Not to 尋事, I think trying to learn Hokkien without the Hanji is like trying to learn Japanese with romaji. And considering how linguists discourage so, I don't see how Hokkien should be any different. I think, it is the least respect you could pay to the language you are learning.
The reality of is that Hokkien exists primarily as a spoken language first. Many people married to Penangites want to learn to speak it, but not necessarily to write it. I am giving them a choice. I don't see how it can be disrespectful when the vast majority of Penangites can't even write basic Hokkien sentences in character script, and I also don't see the point of inventing a standardised script for a language that might die out through lack of speakers. Speakers are the most important, once there are fluent speakers, then there is a greater chance that there will be writers.
Re: your dictionary and TLJ, I'll add my opinion which is that any spoken language can be learned w/o writing it, and v.v. I see no disrespect in presenting Hoklo w/o the TLJ, even if U were to do that. On the other hand I do find some disrespect in knowingly forcing unrelated or incorrect or (worst of all) Mandarin-school hanji on unsuspecting Hoklo words...
Exactly, any spoken language can be learned without learning the script, and people do it all the time with great success. The only long book written in Hokkien (the Bible) came only in a POJ version for years, and the only people literate in Hokkien could only read and write it in POJ, simply because there was hardly anything written in consistant character-based Hokkien to work off. Character-based Hokkien has never had a fully standardised system of writing, but since I can guess what other people are trying to write in characters, I just read them off like I read off POJ syllables, pausing every now and then to catch unfamiiar words, actually Aokh is the only other person I know who writes in PGHK, and the only one who does so in characters.
I think trying to learn Hokkien without the Hanji is like trying to learn Japanese with romaji. And considering how linguists discourage so, I don't see how Hokkien should be any different.
Which linguists think this? I know quite a few linguists personally who say just the opposite of what you have written here.
hope you don't mind, Ah-Bin, but I am really trying to "correct" your dictionary with charaters I think that are more suitable. >.
By the way, can you send me a renewed version of your dictionary?? Please.. Haha, 'cause I noticed a few words, like Gambling being absent. If it not in the renewed version too, then maybe I would add it myself. ^^ Really, hope you don't mind.
The thing I sent you is just a working draft - 80 pages long or so, as of today it is 156 pages long, and already has the word for gambling in it..(and 是 as well, can;t believe that was missing up until three days ago). I'm no going to do anything with it until I have it up to at least 200 pages, but from now on I'm going to have to keep it under wraps, sorry, because as of today it is now the most comprehensive Penang Hokkien-to- English word-list ever written (Mr. Cheah's may have more words, but it doesn't have common words), and I have to start being a bit protective about the digital copy of it. I am happy to send out paper copies though.
Now for the character choice thing...
The reason I often have kept silent on "original character" debates, is because they detracted from my aim of learning how to speak the language, and I didn't want to offend people who care a lot about them.
To tell the truth, I do pay attention to what people write about original characters here, but I pay more attention to published peer-reviewed scholarship by historical linguists (and less to cranky old Taiwanese professors). Sometimes for me common usage just wins over original characters (if there are any) hands down, 厝 is one example, 肉 is another, and good sound loans 擱/佫 (koh, with a short vowel and glottal stop) win out over poor sound loans 故 (ko, missing the glottal stop) which may have had a similar meaning to the modern Hokkien meaning in some ancient Chinese text. I don't mind at all if people have suggestions about the characters I use, they should by all means try to convince me here of the merits of their own choicesif they thing what I am doing is really wrong, but I'll make it known now anyone that fails to convince me on certain characters is going to have to put up with being offended when I say "no" and give my reasons for it.
I'll start with 尋事.....that first character has a final -m...works in Hakka just fine (chhîm), but it shouldn't be how chhōe is written in Hokkien. 揣 at least fits the sound better.
) So yours is a Cuanciu variant. I notice that the accents of the host, both guests and the narrator are a bit different. Although my variant often shares the same vowels as those in the video (rather than with E-mng/TW), nevertheless I often must see the subtitle because I cannot understand them easily, unlike when I watch TW/E-mng programs.
Ke•-pô-chiⁿ 家婆□ – a nosey parker. What tone is the last syllable, and how might I write it? Actually, I think I've got it, it's 精, but I think we discussed the Ke•-pô earlier Niuc noted it was still "ke" in Bagan, but chicken was "koe", perhaps it is actually Ke-pô in Penang? The chiⁿ gives it away as a word from Amoy or Choan-chiu rather than Chiang-chiu, so it wouldn't be surprising if it was ke- rather than ke•-