A word for "Chinese" in Hokkien

[Casey]

Hi, Miles!
Welcome to this forum.
"Nan nang", "lan nang" or "lan lang" (proper intonation: lan2 lang5) means "we people" indeed. This is inclusive of both the speaker and the listener, a friendly term used for reducing the gap between the speaker and the listener and drawing them closer together. It generates "closeness" between them and implies that both of them are of the same type of people, different from the "huan-a" (huan1 a2). Perhaps this term has been used, ever since the early days when Chinese first arrived at the Philippines where they were outnumbered by the local natives, for the purpose of consolidating necessary solidarity of the Chinese. Traditionally, Chinese regarded themselves the only civilized people in the world and all other nationalities and races were uncivilized, hence assigning the local natives the derogatory term "huan1 a2" (meaning uncivilized people). In contrast, "we people" (lan2 lang5) are of the same civilized type therefore, should be closer together. After a long time, this term "huan1 a2" became common in the usual conversation and gradually lost its original derogatory sense. However, "tsao huan" or "chhao3 huan1" is definitely derogatory because the adjective "chhao3" or "smellY" reflects the bad implication of description.

[Sim]

Hi again Miles,

In Penang Hokkien, the word "huan a" is used for "Malay". I was told it basically means "native" or "indigenous person". As Casey said, the Chinese traditionally considered themselves to be superior to all "native" peoples, so the word had a derogatory meaning. However, although the essential/original meaning is derogatory, people nowadays don't necessarily mean it that way when they use it. It has just "evolved" in meaning to be the normal word for a Malay person. For very formal use, I have heard people say: "ma1 lai2 lang5" (="Malay person").

Similarly, the Penang Hokkien word for "Indian person" is "ke1 leng3 a2", which I read is from a region called "Kalinga" in India. In some areas (I forget where) the Indians themselves perceive this as a very derogatory term, but I don't know how Penang Indians feel about that. There are many Penang Indians who in fact speak Penang Hokkien fluently and without an accent at all. The formal term I think would be "in1 to'3 lang5" = ("India person").

Sim.

[Niuc]

Hi Miles, thanks for sharing with us about Hokkien people in Philippines. Please continue to share as we really like to know more.

In our hometown, we use 'huan lang' more often than 'huan a'. Any body here also use this term?

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[Armand]

Hi yea, I know the word tang lang ( we called it teng lang) for chinese people i n indonesia.
any of you know yellow color in hokkien? is it oey?

[kaiah]

yellow color: ui* (Zhangzhou accent)
ng (Amoy, Quanzhou, Teochew accent)

[Niuc]

Hi Kaiah

How are you? Fine, right?

Sorry I didn't know that you've answered the question here hence duplicated the answer in another thread. Thanks.

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