contradiction

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
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SimL
Posts: 1407
Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:33 am
Location: Amsterdam

contradiction

Post by SimL »

A Taiwanese friend of my asked this question, and as I have no idea, I thought I'd post it here:

"None of the people I know who speak Taiwanese know how to say 矛盾 mao2dun4 in Hokkien, and claim that it likely does not exist in Hokkien."

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.
niuc
Posts: 734
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:23 pm
Location: Singapore

Re: contradiction

Post by niuc »

Hi Sim

It does exist in Bagan Hokkien. We pronounce 矛盾 as 'mau5-tun2' e.g. 伊講的話皆皆真矛盾 'i1 kong2 e5-ue7 ke3-ke3 cin1-mau5-tun2' (what he says are all very contradictory). Usually tone 4 (去聲, in this case: dun4) in Mandarin corresponds to tone 7 (陽去) or 3 (陰去) in Hokkien, but for 盾 it is tone 2 (陰上) in Hokkien. 盾 tun2 is also used to translate "rupiah" (Indonesian currency), a continuation of "gulden" (Dutch currency -> gulden -> "-den" -> tun2).
SimL
Posts: 1407
Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:33 am
Location: Amsterdam

Re: contradiction

Post by SimL »

Hi niuc,

Thanks for this. I'll pass it on to my Taiwanese friend.
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