Parts of the Body in Hokkien

[Casey]

This is the last portion that I missed previously:

"pupil" & "iris": dong5 jin5 (lin5)(瞳仁). I think these terms are not distinguished in Minnan dialect, the dark part of the eyeball is called "O1 jin5", the white part, "peh8 jin5".

"the area surrounding the eye": bak8 khO1, e.g., the boy is about to cry, his "bak8 khO1 ang5 ang5" the surroundings of the boys eyes are red; he did not sleep well last night, look at his eyes, "bak8 khO1 O1 O1".

"earlobe": hi7 cu1 (ear pearl) or hi7 tui7 (耳坠)

"shoulder blade": png7 si5 kut4 (literally rice spatula bone because of its shape being like a spatula). It may also be called "keng1 ka4 kut4" directly from the term 肩胛骨.


Niuc

About "pancreas", chio4 is actually for animals, for human it should be "yi5".

About "rib", pai5 kut4 is more for animals, for human, colloquially it may be called "heng1 kham2 kut4" (front) and "phia*1 kut4" (back) but "lek4 kut4" is more appropriate.

Oh yes, about the nasal intonation of "ear" and "nose", I checked up two dictionaries and both indicated the same, that "ear" does not have a nasal
intonation but "nose" does. Thus they should be pronounced as "hi7" and "phi*7" respectively.

[Casey]

While washing my hair, just remembered the following terms in relation to hair:

"bundled hair": thau5 cang1

"pig-tail": thau5 cang1 be2l

"dandruff": thau1 phO1

[Casey]

Oops, sorry for the typo-mistakes, they should have been:

"pig-tail": thau5 cang1 be2

"dandruff": thau5 phO1

[Casey]

It looks like the list can still keep on growing. I just thought of another term:

"dimple": jiu2 khut4 (wine hole)

[Yisheng]

Hi Niuc,

I have a question here. I was reading through your post and I found that you wrote 皮 as pher and 豬 as ty. What is the difference in pronunciation between the vowels in these two words?

thanks

yisheng

[Niuc]

Hi Yisheng

In my dialect (同安 tang5 ua*1) and also Cuanciu group dialects, what I write as 'er' is the schwa. It sounds like '-er' in English "her" or '-e' in Mandarin Pinyin "ge". The sound of what I write as 'y' is like '-i' in Mandarin Pinyin "si". The latter also exists in Teochew but not the former.


Hi Casey

Thanks a lot. I learned and recalled many terms from your postings.

I hardly heard people in my hometown said 肋骨 'lik4 kut4' and am not sure of how they say it. The Amoy Vernacular Bible use 脇骨 'hiap8 kut4' for rib (Genesis 2:21).

For dimple I heard of both 酒窟 ciu2 khut4 (wine hole) and 水窟 cui2 khut4 (water hole -> we usually say it this way).

[%sig%]

[hong]

I think one important thing missing-前列腺 prostate.

[Niuc]

Taiwanese Bible writes na5 au5 (throat) as 嚨喉. It really makes sense as 嚨 also means throat / larynx in Mandarin (in reverse order 喉嚨 hou2long2). 嚨 long2 in Mandarin can be liong5 or ling5 in Hokkien, then try to relate it with 林 lim5 that also can be read as na5: ling5 -> (lin5/lim5) -> na5.

[%sig%]

[hong]

乳晕areola of nipple=leng/ni po
nipple is called linchu 奶珠 too

[hong]

2 other words for breast ---leng-chhang and lin-bo