Nuggets of Hokkien phrases

[Mark Yong]

niuc wrote:
How do you say statue & cartoon in Penang & other variants?

1. In this particular context, I am assuming ‘statue’ = ‘idol’: 尪公 âng-kŌng. Low-mid tones.
2. Altar: 尪公桌 âng-kÔng tôq. Low-low-low tones.
3. Doll (which, for want of a better word, I would borrow for ‘cartoon’!): 尪公仔 âng-kÔng-ă Low-low-high tones.

[Ah-bin]

Upssst, I don't understand either. So the milkman here is not the man who delivers milk bottles?

Yes, and now thinking about it, I don't know whether they even exist any more. They were in my town until I left in the mid-1990's, and I used to help my friend work as the milkman's boy in the evenings, and my brother was one back in the village we came from in the 1980's.

What I wanted to explain was the phrase "the milkman's son", meaning a child of suspicious parentage. After a lot of explanation, I found out that the Mandarin term was 在外面撿到的(孩子)!

[AndrewAndrew]

Upssst, I don't understand either. So the milkman here is not the man who delivers milk bottles?

Yes, and now thinking about it, I don't know whether they even exist any more. They were in my town until I left in the mid-1990's, and I used to help my friend work as the milkman's boy in the evenings, and my brother was one back in the village we came from in the 1980's.

They still exist in the UK

[niuc]

1. In this particular context, I am assuming ‘statue’ = ‘idol’: 尪公 âng-kŌng. Low-mid tones.

Probably Singaporeans also say "ang1-kong1" in this context. They say 尪公囝 "ang1-kong1-kiaⁿ2" for dolls and cartoons. This sounds puzzling for Bâ-gán-lâng because in my variant "ang1-kong1" is only used for grandfather.

Sideline a bit, a1 is usually pronounced as ang1/am1/an2 as a form of endearment:
阿公/姑 -> a1-> ang1-kong1/ko•1
阿舅 -> a1-> ang2-ku7
阿嬤 -> a1 -> am1-ma8
阿叔/姨/嬸/丈/伯/姆 -> a1 -> an2-cik4/i5/cim2/tiuⁿ7/pe4/m2

2. Altar: 尪公桌 âng-kÔng tôq. Low-low-low tones.

We say 大伯公桌(仔).

3. Doll (which, for want of a better word, I would borrow for ‘cartoon’!): 尪公仔 âng-kÔng-ă Low-low-high tones.

For doll, we say 尪仔嬰仔.

What I wanted to explain was the phrase "the milkman's son", meaning a child of suspicious parentage. After a lot of explanation, I found out that the Mandarin term was 在外面撿到的(孩子)!

I see. I didn't know this phrase either, thanks! In my variant, we teasingly say pùn-sò-tháng khioh_ë 糞埽桶拾个. Sometimes instead of pùn-sò, we say sam1-pa1, from Malay "sampah".