Hong-hiam 風險

[Ah-bin]

Does this word mean "dangerous" or "important"?

I think in The "Baba Malay Dictionary" it was supposed to mean "important", but how about in Hokkien?

I found a quote from a comment on a Hokkien blog:
http://originaldreamcatcher.blogspot.co ... ahaha.html

hahahaha... siao ki liao hor?

hamisu hong hiam ki sia hokkien blog ki?

chin chia pai thak lor.. lol

I think it means: "hahaha have you gone crazy?" Why HONG HIAM go to write a Hokkien blog? I read it many times.

But then again, I'm not sure, and the hong hiam I left untranslated as it is a complete mystery.

[SimL]

Hi Ah-bin,

Don't know the meaning of "hong-hiam", though I've seen the word used before.

>> chin chia pai thak lor

I think this is 真正歹讀囉 chin chhiaN phai(N) thak lo.

The 囉 is a character you provided for me, way back when I first met you!

[Ah-bin]

I think this is 真正歹讀囉 chin chhiaN phai(N) thak l

That makes more sense. I was suffering from the POJ effect, that makes you think if someone has written "thak" they would also write "phaiN"....not always the case.

[Andrew]

To me hong hiam means dangerous.

[Mark Yong]

Hi, Sim and Ah-bin,

During my 6-year stint in Penang, my experience was that the compound hŏng-hiâm 風險 was almost always used (correctly or not, I do not know) in the context of 'suddenly', e.g.

"hit têng ch'iā hŏng-hiâm chiāk kŭe lái wâ-ĕ lŏr 許一[*]車風險食過來我[之]路[/size]" ('that car suddenly cut into my lane').

Only once have I heard hŏng-hiâm 風險 used per the Standard Modern Chinese definition, i.e. 'danger/risk' - but when I heard it, it was used as an adjective, not as a noun.

[xng]

Hi Ah-bin,

I think this is 真正歹讀囉 chin chhiaN phai(N) thak lo.

I've already given the original character for P'ai, it is not 歹 which is pronounced as Tai. Please see my benzi thread.

[xng]

Hi, Sim and Ah-bin,

During my 6-year stint in Penang, my experience was that the compound hŏng-hiâm 風險 was almost always used (correctly or not, I do not know) in the context of 'suddenly', e.g.

Hong hiam doesn't mean 'suddenly', it means 'risky'. Dangerous is 'Gui Hiam'. As I've said, penangites are not educated in Hokkien properly (forgive me for being blunt), sometimes they misuse a word or use foreign words without being aware of it. It is better to look at how China or Taiwan people use it.

When I hear young penangites try to speak hokkien on TV, I shudder from uneasiness because it is mixed with so much malay, English words and misuse of word that it shouldn't be called 'Hokkien'.

My advice to all penangites, go and subscribe to Astro channel 333 and learn proper hokkien. In the past, we can't learn hokkien as there were only mandarin and cantonese shows but now we can.

[Ah-bin]

I think in The "Baba Malay Dictionary" it was supposed to mean "important", but how about in Hokkien?

I finally got to look in William Gwee Thian Hock's Baba Malay dictionary for the word, and he had glossed it as "important" or "vital" . I wonder how it ended up like that?

[SimL]

Hi Ah-bin,

I think this is 真正歹讀囉 chin chhiaN phai(N) thak lo.

I've already given the original character for P'ai, it is not 歹 which is pronounced as Tai. Please see my benzi thread.

Thanks for this xng. Yes, I agree that the pronunciations are not related in any way, so, this character is probably borrowed for use only based on meaning.

The etymology page http://www.internationalscientific.org (which is what I often use for pronunciation of characters in Hokkien, without having any idea how authoritative it is, nor what it uses for sources) gives the Taiwanese pronunciations of 否 as "bo3 boD3 hio2 hio3 hoD3 hoDhN4 phi2". (This is modified POJ, with "oD" being "O", and "N" being nasalization.) "phai(N)" (with or without nasalization) isn't listed among them, and only "phi2" is (slightly) close to "phai(N)".

Mark, what is your opinion, as our resident expert on correct characters?

[xng]

and only "phi2" is (slightly) close to "phai(N)".

I've moved this to the benzhi thread.