Penang Hokkien is a local variant of Minnan (Southern Min) spoken in Penang, Malaysia. It is the lingua franca in Penang, and is characterised by the pronunciation of words according to the Zhangzhou dialect, together with widespread use of Malay and English borrowed words. It is predominantly a spoken dialect: it is rarely written in Chinese characters, and there is no standard romanisation. This article uses the Missionary Romanisation or Pe̍h-ōe-jī (白話字) which is common in Taiwan. Mǐn N n (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name B ; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... State motto: Bersatu dan Setia (United and Loyal), formerly Let Penang Lead Location in Malaysia Government Capital George Town (5. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... Zhangzhou (Chinese: 漳州; pinyin: Zhāngzhōu) is a prefecture-level city, located on the banks of the Xi River in the Fujian province of China, about 55 km (35 mi) west of Xiamen. ... // Headline text Bold text Not to be confused with the Malayalam language, spoken in India. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

Sino-Tibetan ⊃ Chinese ⊃ Min ⊃ Southern Min ⊃ Penang Hokkien

Minnan is one of the sub-languages of the Chinese language and is mainly spoken in southern Fujian, Taiwan, Hainan and parts of Guangdong, with the main standard dialects being that of Amoy, Teochew and Hainan. Within Fujian, the Amoy dialect is the prestige dialect. It is also spoken by many overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, and is known in Southeast Asia as "Hokkien" (福建話; pinyin Fújiàn huà; Minnan: Hok⁴-kien³-oa⁷). Strictly speaking, it should be known as Southern Hokkien to distinguish it from Minbei (Northern Min) and Mindong (Eastern Min), the language of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. Sino-Tibetan languages form a language family of about 250 languages of East Asia, in number of speakers worldwide second only to Indo-European. ... Min (閩方言 in pinyin: min3 fang1 yan2) is a general term for a group of dialects of the Chinese language spoken in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian as well as by migrants from this province in Guangdong (around Chaozhou-Swatou, and Leizhou peninsula), Hainan, three counties in... Mǐn Nán (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name Bân-lâm-gú; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... (Chinese: 福建; Pinyin: Fújiàn; Wade-Giles: Fu-chien; Postal System Pinyin: Fukien, Foukien; local transliteration Hokkien from Min Nan Hok-kiàn) is one of the provinces on the southeast coast of China. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... China, and should not be confused with the former Kwantung Leased Territory in north-eastern China. ... View of Xiamen Xiamen (Simplified Chinese: 厦门; Traditional Chinese: 廈門; Pinyin: Xiàmén; Wade-Giles: Hsiamen) is a coastal sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian province, Peoples Republic of China. ... Chaozhou (Chinese: 潮州 lit. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A prestige dialect is the dialect spoken by the most prestigious people in a speech community large enough to sustain multiple dialects. ... Overseas Chinese are Chinese people who live outside China. ... Pinyin is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin, where pin means spell and yin means sound. The most common variant of pinyin in use is called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n), also known as scheme... Min Bei (Simplified Chinese: 闽北; Traditional Chinese: 閩北; Hanyu Pinyin: ) is a subcategory of Min, which is a Chinese language. ... Ningde (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Níngdé), also known as Mindong (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Mǐndōng; lit. ... Fuzhou (Chinese: 福州; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Fu-chou; EFEO: Fou-Tcheou; SLC: Hùk-cieu; also seen as Foochow or Fuchow) is the provincial seat and the largest prefecture-level city of Fujian province, Peoples Republic of China. ...

Penang Hokkien is based on the dialect of Minnan spoken in the Zhangzhou (漳州 Hokkien: Chiang¹-chiu¹) prefecture of Fujian. It is said that it most closely resembles the dialect spoken in Longhai (龍海 Hokkien: Liong⁵-hai²) county, around the town of 角美,海沧，杏林 . In Southeast Asia, similar dialects are spoken in the states bordering Penang, and in Medan. In contrast, in southern Malaysia and Singapore, most Hokkien speakers speak a dialect based on the Amoy standard. The term prefecture (from the Latin Praefectura) indicates the office, seat, territorial circonscription of a Prefect; consequentally, like that word, is its applied in English in relation to actual Prefects, whose title is just that (or the forms it takes in other, especially Romance, languages), in the broadest sense in... Longhai City (Chinese: 龙海市; pinyin: LónghÇŽi Shì) is a county within the prefecture of Zhangzhou. ... A county is generally a sub-unit of regional self-government within a sovereign jurisdiction. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Location of Medan in Indonesia. ...

