Common Mistakes ?

[aokh1979]

I am trying to put together a list of Hokkien words incorrectly used or pronounced by Penangites (or others – I ponder in Penang Hokkien myself though). I was born in 1979, I realised nearly 90% of my friends would say below – though some of them might be grammatically or phonetically wrong. Have you come across any common mistakes like these ? Cheers.

因爲 “because” pronounced as Eng-Gue instead of In-Ui (found out it was Teochew instead of Hokkien in Penang lately)
重要 “important” pronounced as Cong-Iau instead of Tiong-Iau (still have not concluded where the Cong comes from)

Combination of Hokkien words with Teochew sound seems to be a trend in Penang, as both Hokkiens and Teochews live in the same neighbourhood for a very long time ~

[niuc]

People in/from Bagansiapiapi have no problem with 因爲 or 重要, but many (esp. those below 40) pronounce 國語 as 'kok4-ly2' (should be 'kok4-gy2'); also 危險 as 'ui5-hiam2' (should be 'gui5-hiam2').

[SimL]

I don't know if these fit in with the others, but in my form of Penang Hokkien, for "clogs", I say "kha1-kiah8" ("foot"-clogs) rather than "cha5-kiah8" ("wood"-clogs). Also, for "back" (the human body part), I say "pa-ciah4" instead of "ka-ciah4". Lastly, for phoning someone, the rest of Malaysia seems to say "kha(h?)-tiEn-ua" whereas I say "phah-tiEn-ua".

[niuc]

Hi Sim

My variant only uses 'cha5-kiak8/khiak8' 柴屐, but 'kha1-kiah8' sounds logical too. I say 'ka1-cia4' (ka1 = ?, cia4 = 脊). I have never heard of 'pa1-cia4' but interestingly yours is Cuanciu! It is 巴脊 at http://solution.cs.ucla.edu/~jinbo/dzl/lookup.php!

拍電話 'pha4-tian7-ue7' and 敲電話 'kha3-tian7-ue7' are both used in my variant, usually we drop the last word ('ue7').

[SimL]

Hi Niuc,

It is indeed strange that my form is Cuanciu. I'm pretty sure my non-Penang Hokkien maternal relatives all say "ka-ciah", and the "pa-" I use is from Penang. Perhaps Mark, Andrew, or aokh can confirm this?

[Andrew]

It is indeed strange that my form is Cuanciu. I'm pretty sure my non-Penang Hokkien maternal relatives all say "ka-ciah", and the "pa-" I use is from Penang. Perhaps Mark, Andrew, or aokh can confirm this?

We say ka-ciah. Also we use both khah tien and phah tien oa.

[aokh1979]

I say ka-ciah. I never used or heard pa-ciah in Penang.

And I say kha-khiah 骹屐 my whole life, I never say cha-khiah 柴屐 but it makes sense if I hear it.

And I know both 撽 kha and 拍 phah work for 電話。

[aokh1979]

Besides, I find many Penangites say:

緊張 (nervous )= kin ciong instead of kin tnior (have not tried to understand the reason)

Some even say kan ciong as in Cantonese but this is interesting, as far as I know, we borrow words from Cantonese and we usually pronounce it the same way we do in Cantonese, right ? But in this case we change tones. Why ?

[niuc]

Most if not all Hokkien speakers in Singapore say 緊張 'kin2-tiu*1' as "kan ciong" (i.e. Cantonese). 張's literary pronunciation is 'tiong1' (-> 新開張 'sin1-khai1-tiong1'), not 'ciong1', so Penang's 'kin ciong' seems to be a hybrid.