of my surname .
BTW, I did know that iaunn-som didn't mean "the dried version", my question was more, was it the dried version. But, you've answered that adequately as well anyway.
I had to laugh at myself though, because your answer (very fortunately) included the hanzi for iaunn-som. In my own mind, I had always thought of it as 羊蔘, because the short, dried up roots looked to me (as a child) like the horns of the goats we have in Malaysia!
The 洋 of course makes perfect sense, if this ginseng came primarily from America. Some time, when I get some time, I'll post an amusing story from my childhood about "洋" in it's meaning of "foreign".
Looking forward to hearing about your amusing story when you have the time to post.
The dried root of Korean ginseng is also very hard, not just the American ginseng. Nowadays, you can buy ginseng powder for making tea just like instant coffee.
There has been a time-honored belief that the closer the ginseng root resembles a human figure, the more potent its curing power. So, in traditional Chinese medicine stores, you can see anthropomorphic ginseng roots steeped in liguid in a jar and displayed in shop windows to attract customers.
By the way, compared to sam-á ke 蔘仔雞, it is more popular in Taiwan to have tong-kui ah 當規鴨 (tong-kui duck) at foodstands, because the latter is much cheaper. There are several varieties of tong-kui. In China and Taiwan, the most common one is the root of Angelica sinensis. In Japan, it is Ligusticum acutilobum, and in Korea Angelica uchiyamana.
The figure on cabbage from The Great Herbal of Li Shih-Zheng of Ming Dynasty has been rescanned and reposted above. The description is enlarged so that the statements "this is a vegatble originating in the Western Lands" (此是西土藍也) and "the Qiang and Hu peoples widely grow this vegetable for eating, whereas it is rarely found in the lands of the Han" (羌胡多種食之, 漢地少有) can be seen much clearly.
Remember, 甘藍 is the Chinese name for cabbage, whereas ko-lê is the traditional vernacular name used by the Holó people. It was during the colonial era that the Japanese government in Taiwan adopted the kanji 高麗菜 for cabbage. Later, through the international trades, the name got spread to other areas. When the Nationalist Chinese retreated to Taiwan in 1949, it was the first time they heard of ko-lê or 高麗菜.
Li Shih-Zhen's (李時珍) Great Herbal (本草綱目) is a Chinese pharmacopeia, naturally, he used the Chinese name. In Ming Dynasty, the Holó people lived in the Southeast coast (namely, Fujian and northern Guangdong), the vernacular language would not be known to the Ming court in Beijing. Marco Polo discovered the peculiar language only when he came to Quanzhou. He said, "I should tell you that in this city they have a peculiar language."
Since you brought up the subject of 甘藍, it's a good time to touch on an interesting sound correspondence. There is a triple relationship among -au-, -an- and -o-.
Pattern A: From -an- to -au- & -o-:
L. canalis 'canal, channel' > can- ______Tw kan 澗; kau 溝; Ch. kou 溝
L. canna 'cane' > can- ______Tw kan 竿; Ch. kau 篙; Tw ko 篙 (tek-ko 竹篙 'bamboo cane')
L. canis 'dog' > can- ______Tw khián 犬; káu 狗; Ch. kŏu 狗
Pattern B: From -au- to -an- & -o-:
L. causa 'lawsuit' > cau- ______Ch. koan 官 (官司); kàu 告 (告訴); Tw kò 告
ON kaupa 'purchase' > kau- ______Tw koan as in kau-koan (G1W); kau 交 (kau-koan); Ch. kòu 購
So, it appears that the kan 甘 of 甘藍 in the Chinese name can be derived from the first syllable of the Latin name for cabbage caulis by Pattern B:
L. caulis 'cabbage' > cau- ______ Ch. kan 甘 (of 甘藍)
The 藍 of 甘藍 means 'vegetable' in Middle Chinese as you can see in the sentence, 此是西土藍也 'This is a vegetable from the Wetern Lands'.
Thank you for bringing up this subject.
Heruler
Last edited by Heruler on Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Here we have solid Chinese literature to back us up regarding the origin of the vegetable. Recall that I have talked about the Germanic customs (in Beowulf) shared by the Taiwanese/Hokkien. I don't know where in the vast sea of Chinese literature to look for any mentions of the customs
.