Hokkien, a min nan variety of chinese spoken in southeastern china, taiwan and southeast asia, does not have a unitary standardized writing system, in comparison with the welldeveloped written forms of cantonese and vernacular chinese mandarin. This book is meant for just about anyone who wishes to learn the penang hokkien dialect which has long enchanted both locals and visitors alike through its rojak simplicity and smoothness. Police learning to speak hokkien in penang police to learn hokkien dirty words that would do. Basic penang hokkien memrise theres a basics course available on memrise specifically for penang hokkien. I hope i can make penang hokkien easy to learn, not only for chinese people, but also for the malays, for indians and for foreigners, not only to speak, but also to write in penang hokkien. Penang tourism guide to visit penang island penang.
Philippine hokkien, like other southeast asian variants of hokkien e. Click to read more about learn to speak penang hokkien dialect by choon ho tan. Penang hokkien is a living language, spoken as the lingua franca of the chinese in penang. Penang hokkien chinese linguistics and dialect chinese.
The objective of learn penang hokkien is to make penang hokkien easy for everybody to learn. The hokkien dialect is still the most spoken dialect among the chinese community, although it is no longer in its pure form. Why tim wants us to learn hokkien tim is the author on the definitive penang tourism website, penang travel tips. Creating a new writing system for penang hokkien penang hokkien is a tonal language. Step into a market, any market, in penang and theres a high chance youll hear people speaking sounding almost as though theyre singing. Hokkien spoken today contains loanwords from the malay language especially penang hokkien and may differ according to region.
Learn penang hokkien with memrise now you can use the most userfriendly tool on the web to learn penang hokkien. Penang hokkien is a unique dialect that is widely spoken in and around penang. At learn penang hokkien, we are working to develop this language as our living intangible heritage. The dictionary has over 12 000 entries and is designed to be userfriendly for both native speakers as well as learners of the language. Itll also let you learn a bit more about our hokkien culture and why we greet people differently as compared to some other cultures for example. In recent years, there has been a growing body of romanised penang hokkien material, however topics are mostly limited to the language itself such as dictionaries and learning materials.
Hokkien language one of the chinese mandarin dialect is known as one of the dying language in this world and since i have hokkien heritage, here are some of the hokkien words i use daily life when. The very first podcast entirely in penang style hokkien. Medhurst, walter henry, 17961857 one of the western missionaries who developed pehoeji or poj, the romanized hokkien system publisher. For example, the hokkien variant spoken in northern states like. Hokkien in penang carmen lim, lynsey wolter, department of english struggles of a minor language penang is an island state in malaysia located at the northwest coast. How similar or different taiwanese hokkien and penang.
Welcome to visit penang, your official city guide to penang, malaysia. Definitions of hokkien words and phrases are in english. The tones in taibei hokkien is more like amoy xiamen hokkien. How you pronounce the words carries specific meanings. Penang hokkien vs medan hokkien page 2 chineselanguage. Sign up and learn to speak taiwanese hokkien for completely free. From 1835 onwards, samuel dyer collaborated with the editors and readers of the chinese repository to devise a spelling system for all chinese languages and this attempt laid the foundation for the spelling system. 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.
But more often than not, they fail because they do not know how to put the word into a proper sentence, or, it doesnt sound the same when u use it in another languagedialect apart from hokkien. Learning penang hokkien the art way, malaysia news. This is because i see that many children nowadays do not know how to speak penang hokkien, considering they learn mandarin in school. Penang hokkien is a local variant of min nan southern min spoken in penang, malaysia.
Sometimes,nonhokkien people attempt to use hokkien to increase their level of coolness when they attempt to swear. A lecturer in the asian studies programme in the school of languages and cultures at victoria university of wellington. Start speaking taiwanese hokkien with confidence now. Through learn penang hokkien, you learn to speak, read and write the language using a simple romanized system. Penang has a heterogeneous population is highly diverse in ethnicity, culture, language and religion. It is distinguishable from hokkien spoken in china and taiwan. Plan your trip to penang with useful traveller information brought to you by penangites. Our hokkien class is perfect for beginners, even if you dont have any mandarin background.
