Penang Hokkien Vocabulary Questions

[SimL]

What's the Taiwanese word for "purple"...?

[SimL]

3) What are the tones and characters for "Lam-mu-na" meaning "purple"

Oh, sorry, I missed seeing the fact that you'd like the tones too.

Well, sandhied, I say "lam3/7_mn3/7_na2". So, the "mn" could be "mn1" or "mn5". I wonder if the "na2" is just the diminutive particle "-a2"? When I say "tang3_a2" (= "window") or "chai1_tiam1_a2" (= "small "corner/local" grocery shop", called a "sundry shop" in Malaysian English), "jit->p4_pun1_a2" (= "Japanese person"), etc, then the "_a2" sounds like exactly the same tone as when I say "lam-mn-a".

[Mark Yong]

amhoanna wrote:
People under 60, i.e. the Mandarin-educated, seem to use "kò goe̍h" almost to the exclusion of "goe̍hji̍t".

Apart from the age classification, there is another group of speakers who tend to use goeh-jit - the general English (i.e. non-Chinese)-educated class. From my experience, this also includes those currently in their early 30's.

[amhoanna]

Císek = PURPLE in TW. Kind of boring, huh.

[SimL]

Císek = PURPLE in TW. Kind of boring, huh.

Well, nothing wrong with good old sinitic roots ! Besides (and this is a point which (h)ong and xng were constantly making, and which I genuinely acknowledge as being valid), it's good for me (and other Penang Hokkien speakers) to know these words, so that we can communicate with other Hokkien speakers.

[Mark Yong]

Some trivia, since we are on the subject of purple:

Miss-Malaysia-turned-action-superstar Michelle Yeoh's Chinese name is Romanised in (her family's variant of) Hokkien as Yeoh Choo Kheng, 楊紫瓊, i.e. "purple jade". There's your choo/chi sek - 紫色.

There is a building in Penang opposite St. George's Girls' School along the stretch of Macalister Road just off Jesselton and Ayer Rajah Road, called Che Hoon Kor 紫雲閣 "The Court/Pavillion of the Purple Cloud". (Sim, the building was only erected in the last couple of decades, so it probably post-dates your departure.)

I guess it illustrates the point that there are two aspects of Hokkien that we should aim to be cognizant about, i.e. the spoken/colloquial aspect and the literal "Sinitic" aspect, if we are to embrace the dialect holistically. And again, it shows that "Sinitic" does not necessarily mean Mandarin.

Lest poor Michelle becomes Yeoh Lam-Mu-Na Gek! (But I think you get my point.)

[Yeleixingfeng]

A few questions,
What is the Hokkien word for:
1. Chatting? We call it kap-siao, though it is often disapproving.
2. 尤其? Does Hokkien just use 尤其, or some other combination of particles to form the 尤其 nuance?
3. 背叛?
4. 曾經?

And, what is the punji for Sien (boring)?

Purple, we call it lam-mun-na. Like SimL, I think the -a0 is meaningless. Can anyone raise any examples for characters with the consonant m-?
I suspect the mun to be 悶, meaning a blue that is not as bright, but the etymology page shows that 悶 has only the bun pronunciation. But since 悶 got its sound from 門 (Mûi), perhaps 悶 could also be pronounced as mun? Guessing.

[Ah-bin]

Wow, for the first time I can answer some questions!

1) Sembang, although it is from Malay, it seems to be the normal Penang word for chatting

3) I think 尤其 is quite normal Hokkien, I've heard several different speakers from different backgrounds use it. Don't some people use 特別 for a similar meaning

4) I would say "bat"

I always use 閒 for sian, I know it has at least one hundred years of usage.

[aokh1979]

In Penang, it would be:

1. sián-báng (sembang), phah-khòk, thâi-káng. And kap-siâu is not chatting, it's bluffing.
2. iû-kî is very common, tek-piàt (or tek-piat) is very widely used too.
3. puè-sìn or puè-phuàⁿ, I heard both before.
4. bat is the most common way......

[AndrewAndrew]

There is a building in Penang opposite St. George's Girls' School along the stretch of Macalister Road just off Jesselton and Ayer Rajah Road, called Che Hoon Kor 紫雲閣 "The Court/Pavillion of the Purple Cloud". (Sim, the building was only erected in the last couple of decades, so it probably post-dates your departure.)

The building is new, but the Che Hoon Kor or Moral Upliftment society has been there for as long as I can remember - it was formerly a lovely Anglo-Indian mansion of the kind that is typical on MacAlister Road.