Which are the words you were referring to? If you meant those Hokkien words, the pronunciation is very simple, similar to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). May be this site http://weblog.holopedia.org/wiki/wiki.p ... troduction can be helpful.
Casey
Thanks for your help. It's very interesting to have these variations in our dialects. These variations enrich our language & should be preserved. We also more often call National Day 'kok4 khing3 dit8/jit8'. Somehow, many of us pronounce 兒童 as 'gi5 tong5' instead of 'di5/li5 tong5'; but 孩兒 as 'hai5 di5/li5'. I don't know why. I heard some Taiwanese (though very few) pronounce 二 [two] as 'gi7' instead of 'ji7'/'li7'/'di7'. Very interesting
Ki-tok na be-bat koh-oah, taN goan le toan-e tio-si khang-lo-so, lin e sin ia-si khang-lo-so. (Church Romanization, tone indicator omitted
"N" is nasalisation)
if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (I Cor 15:14, NIV)
Hokkien-Mandarin vocabulary and character list:
佫活節 Koh-Oah-Ciat (復活節) Easter
復活節 Hok Hoat Chiat (復活節) Easter, this word is borrowing from Mandarin with literary reading.
未八 be-bat (沒有) has not been
佫活 koh-oah (復活) raised
復活 hok hoat (復活) raised, loan word from Mandarin with literary reading.
旦 taN (那麼) then
傳奚 toan-e (所傳) preaching
著是 thio-si (是) is
空 [竹/老] 掃 khang-lo-so (枉然) vain, this word is [竹 on 老].
The old people and the Christian of Hokkien-speaking church say 佫活 koh-oah and 佫活節 Koh-Oah-Ciat. But the Hokkienese Christian of non Hokkien-speaking church, and the bilingual people with Mandarin and Hokkien, say 復活 hok hoat and 復活節 Hok Hoat Chiat.
The reference for the chinese characters "tng-li 唐字", (Mandarin; "hanji 漢字", it is a borrowing from Japanese diction) I used in this post that are in the <漢語大字典> joint publisher 湖北辭書出版社 and 四川辭書出版社. This dictionary has first published with 8 volumes in 1986 and second reprinted with corrections in 4 volumes on 2001. It gives the evolution of the forms of the characters from Siong dynasty 商朝 (Mandarin; Shang) to modern time, such as oracle bone inscription 甲骨文, bronze inscription 金文, stone drum inscription 石鼔文, big seal character 大篆, small seal character 小篆, official script 隸書, regular script 楷書, cursive writing or grass stroke草書, freehand cursive 行書, and simplified 簡體字, and it also provide the information about the characters used in the ancient books, lexicon, dictionary, linguistic books of former time etc.
We read this story first. [Genesis 1:27] So God created man in his own image,... male and female he created them. [Genesis 1:31] And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. [Genesis 2:3] So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work...
八 [bat]: In the "oracle bone inscription 甲骨文", this character 八 [bat] was similar to two persons, their back opposite to each other, then their face one to right, it is a man, and another to left, it is a woman.
In the Hokkien speaking, the 八 [bat] has three meanings: (1). eight (2). know (3). have
八 [bat] this character can express two persons, a man and a woman, they understanded the "eight", the "know", and the "have", the work of Almighty.
(1). eight, 八 [bat] (mandarin:八)
In the first to seventh days were the creation of the Almighty. And from the "eighth" day, the first family started to till and keep the garden of Eden. So the "oracle bone inscription 甲骨文" used "two persons" opposite their back to each other, to indicate "eight".
(2). know, 八 [bat] (mandarin:認識)
In the beginning, there were only "a man and a woman" in the world. They are the first "two people" to know the Almighty. And he lived with them in the garden of Eden. So the Hokkien speaking uses 八 [bat] to indicate "know", and 唔八 [m-bat] (mandarin:不認識) for "do not know".
(3). have, 八 [bat] (mandarin:有)
Before the creation of the world, there existed nothing (has not), and then everything (have) was made in seven days by the words of the Almighty. The first "man and woman" must knew that this "have" was in command of the Almighty. Therefore the Hokkien speaking used 八 [bat] to indicate "have" and 未八 [be-bat] (mandarin:沒有) for "have not"
The Mandarin only have the first meaning:"eight". But the Hokkien speaking is more meanings and they can express accurate in the translation of the words in the Genesis.
It is very interesting to read about your discussion on the word "bat4" (八). From the "Minnan Fangyan yu Gu Hanyu Tong Yuan Cidian" published by the Xiamen Unversity Press (林宝卿：闽南方言与古汉语同源词典, 厦门大学出版社， 1998年10月), the original meaning of "八" is "to distingusih" (别 or 分). It was extended to mean "to know". It stated that "八" was borrowed (借用)later to be used as a number but did not explain how or why.
In the "Putong Hua Minnan Dialect Dictionary" "bat4" is written as "捌".
A friend of mine recently went to Shanghai for a business trip. I was fortunate enough to be able to obtain this dictionary through his help. He bought it in the Shanghai Book Mall (上海书城). In this dictionary it was stated that nearly 2000 terms of Fujian dialect were listed. These terms are said to be of the same origin as the Han language in the ancient time. However, I could not find terms like "ke1 po5" or "an1 ni1".
Anyway, it is still a good reference book to have because it gives examples of how a term was originally used in the Han language. For example: the word "八": <<说文>>:“八, 别也..." (In the book of "Shuo Wen" "八" means "to distinguish"....)
The posting on " 八 [bat] " is my own research. But this part of <<this character 八 [bat] was similar to two persons, their back opposite to each other >>, I am reference on the <<漢語大字典>>. It gives this character, the forms of oracle bone inscription and repeats this paragraph of <<Explain Character 说文>>:"八, 别也.象分別相背之形. "
I think this <<Explain Character 说文>>, is a "Siongnese-Hannese Dictionary" (商-漢 字典). And it consisted of three parts, (1). the terms of character are the Siongnese language, (2). the equivalent of Hannese language, and (3). the explanation are the Hannese language. Such as (1)."八", it is a word of Siongnese, (2)."别也" it is a equivalent of Hannese and (3)."象分別相背之形", this is the explanation of Hannese. The Hokkien speaking is the descendant language of the Siongnese (a speaking in Siong dynasty 商朝). The Mandarin developed from the Hannese (a speaking in Han dynasty 漢朝) and this Hannese was a mixed language with the Siongnese and the Chiunese (a speaking in Chiu dynasty 周朝). This <<Explain Character 说文>> is a very important dictionary in the research of Hokkien characters.
I fully agree with you that <<说文>> is a very important dictionary in the research of Hokkien characters because till today it is still the most important book explaining how Han characters were created even though the book, (in full <<说文解字>> (Shuo1 Wen2 Jie3 Zi4)) was written nearly 2000 years ago by 许慎 (Xu3 Shen4) during the Eastern Han (东汉) period. Characters used in the Minnan dialect (or language) are mostly originated from the ancient Han language.
