Transcribing videoclips

[niuc]

From comments posted on youtube, the English title is something like "I Not Stupid" (and it's sequel, which is where this clip comes from "I Not Stupid 2"). If they're available on DVD, I’d be very happy to hear about it.

Yes, Sim, it is available on DVD and VCD. You should watch it if it is available to you, funny yet meaningful, and lots of Hokkien But a lot of things there may be not easy to be understood by non-Singapore residents.

2.From what I hear, it's probably "old bit".
3. 'ly cng an ni sui..." cng 裝

Have to run now, continue this later...

[Andrew]

Hi All,


2. MOTHER: tong-kim e gin-na - peng-iu kong chi(t)-ku ho ke pe-bu kong chi(t)-pah ku. lang na khui-chhui a, in toh kong si-mi “old-fashioned” la, {“ old vid???”} la. tong-kim koh u chi(t)-ku sin-e... si-mi si-mi si-mi, si-mi “lame” la! suo-yi a - he hai-zi gou-tong shi i men xue-wen {lai de???} a.

當今的 gin-na - 朋友講一句好過父母講一百句. 咱若開喙阿, [亻+因] toh 講什麽 “old-fashioned” 啦, {“ old vid”} 啦. 當今佫有一句新的... 什麽什麽什麽, 什麽 “lame” 啦! 所以阿 - 和孩子溝通是一門學問{來的???}啊.

Children nowadays - one word from their friends works better than a hundred words from their parents. If we open out mouths, they say like “old-fashioned”, {“old vid”}. Now there’s yet another new word... erm... “lame”! So, communicating with children {has become???} a sort of art.

Gin-na is 囝仔 or 囡仔

10. MOTHER: m-si - si lau-kha tim khi lau-teng. xiang bu dao mE? tim mih-kiaN ye shi yi zhong cai-hua. e! li-e kiaN m-si chin gau sio-phah lo?

毋是 - 是樓骹揕去樓頂. 想不到 mE? 揕物件也是一種才華. e! 汝的囝毋是真[教+力]相拍囉?

No - from downstairs to upstairs. Can’t you imagine it? Throwing things is also a sort of special talent. Hey! Isn’t your son very good at fighting?

Gau is ［敖力］

15. FRIEND: hei-shou-dang a-si zhu-lian-bang?

黑手黨也是竹聯邦?

With the Mafia or the Triads?

Are you sure a-si is 也是?

20. MOTHER: a-yo, {chek??? a???/ia???} iau-siu. cho li-e kiaN a-si kau sue! ha! [speaks to Tan, who has just arrived] e, Tan, li cha-mi {UNCLEAR} e {te-O???} sng-kam {phueh???} chin ho lim a! koh {thiau-te???}, koh {thiau-te???}, thiau {kau/kha} ho-se, gua {ka i / ka li} gia lai bue. {{si}kut-lat{lang}???}.

哎唷, {缺???<X???>/也???}夭壽!做汝的囝也是夠衰! ha! [speaks to Tan, who has just arrived] e, 陳, 汝昨暝 {UNCLEAR} 的{茶烏}酸柑{泡???}真好啉阿! 佫 {調得???}, 佫 {調得???}, 調{夠/到/較}好勢,我{共伊/共汝}拿來賣. {是}出力{人}???}.

Oh dear, you’re awful. What an terrible fate to be your child! Ha! Hey, Tan, the {bubbly?} lemon tea which you {UNCLEAR} last night tasted really good! Keep improving it and I’ll put it on the menu. {UNCLEAR}.

冰 for peng? Not sure what the correct character is for gia5. 舉?

[Andrew]

22. FRIEND: i-e chui e lim me?

伊的水會啉 me?

Is his stuff drinkable?

He actually says "i e chui be lim e" (his drinks are awful).

[SimL]

2.From what I hear, it's probably "old bit".
3. 'ly cng an ni sui..." cng 裝

Hi niuc and Andrew,

Thanks for your inputs.

niuc:

"2" => Yes, "old bit" is the best fit so far, but still not totally clear.