Tones

There are seven tones in Penang Hokkien. However, as some tones are nearly identical, most native speakers of Penang Hokkien are only aware of four or five tones. The seven tones are: It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ...

The numbers in [ ] reflect the tone contours, with 5 being the highest and 1 the lowest. The names of the tones no longer bear any relation to the tone contours, e.g. the lower Level (5th) tone actually rises. As in Amoy and Zhangzhou, the Rising tone is not distinguished into upper and lower, and there is thus no 6th tone. As in Zhangzhou, the two Departing tones (3rd & 7th) are virtually identical, except in their sandhi forms. Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. ...

Tone sandhi

Like in other Minnan dialects, the tone of a syllable in Penang Hokkien depends on where in a phrase or sentence the relevant syllable is placed. For example, the word 牛 gu⁵ is pronounced with an ascending [25] tone, but when it is placed in front of another syllable in 牛肉 gu⁵-bah⁴ is pronounced with to a low flat [22] tone.

The rules which apply when a syllable is placed in front of a connected syllable in standard Minnan, simply put, are as follows:

• 1st becomes 7th
• 7th becomes 3rd
• 3rd becomes 2nd (often sounds like 1st in Penang Hokkien)
• 2nd becomes 1st
• 5th becomes 7th
• 4th becomes 8th
• 8th becomes 4th

Although the two departing tones (3rd & 7th) are usually difficult to tell apart in Penang Hokkien, their tone contours being [21] and [22], in their sandhi forms they become [54]/[53] and [21] and are thus easily distinguishable. For more detailed rules on Minnan tone sandhi, see Taiwanese (linguistics). Template:Dablick Taiwanese (Traditional Chinese: 台語, 台灣話; Pinyin: Táiyǔ, Táiwānhuà; Taiwanese Pe̍h-oē-jī: Tâi-gí or Tâi-oân-oē) is a dialect of Min Nan spoken by about 70% of the Taiwanese population. ...

Minnan and Mandarin tones

There is a reasonably reliable correspondence between Hokkien and Mandarin tones:

• Upper Level: Hokkien 1st tone = Mandarin 1st tone, e.g. 雞 ke¹ / jī.
• Lower Level: Hokkien 5th tone = Mandarin 2nd tone, e.g. 龍 leng⁵ / lóng.
• Rising: Hokkien 2nd tone = Mandarin 3rd tone, e.g. 馬 bε² / mǎ.
• Departing: Hokkien 3rd/7th tones = Mandarin 4th tone, e.g. 兔 thơ³ / tù, 象 chhiơⁿ⁷ / xiàng.

Words with Entering tones all end with -p, -t, -k or -h (glottal stop). As Mandarin no longer has any entering tones, there is no corresponding relationship for the Hokkien 4^th and 8^th tones, e.g. 國 kok⁴ / guó, but 發 hoat⁴ / fā. Entering tone (Simplified Chinese: 入声; Traditional Chinese: 入聲; pinyin: rùshÄ“ng) is one of four tones in the phonology in Middle Chinese. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ...

Literary and colloquial pronunciations

Hokkien has not been taught in schools in Penang since the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, when Mandarin was made the Chinese national language. As such, few if any people have received any formal instruction in the language, and it is not used for literary purposes. However, as in other variants of Minnan, most words have both literary and colloquial pronunciations, and the literary pronunciations still appear in limited circumstances, e.g.: Motto: None Anthem(s): National Anthem of the Republic of China Capital Taipei City (de facto) Nanjing (de jure)1 Largest city Taipei City Official language(s) Mandarin (GuóyÇ”) Government Semi-presidential system  - President Chen Shui-bian  - Vice President Annette Lu  - Premier Su Tseng-chang Establishment Xinhai Revolution   - Declared... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...

