More Chinese characters for Hokkien words

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
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Mark Yong
Posts: 684
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:52 pm

Post by Mark Yong »

niuc wrote: Since cim is 蟳, may be chi8 is 蟹?
I doubt it. The phonetic patterns between Min/Yue and the Northern dialects seem to suggest a pattern of Min/Yue words having h-/k- beginnings and -ai endings becoming j-/x- beginnings and -ie endings in Mandarin. Examples include 界,介 and 契. And since 蟹 seems to fit the criterion for Yue and Mandarin, I am hazarding a guess that the Min pronunciation is along the lines of "haai".

Point in context: The Teochews in Singapore refer to 蟹 as "heo" (sorry, it's been a while, I have forgotten the tone), so that further reinforces the theory that the Min pronunciation very likely has a h- beginning.

Regards,
Mark
Mark Yong
Posts: 684
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:52 pm

Post by Mark Yong »

niuc wrote: As mentioned by Andrew, ko4-kha4-ho2 is most probably 復較好.
You may have a point there, Andrew. In Classical Chinese, the character 復 means "repeat, again, to make good".

I suppose that means "ko" (mid tone - meaning "even more", as per above) and "ko" (low tone - as in "ah-bue ko", or "not yet) are two separate Hanzi's altogether.
hong

Post by hong »

Yes ,the hanzi 蟹 in minnan is started with h. hai 7(wen) and hue/he7.The words are kim-chin-he,moo-hue,etc.about 螃蟹。
Online dict had given chhih8 hanzi 。I can't type it.
Mark Yong
Posts: 684
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:52 pm

Post by Mark Yong »

Hi, Hong,

What a relief - for once, I got something correct this week! :)

Per my suggestion in the other forum topic, if you are unable to type out the Hanzi word (tried the Taiwan setting yet?), perhaps you can tell us what the radical and components are, and we figure it out ourselves. I guess the radical is definitely 虫.

Cheers,
Mark
hong

Post by hong »

Yes,there are two 虫 below.If you have Njstar -go to racidal lookup,you will find it 3 rd from the last.
Mark Yong
Posts: 684
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:52 pm

Post by Mark Yong »

Sorry to harp on this topic... but just in case no one noticed my previous (rather obscure) entry on this:

Anyone know the Hanzi for "chiau ngeh" (scorpion)? Thanks a bundle! And for the record: Yes, I will accept "no such Hanzi" as a valid answer! :D
Sim

Post by Sim »

Mark,

Sorry. Didn't respond to that because I've never known the Hokkien word for scorpion. I suppose I never really saw a live scorpion in Penang when I was young. We had of course "gia3/7 kang1" (centipede), and there has been some discussion here about the difference between "ti3/7 tu1" and "la3/7 gia5" (Niuc I think explained that the latter is a specific type of spider(-like animal), a "daddy long legs").

Other insects which come to mind are:

1. chau1 me(h)8 kong1 (grasshopper), but for "dragonfly" we use 'belalang' (which I think Niuc pointed out is a misuse of the Malay word, as it actually means grasshopper in Malay).

2. hO3/7 sin5 (fly).

3. ku1 (beetle) - also used for "tortoise", but perhaps with a different character.

4. bat4 sat4 (bed-bug).

5. ka3/7 cuah8 (cockcroach).

6. gu7 pi1 (tick) - the first word is "cow", but we used this word for dog ticks as well. Some of my cousins insisted on calling them kau1 pi1.

7. hia3 (ant) - ang3 hia3 or hue1 hia3 were those smallish fire-ants whose sting was very itchy/painful. And, of course, pE(h)3 hia (termite).

8. bang2 (mosquito), and chu1 (mosquito larva).

9. bue1 (i?)ah8 (butterfly), and sE~7 mO7 thang5 (caterpillar) - "growing hair worm" !

10. cang7 kri1 (cicada) - this word looks strange because of the 'kr-'. Perhaps it's a loan from Malay? I seem to recall a more Hokkien-looking word, was it something like: am3/7 po/O1 cE5?

12. tO7 kau1 (mole cricket) - I always thought these were such *cute* insects!

13. gu7 mOh8 (horsefly) - a large biting fly, which sucked blood from humans and cows.

Well, as many older readers of this Forum know, I love "categories", so it was fun to think up these insects and other related creepy-crawlies (I realised after writing this up that spiders, scorpions, centipedes are not officially insects - not sure if ticks and bedbugs are).

Perhaps people can think of others. For example, I've no idea what the word for "flea" or "cricket" is.

Regards,
Sim.
bang

Post by bang »

I think minnan experts have to look into 蠓 bang2 in 1900 years book 說文解字and its commentary about mosquito.It seems like a different insect from the mosquito in old dict.It says it is smaller than 蚊子。
hong

Post by hong »

sorry,I should type my name hong above.I don't know where mark got the word from about scorpion but dict I have only put giat-a 蠍仔and giat-a-thang 蟲.
I am still not sure about horoscope-天蠍。It could be wendu hiat4.
hong

Post by hong »

about fly sucked b lood from cow.I find that english is gadbee 牛虻gu-bong﹐gu-sin and gu-phang.
I find that horsefly is 馬蠅.
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