"3" => Also not very clear, but the best interpretation so far. I think the rest is "a(i) khy t(o-l)o(h)", which ends up sounding like "akhyto".

Andrew:

For "gau", I think my eyes were just not sharp enough, when looking at the Minnan dictionary (small print). For the last few years, I've believed that "a-si" (= "or") is 也是, but I have no hard evidence for this. "a7" is given as a known pronunciation of 也 on the Etymology Page, and the compounding of "also" + "is" could conceivably result in a di-syllabic word which means "or", so that's what made me think this. I'm happy to have any alternatives proposed though. Maybe because of the similarity visually, in final vowel, and in meaning between "gia" and 拿, I've always written it that way, but the Etymology Page only gives "na2" for 拿, so it's probably not the right character. 舉 on the other hand is given as "gia5 ki2 kia5", so this seems indeed to be a better choice.

I'm not sure where you intend the 冰 to go. Is it where I've conjectured 泡 phueh8 ?

[niuc]

Hi Sim

"2" => Yes, "old bit" is the best fit so far, but still not totally clear.

After listen to this part several times, I think it is almost certainly "old bit". As you may have known, Singlish usually pronounces "old" as "ol" or even "o".

"3" => Also not very clear, but the best interpretation so far. I think the rest is "a(i) khy t(o-l)o(h)", which ends up sounding like "akhyto".

Yes, this part is not clear. However, 'khy3-to`5' is enough in my variant, we seldom use 'khy to loh'.

16. 'cit8-ki1-chui3 kam5-cit8-ki1-ci8' 一支嘴含一支舌; 'lo`7-ber2-cit8-pai2' 路尾一擺

19. 'si5-cun7' -> the actor's Hokkien was not good.

20. 'cik4-ak4 iau2-siu7' [][]夭壽 -> I don't know the proper tng-lang-ji for cik4-ak4, its equivalent is 作孽 or 造孽.
'li cha-mi huat8-bing5 (發明) hit e te'
'kut lat la' 骨力啦 work harder -> kut4-lat8 = diligent, work hard

27. 'kau lat' 夠力 (powerful) is correct

And yes, it is the same man in the beginning of the clip. His son stood next to him (single parent), another student stood behind his mother (his father didn't attend).

[SimL]

Hi niuc,

Oh, what a lot of new inputs!!! Thank you VERY much! I'll work them into the transcription. Particularly the "khy-to" is good to know. It means I don't have to assume that so many intervening sounds (i.e. "khy t(o-l)o(h)") are dropped.

To be honest, I LOVE the mix of English, Mandarin and Hokkien in this film. It's a totally different topic (and I'm obviously only scratching the surface of it), but there are some cultural historians who believe that it's the mixing of cultures which causes the greatest progress in human knowledge and art. For example, it's been frequently remarked that in the latter half of the 20th century, the number of winners of literature awards in English who come from Africa or the Caribbean or India (e.g. Michael Ondaatje, V.S. Naipaul, Coetzee, etc) is way out of proportion to the number of speakers in those areas compared to England, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ. It's believed (by subscribers to this theory) that it's the stimulation of the cultural clash and mixing which causes such cultures to be more creative. Similarly - they argue - many of the greatest "white" authors in the 19th and early 20th century were not English, but Irish (e.g. Yeats, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, etc). There are equivalent assertions made about Tang China, where there was a huge influx of people from Central Asia living in Chang-An, leading to a lot of cross-fertilization of language and ideas. Perhaps even the example of the melting pot which is the USA - with the immense creativity of its universities and artists - can be used to support this theory.

In that sense, the cultural mixing of Singapore (and Malaysia) - resulting in films such as the one of the video clip - can be seen in a very positive light.

[SimL]

As you may have known, Singlish usually pronounces "old" as "ol" or even "o".

Oh yes, absolutely right . "ol" when phrase final, and "o" when not phrase final!

