Penang Hokkien vs Medan Hokkien

[Ah-bin]

I have a pdf of a chapter from a book on the languages used by the Southeast Asian Chinese I will send anyone who is interested, it has a long wordlist of Sumatran Hokkien, and a few pages of sentences iluustrating the grammar. I found it be be quite similar to Penang Hokkien on paper. I'll send the pdf to anyone who is interested if they pm me.

[SimL]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcIGvgOHILs

How close is that to Penang Hokkien, just out of curiosity? (I think he's singing in Medan Hokkien 'cos he uses words like ta-pi, lú, and in another song he uses pūiⁿ and ōa )

Sorry, I find it very difficult to comment on this. I've confessed to you elsewhere that I find it difficult to hear things about Hokkien (like the accent) when it's sung. Your observation that he uses "Penang type" sounds (lú etc) is absolutely correct. I see no point saying "lú" etc, and then trying to sing in a Taiwanese way, so I imagine that his accent is very "North Malayan".

[FutureSpy]

Sorry, I find it very difficult to comment on this. I've confessed to you elsewhere that I find it difficult to hear things about Hokkien (like the accent) when it's sung.

Thanks Sim. What about the vocabulary? Does it sound pretty much Penang to you?

[AndrewAndrew]

Sorry, I find it very difficult to comment on this. I've confessed to you elsewhere that I find it difficult to hear things about Hokkien (like the accent) when it's sung.

Thanks Sim. What about the vocabulary? Does it sound pretty much Penang to you?

The only difference I can pick out is "tsit-kai" instead of "tsit-le", etc.

[amhoanna]

FUTURESPY, lí íkeng khaisí tiàm cia siá Ho̍hló bûn ‧a! Cán.

I've heard enough testimony to last a lifetime that the two Hokkiens Penang and Medan are very, very close.

That said, Medan Hokkien has more "wild" aspects, such as the use of "kín" to mark the progressive. Very intriguing. It seems to come from Cantonese "kán", but instead of borrowing the word phonetically, it's like they dug into the phonology of it all and reconstructed a "Hokkien cognate" for the Cantonese word. An understudied topic, like the rest of Medan Hokkien. My best guess at this point is that the word comes from Hoisan (Seiyap), not Delta Cantonese. Much of Penang is Hoisan by heritage, so why not Medan too? And the Hoisan cognate for "kán" would be "kín", according to what little I know about Hoisan.

[amhoanna]

Kadri, chiáⁿ lí kià imélǔ hǒ‧ ‧góa hó ‧bô? Lí hit ciuⁿ cheeh góa ciâⁿ giàn tha̍k, sīmcì kui pún cheeh.

[Falconstar]

Hi, I'm from Medan.. U can ask me if u wanna know
From what I know.. There are some teochew influence in medan hokkien..

as example, ciak peng (eat rice) which actually in hokkien, ciak pui.
Both "peng" and "pui" are understandable as "rice".

[Falconstar]

Hi, I'm from Medan.. U can ask me if u wanna know
From what I know.. There are some teochew influence in medan hokkien..

as example, ciak peng (eat rice) which actually in hokkien, ciak pui.
Both "peng" and "pui" are understandable as "rice".