I found it be be quite similar to penang hokkien on paper. It is the lingua franca among the majority chinese population in penang as well as other northern states of malaysia surrounding it, and is a subdialect of zhangzhou hokkien. Learn to speak taiwanese hokkien online training glossika. The best way to describe tims passion for hokkien is local pride meets impressive linguistic nerdom ask tim about diacritics and a desire to unite the many diverse people of malaysia, including foreigners. Learning basic penang hokkien learning basic penang hokkien will help you understand most of the words that are used on a daily basis here in penang, malaysia. A tourist taking a photo next to the mural in armenian street. Learn hokkien language when visiting taiwan simply learn hokkien language app is a free language app that will assist you to speak hokkien quickly and effectively. A study of penang peranakan hokkien abstract teoh boon seong singapore management university lim bengsoon national institute of education singapore lee liang hye this paper attempts to classify the loan words in penang peranakan hokkien. Penang hokkien will be dead in 40 years if people stop. The peranakan chinese can be identified through numerous facts of their culture which set them apart from other dialect speaking ethnic chinese in penang.
You can compare the tones using the chart on the wikipedia page for reference. She said from the 1900s till 1990s, hokkien was the street language where everyone used regardless of their mother tongue. We talk about things that you will only share with your closest friends. Learn 50 important words in penang hokkien as your basic building block in constructing sentences in the language. It is one of the most urbanized and economically important states in the country. Alarm bells are sounding that penang hokkien will be forgotten in a generation or two. Glossikas spaced repetition lets you internalize taiwanese hokkien grammar and increase taiwanese hokkien vocabulary along the way. Samuel dyer travelled from england and settled in penang in 1827. Penangs hokkien is unique, as it is made of mix of borrowed words and grammar from other languages, malay, english, cantonese and teochew which acts as a mirror of the diversity that makes up penang. Speak hokkien campaign learn to read and write hokkien. Similar to other chinese languages, penang hokkien is rather economical in the number of syllables of each word most words in penang hokkien contain fewer syllables than malay.
All hokkien phrases and words are presented to you in both phonetic and original hokkien writing. Once you have memorized the spelling of these, add to them with words from the. Medan hokkien shares many similarities with penang hokkien spoken in penang malaysia, which can be only be reached by an approximately 45minute flight. Spoken in penang as well as its neighbouring states in the north e. Penang, an island that is dubbed the pearl of the orient, is filled with wonders, vibrant and oozing with history. Hokkien class singapore hokkien huay kuan cultural academy. A study of penang peranakan hokkien 173 baba hokkien speaking baba or nyonya emerged. Taiwanese hokkien simply learn app if youre curious to learn about the differences between different dialects of hokkien, this app for taiwanese hokkien is.
Tj romanization system the tj romanization system is the system created for you to write penang hokkien using a standard keyboard, without any. Much thought has been put into this book to make it as simple as possible for learners. Another similar hokkien is that spoken in singapore, which, while differing a bit in accent, is still understandable. Kedah, perlis, and perak, penang hokkien is quite different from the hokkien spoken in the southern peninsula e. Versi mee hokkien udang dalam dialek hokkien digelar penang hae mee.
Penang hokkien is very similar to zhangzhou dialect, unlike the taiwanese hokkien spoken in taipei. Unfortunately, other than tainan, southern varieties of hokkien and taiwan are not listed for comparison. Do you find yourself slipping in english or mandarin, and struggle to say a certain word, or express yourself in penang hokkien. The hokkien course is suitable for those who are interested to learn hokkien and develop basic listening and speaking skills. We will teach or remind you of penang hokkien words that are being neglected. Librarything is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers. It is the lingua franca in penang, and is characterised by the widespread use of malay languagemalay and english languageenglish borrowed words. Chiangchiu chinese, together with widespread use of malay and. He learned hokkien and published the first ever penang tsiangtsiu hokkien dictionary at anglochinese college, melaka. My father is a tour guide so i picked up japanese and thai from him and i learnt korean when i was working overseas in a hotel and dealing with a. Macao, printed at the honorable east india companys press, by g. Bilanganangka dalam bahasa hokkien,kata ganti orang dan sebutan, anggota tubuh, makanan,buah dan sayuran,bentuk tubuh, mengenal warna, satuan,mengenal rasa dan jenis makanan dalam bahasa hokkien. Ill send the pdf to anyone who is interested if they pm me.
With its rojak mix of hokkien, malay, and even english words, the dialect is pretty much a unique language of its own. Her father is from selangor while her mother is from penang but she said there was never any necessity to learn hokkien until she started mixing with a group of hokkienspeaking friends in school. We will teach or remind you of penang hokkien words that are being neglected or forgotten. In taiwan, a standard for written hokkien has been developed by the republic of china ministry of education including its dictionary of frequently.
This is the first dictionary of penang hokkien, a unique language which uses loan words from malay and english. Go to memrise, and learn penang hokkien at your own pace. Learn to speak penang hokkien dialect by choon ho tan. George town, aug 2 the penang hokkien language is destined for extinction if penangites keep replacing it with mandarin or english, says language expert catherine churchman.