Penang Hokkien linguistics?

[duckbus]

Does anyone know of published research on Penang Hokkien phonology, morphology, syntax?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

~duckbus

[tangoloonokongo]

Hi Duckbus

I have a friend (in fact my opposite neighbour) in Penang who writing a book on Penang Hokkien. I am now working in Shanghai.

He is just starting out and I think his publication would be very useful for a person like you. His name is Ramon Kok (he is officially a Cantonese, but his mother is Hokkien). You can search for him in the internet quite easily. If you cannot, then email me at tangoloonokongo@yahoo.co.uk.

I am glad more people are taking interest in PhD - Penang Hokkien Dialect. I have a wonderful experience in this forum.

Recently, I went to Hangzhou for a holdiays saw the word 'zhen' which means town in contemporary Chinese. The was an advert for tour to 'u zhen' which means black town.

Then I began to think and confirm with some Chinese that complete word for town in 'pu zhen'. Current usage have truncated the complete word. Then it sprang upon me that the Hokkien word 'po kan' or 'pekan' in Malay. Then this is it. In the old days the town were all by the riverside, and theat was where the 'bu' came about.

For starters, you should try to guess where did the Malay word 'mabok' came from? Go find the mandrin version and the go for the Hokkien version. I hope you will enjoy yourself discovering Hokkien - Penang Hokkien. You may have to reverese in and out of indegenious languages of South east Asia to discover ancient Hokkien of which Penang people speak.

[SimL]

Hi All,

Ah-bin found this link, which has an article about Penang Baba Hokkien. There are about 10 different threads on this Forum about Penang Hokkien, so I just chose to put it in this one.

http://pacling.anu.edu.au/catalogue/SEALSVIII_final.pdf

The most interesting thing (for me) is the long list of borrowed words. Perhaps niuc will find it interesting to compare to the ones borrowed into Indonesian Hokkien.

[niuc]

Hi Sim

Thank you & Ah-bin for the interesting link! I think it will be better for Medan or other variant of Hokkien speakers to comment further, as there are not that many Malay loan-words into my variant. So far I can remember "tapi", "pun", "agak", "jamban"... that are often used. As Hokkien people in Bagansiapiapi were relatively newcomers (late 19th - early 20th century), cultural exchange with Malay and others is much less (but not none) compared to Peranakan community. My paternal great-grandmother was a Nyonya with some Siam/Thai blood. I was told that she wore sarong. Surely some other people in Bagan also have Peranakan ancestors, but not too common.

[SimL]

Hi niuc,

I think you once mentioned that "buaya" (= "crocodile") was also on your list of Malay/Indonesian borrowed words .

My paternal great-grandmother was a Nyonya with some Siam/Thai blood.

Maybe we're related !

[It's not even that wild an idea: I found out that one of our Forum members, Casey, once met one of my great-uncles, when he was very young.]

[niuc]

Hi Sim

I think you once mentioned that "buaya" (= "crocodile") was also on your list of Malay/Indonesian borrowed words .

Yes, thanks! There is also "jadi" -> 'i1 u7-ja2-di2-lai5 bo5?' meaning "Is he/she (confirmed) coming?"

Maybe we're related !
[It's not even that wild an idea: I found out that one of our Forum members, Casey, once met one of my great-uncles, when he was very young.]

Yes, it is possible

[casey]

Hi! Sim and Niuc,

Were you talking about me? No wonder lately my ears were feeling itchy-lah.
I have not been here for a long, long time and have a lot to catch up. It is really nice to see that this forum is so alive. Hope to be able to join in the discussions soon.

Casey

[niuc]

Hi Casey! Welcome back!

[SimL]

Hi Casey,

Indeed, very happy to see you here again! . As you can see, the Forum is going through a period of very active and interesting discussion! What a strange co-incidence that you came back just so soon after I mentioned your name here...