[Andrew]

For "gau", I think my eyes were just not sharp enough, when looking at the Minnan dictionary (small print). For the last few years, I've believed that "a-si" (= "or") is 也是, but I have no hard evidence for this. "a7" is given as a known pronunciation of 也 on the Etymology Page, and the compounding of "also" + "is" could conceivably result in a di-syllabic word which means "or", so that's what made me think this. I'm happy to have any alternatives proposed though. Maybe because of the similarity visually, in final vowel, and in meaning between "gia" and 拿, I've always written it that way, but the Etymology Page only gives "na2" for 拿, so it's probably not the right character. 舉 on the other hand is given as "gia5 ki2 kia5", so this seems indeed to be a better choice.

If a-si is the same as 還是 in Mandarin, then 猶 (a2/ia2/iau2/ek4) and 也 (a7/ia7/iah8/ek8) both fit in meaning, although 也是 would the different meaning of "also is" to a Mandarin speaker. Douglas/Barclay gives the phrase as a2-si7, the character having the sound a2/ia2/ek4 and meaning of "or else", but does not give the character, which is neither 猶 nor 也. It is very annoying not having characters in Douglas. However, I say a7-si7 rather than a2-si7, which fits 也是 better.

I'm not sure where you intend the 冰 to go. Is it where I've conjectured 泡 phueh8 ?

Correct.

By the way, I think it is 想不到呢 (I wouldn't have thought it/Who would have thought it).

[niuc]

Hi Sim

You are most welcome. I also enjoyed "I Not Stupid" (I & II) very much! Glad that you posted the videoclip here. Thank you for the information about mixing of cultures, it is very interesting! Yes, cultural interchange does help us to know more and be more creative. Anyway, it is inevitable, just differing in degree. Moreover, 四海之内皆兄弟也

20. 'cik4-ak4 iau2-siu7' [][]夭壽 -> I don't know the proper tng-lang-ji for cik4-ak4,

From the meaning & sound, I wonder if 'cik4-ak4' is 積惡. 積 is 'cik4'. 惡 is usually 'ok4' (sometimes 'o3' -> 可惡 'kho2-o3'), I still can't find any reference for it as 'ak4', but I think it should be possible 'ok4 <-> ak4' . A casual search on internet does show that the term 積惡 had been used in historical records. Any idea? Or I just reading too much into that?

its equivalent is 作孽 or 造孽.

Both are in Mandarin. I forgot to mention it explicitly, but I think all of us may have known that. 作孽 & 造孽 in Hokkien may be 'co3/cok4-giat8' & 'co7-giat8' but their meaning may not be identical with 'cik4-ak4'.

If a-si is the same as 還是 in Mandarin, then 猶 (a2/ia2/iau2/ek4) and 也 (a7/ia7/iah8/ek8) both fit in meaning, although 也是 would the different meaning of "also is" to a Mandarin speaker. Douglas/Barclay gives the phrase as a2-si7, the character having the sound a2/ia2/ek4 and meaning of "or else", but does not give the character, which is neither 猶 nor 也. It is very annoying not having characters in Douglas. However, I say a7-si7 rather than a2-si7, which fits 也是 better.

Andrew & Sim: 也是 'ia7/a7-si7' means "also". The 'a-si' in that context means "or". In my variant it is 'a2-si7'. It is interesting to notice how languages (& human's associative logic) operate. 還是 ("or") in Mandarin, if compared to 還有 ("still have"), literally meaning "still is". Along this line, 猶 would be the paralel, as in 猶有 'iau2/ia2/a2-u7' and 猶 'ia2/a2-si7'.

[niuc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BuzJJMO ... re=related

THIS is an example of something which sounds like Hokkien, but which might as well be Tamil

We usually would comment of that as 真腔 'cin1-khiu*1' i.e. very accented (not "true accent" as 真腔 means in Mandarin!). Although my variant share similarity with Cuanciu/Quanzhou, its tones are very similar to E-mng/Xiamen, so Cuanciu accent for me is also more difficult/"foreign" than E-mng & Taiwanese accents.