How to say "promise" in Penang and others...

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

Re: How to say "promise" in Penang and others...

Post by Mark Yong »

xng wrote:
Zhangzhou hokkien use 'Me' (benzi isn't 猛)
周長楫 《閩南方言大辭典》 gives the 漳州 pronunciation of 猛 as mih. 陳正統 《閩南方言大辭典》 uses this character for mæh in the context of 'fast'. 《廈門方言誌》 has 猛 glossed in the form of 緊猛.

Do you have a suggested benzi for mæh, if it is not 猛? I am not saying I am certain that 猛 is the correct benzi, but right now, I do not have a better candidate.
xng
Posts: 386
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 2:19 pm

Re: How to say "promise" in Penang and others...

Post by xng »

Mark Yong wrote:
xng wrote:
Zhangzhou hokkien use 'Me' (benzi isn't 猛)
周長楫 《閩南方言大辭典》 gives the 漳州 pronunciation of 猛 as mih. 陳正統 《閩南方言大辭典》 uses this character for mæh in the context of 'fast'. 《廈門方言誌》 has 猛 glossed in the form of 緊猛.

Do you have a suggested benzi for mæh, if it is not 猛? I am not saying I am certain that 猛 is the correct benzi, but right now, I do not have a better candidate.
I'm more into amoy and quanzhou hokkien, i've heard of 猛 pronounced as 'Bing' in taiwanese shows. Although the colloquail sound Me is quite close.

But I find it strange that 猛 has the meaning 'fast' instead of 'powerful' in zhangzhou ?

It could be that the original meaning of 'powerful' was misuse to mean 'fast' in zhangzhou which is highly possible. So you're right, this 猛 could be the original character for Me, short of any other suitable character and seeing that Quanzhou don't use Me for fast.
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