sūn-soà and chhìn-chhái

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
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Ah-bin
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Location: Somewhere in the Hokloverse

sūn-soà and chhìn-chhái

Post by Ah-bin »

Two nice little adverbs that I've picked up from Taiwanese - they are used in Chiang-chiu too but I wonder if they're used in Malaysian or Indonesian Hokkien or not?

sūn-soà 順續
Sort of has the meaning "on the way" or "while we're at it"

My little Hokkien dictionary gives an example
即擺去北京順續去上海南京chhit-tho
Chit-pai khi pak-kiaN sun-soa khi siong-hai lam-kiaN chhit-tho

The second one is chhìn-chhái 凊採
meaning "casually", or "without thinking too much about it" in Mandarin this is suibian 隨便, my dictionary also says it can mean "to get along with"

The example the dictionary gives is chhìn-chhái-chiáh 凊採食 "just eat whta you want" or "just eat what you feel like eating"

I know in Penang 隨便你 (another meaning of 隨便) "it's up to you" is expressed "chhut chai lu" which I suppose is "出在你"
niuc
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Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:23 pm
Location: Singapore

Re: sūn-soà and chhìn-chhái

Post by niuc »

Yes, they are often used in my variant too.

For "it's up to you", my variant prefers 隨在汝 'sui5-cai7-ly2' or 'sui5-cai7_ly0' or 'sui5-cai7_ly7' ('cai7_' is 'cai7' in standing/citation tone 7; 'ly0' is 'ly2' neutralized; 'ly7' is 'ly' taking tone 7).
SimL
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Re: sūn-soà and chhìn-chhái

Post by SimL »

>> chhìn-chhái 凊採

Oh, I should have told you about this one yesterday, Ah-bin!

Indeed, chhìn-chhái is very common in Penang Hokkien. It has meanings close to the one you give, but with some slightly different connotations: 1) "sloppily" or (separate from that, depending on context) 2) "not fussy, easy-going".

An example of "1" would be: "wa kio i sia ho-ho, tapi i chin-chai co nia, co ka m-tioh ka-liau" (= "I asked him to write it carefully, but he did it rather sloppily, did it all wrong").

An example of "2" (with no negative connotations, indeed, with very positive connotations) would be: "i cin-nia chin-chai e, bo kong hiam ci(t)-le, hiam hi(t)-le" (= "he's very easy-going, doesn't complain about anything").
The example the dictionary gives is chhìn-chhái-chiáh 凊採食 "just eat whta you want" or "just eat what you feel like eating"
My gut feeling is that this in Penang Hokkien would mean "eat a simple meal, nothing fancy" (this ties in with the second meaning above, of not being fussy). With another verb, like "theh8" (= "to take"), or "keng2" (= "to choose"), it could have more of the connotations of the example you give: "chin-chai theh" (= "grab/take what you want"), "chin-chai keng" (= "select whichever one you want"), but perhaps even in these examples, the emphasis of non-fussiness is with the speaker, i.e. "take what you want, I'm not bothered, I don't really care".
kkslok
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Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:57 am
Location: Malaysia

Re: sūn-soà and chhìn-chhái

Post by kkslok »

Yes, we use those 2 a lot too. My variant of Hokkien is Taiping / Northern Perak in Malaysia.
Christian Oey
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Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 8:35 am

Re: sūn-soà and chhìn-chhái

Post by Christian Oey »

In Indonesia, I usually hear people say:
chhin chhai = it's okay, no problem, get win-win solution, negosiable (price), easy going
I never hear people say: sun soa
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