Some more Hokkien words

[hohomi]

tuā pak tóo 大腹肚
ū-sin 有身

We also say tuà-sin(帶身).

[SimL]

...

Are you a Sinologist by profession, Ah-bin?

I spend far too much time reading books like this...if that is what you mean!

Haha! I feel Ah-bin is being rather too modest about his credentials...

I think there would be very few sinologists (or members of this forum, for that matter) who could:

1. Meet a group of three Malaysians on a long-distance bus from Germany to Holland and speak Cantonese to one of them, Hokkien to the other two, and Mandarin to all three.

2. Go to the largest Chinese bookstore in Amsterdam, and speak to the proprietor in Cantonese, discussing the difference between two different variants of Cantonese, and the pricing policy in the shop.

3. Go to one of the neighbourhood Chinese take-away restaurants here in Amsterdam and speak (albeit basic) Hakka to the proprietor.

4. Decide during a long stay in Taiwan that he would have "Taiwanese-only days" where he would refuse to speak Mandarin to anyone he met, insisting that he only spoke Taiwanese.

5. Commute every day from Amsterdam to Leiden to do research at the Leiden University Library (the major library for East Asian studies in the Netherlands) with a 14th century Chinese novel in his knapsack for light reading*.

But even if there indeed are a handful of sinologists who can do all this (and the world is so large, and there are so many talented people in it (some of whom I met at the Taiwan conference) that I wouldn't like to claim that no other such person existed)... I still doubt if any of them besides Ah-bin can:

6. Take Dutch as a "minor", to complement his Chinese "major" at university, and then speak it so well on the streets of Amsterdam that I (and I'm sure most Dutch people) can't tell that he's not a native speaker.

7. Go for 3 days to Newcastle-on-Tyne in the north of England (a city which - as the name suggests - straddles the River Tyne) and come back saying: "I've worked out what one of the key differences between the people natively born north of the Tyne River and those born south of it is. One group pronounces <X> like "<this>", while the other group pronounces it like "<this>" (imitating and reproducing a tiny difference in the sound of the vowel).

8. Speak basic Estonian, German and Danish.

9. Speak Maori well.

So, there. I hope I haven't embarassed Ah-bin by revealing some aspects of his background, but I feel that because he poses his questions about (Penang and other forms of) Hokkien in such a modest way, people may not realise just how much he knows.

*: I call it a 14th century Chinese "novel" for ease of description, but strictly speaking, the novel as we understand it is a European late 18th century literary form. What I meant was that it was a (slightly) more "colloquial" work with exciting adventures of gods and demons, rather than one of the dry and refined "Chinese Classics" or some other literary work.

[Ah-bin]

Aiya!!!!! Phai-se kau si!

Hey, it wasn't very good Hokkien and Cantonese...and I assure you it was really, really terrible Hakka.

[SimL]

Aiya!!!!! Phai-se kau si!

Hey, it wasn't very good Hokkien and Cantonese...and I assure you it was really, really terrible Hakka.

Hehe! Ok, I mean, I knew just from your hesitations and the shortness of the conversation that the Hakka was quite limited, but still, it's quite an achievement to know all the other dialects and (even a little bit of) Hakka. Quite a number of Peninsular Malaysians might be able to do as much as that, but the number of Westerners must surely be quite small.

[xng]

Aiya!!!!! Phai-se kau si!

Hey, it wasn't very good Hokkien and Cantonese...and I assure you it was really, really terrible Hakka.

Hehe! Ok, I mean, I knew just from your hesitations and the shortness of the conversation that the Hakka was quite limited, but still, it's quite an achievement to know all the other dialects and (even a little bit of) Hakka. Quite a number of Peninsular Malaysians might be able to do as much as that, but the number of Westerners must surely be quite small.

I would love to practise my hokkien with taiwanese as the standard of hokkien in Malaysia/Singapore is only basic. I have practised my cantonese with Hong kong guys, and mandarin with China guys.

But I don't intend to learn hakka.. but thai.

[hohomi]

Haha! I feel Ah-bin is being rather too modest about his credentials...
I think there would be very few sinologists (or members of this forum, for that matter) who could:

1. Meet a group of three Malaysians on a long-distance bus from Germany to Holland and speak Cantonese to one of them, Hokkien to the other two, and Mandarin to all three.
2. Go to the largest Chinese bookstore in Amsterdam, and speak to the proprietor in Cantonese, discussing the difference between two different variants of Cantonese, and the pricing policy in the shop.
3. Go to one of the neighbourhood Chinese take-away restaurants here in Amsterdam and speak (albeit basic) Hakka to the proprietor.
4. Decide during a long stay in Taiwan that he would have "Taiwanese-only days" where he would refuse to speak Mandarin to anyone he met, insisting that he only spoke Taiwanese.
5. Commute every day from Amsterdam to Leiden to do research at the Leiden University Library (the major library for East Asian studies in the Netherlands) with a 14th century Chinese novel in his knapsack for light reading*.
6. Take Dutch as a "minor", to complement his Chinese "major" at university, and then speak it so well on the streets of Amsterdam that I (and I'm sure most Dutch people) can't tell that he's not a native speaker.
7. Go for 3 days to Newcastle-on-Tyne in the north of England (a city which - as the name suggests - straddles the River Tyne) and come back saying: "I've worked out what one of the key differences between the people natively born north of the Tyne River and those born south of it is. One group pronounces <X> like "<this>", while the other group pronounces it like "<this>" (imitating and reproducing a tiny difference in the sound of the vowel).
8. Speak basic Estonian, German and Danish.
9. Speak Maori well.
So, there. I hope I haven't embarrassed Ah-bin by revealing some aspects of his background, but I feel that because he poses his questions about (Penang and other forms of) Hokkien in such a modest way, people may not realise just how much he knows.

I take off my hat to you, ah-bin.

[Ah-bin]

Put it back on! Put it back on! My ears are all red....

[niuc]

Kudos, Ah-bin!

[aokh1979]

有身 is indeed widely used in Penang. I hear people say it. But in daily gossip, I think people tend to say 有囝 or 大-pat-肚 or 有 baby more often...... ^.^

Do you not know the correct chinese character or you are lazy to type it ?

大腹肚

I made a mistake, the character I held suspicion was 肚 and not 腹.
肚 shall sound too7 instead of too2 based on my Penang variant.

Stomach = Pak-Too2 (Pat-Too)
Tummy = Sai-Too7
Belly Buttom = Too7-Tsai5

My suspicion was on the Too being 2 different characters but I typed it wrongly.

[aokh1979]

The character for stomach should be......

http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi2/ZdicE4Zdic90Zdic97.htm

䐗 ＝ 腹䐗 (pat-too / pak-too)
肚 ＝ 豬肚 (tu-too)