• in given names (but generally not surnames), e.g. 安 an¹ rather than oaⁿ¹, 玉 giok⁸ rather than gek⁸
• in a few surnames, e.g. 葉 iap⁸ rather than hioh⁸
• in other proper names, e.g. 龍山堂 Liong⁵-san¹-tong⁵ rather than Leng⁵-soaⁿ¹-tong⁵
• in certain set phrases, e.g. 差不多 chha¹-put⁴-to¹ rather than chhε¹-m⁷-to¹, 見笑 kien³-siau³ rather than kiⁿ³-chhio³

Unlike in Taiwan and mainland China, the literary pronunciations of numbers higher than two are not used when giving telephone numbers, etc. Literary variants are generally eschewed in favour of colloquial pronunciations, e.g. 大學 toa⁷-oh⁸ instead of tai⁷-hak⁸.

Differences from standard Minnan

Most of the differences between Penang Hokkien and Amoy Hokkien exist also in Zhangzhou, e.g.:

• The use of -uiⁿ where Amoy has -ng, e.g. 門 muiⁿ⁵, 飯 puiⁿ⁷, 酸 suiⁿ¹, etc.;
• The use of -ε and -εⁿ where Amoy has -e and -iⁿ, e.g. 家 kε¹, 蝦 hε⁵, 生 sεⁿ¹;
• The use of -oe where Amoy has -e and vice versa, e.g. 火 hoe², 未 boe⁷, 細 se³;
• The use of -oa where Amoy has -oe, e.g. 話 oa⁷, 花 hoa¹, 瓜 koa¹;
• The use of -iang where Amoy has -iong, e.g. 上 siang⁷, 香 hiang¹;
• The use of j- in some words where Amoy has l-, e.g. 入 jip⁸, 熱 joah⁸, 日 jit⁸;
• The use of Zhangzhou pronunciations such as 糜 moai⁵ (Amoy: be⁵), 先生 sin¹-sεⁿ¹ (Amoy: sien¹-siⁿ¹), etc.;
• The use of Zhangzhou expressions such as 挑羹 th(i)au¹-kiong¹ (Amoy: 湯匙 thng¹-si⁵)

Differences from the Zhangzhou dialect

Although Penang Hokkien is obviously based on the Zhangzhou dialect, there are some obvious differences, which in many cases result from the influence of other Minnan dialects, e.g.:

• The lower-entering (8th) tone in Penang, which is pronounced high [5] as in Amoy ,角美，永春,港尾，石码 whereas in most Zhangzhou sects it is low with a slight lilt [12];
• The use of -u in some words such as 汝 lu², 豬 tu¹, 魚 hu⁵, etc., where Zhangzhou has li², ti¹ and hi⁵. This is a characteristic of other variants of Minnan, such as the dialects of 海沧，杏林，集美，后溪，灌口 ,禾山 and 角美 in 龙海.
• The invariable use of -eng in some words such as 眼 geng², 千 chheng¹, etc., as in Amoy, whereas Zhangzhou has kan² and chhan¹ (or chheng¹); 。杏林,石码，港尾 and 角美 use eng .
• The adoption of variant pronunciations: e.g. 我 wa² from Teochew (Zhangzhou: goa²);Joint words like uang,luang,iang from Teochew .氣憤 angry is from teochew with minnan pronunciation khi3 hong5 .
• The use of special invention e.g. 甚麼 haⁿ²-mih⁸ which may be from aN2 in Longhai(Zhangzhou: saⁿ²-mih⁸ or siaⁿ²-mih⁸).The use of hamang for who instead of the famous choa5 in zhangzhou.薑韻字 like 想﹐唱﹐腔 are pronunced like words in 貓韻 .舊時 ku7 si5 is replaced with 舊早 ku7 cha2。
• Xiamen and quanzhou pronunciation like 否勢 phaiN2 se3 instead of zhangzhou bai2 si3 and phaiN2 si3.

The Chaozhou language , also called Teochew, Teochiu, Tiuchiu, or Diojiu, is a dialect of the Chinese spoken variant of Minnan 閩南, spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong. ...

Borrowed words

Malay

Like other dialects in Malaysia and Singapore, Penang Hokkien borrows heavily from Malay, but sometimes to a greater extent, e.g.:

• balai: police station
• balu (baru): new(ly), just now
• batu: stone
• berlian: diamond
• jamban: toilet
• jambu: guava
• kahwin: marry
• kisien (kesihan): pity
• mana: as if?, since when? (also to be found in Taiwanese as mena and in Teochew with the same meaning)
• mata: police (from Malay mata-mata; also present in Teochew)
• manik: bead
• loti (roti): bread (via Malay from Sanskrit)
• sabun, soap (via Malay from Portuguese; also present in Taiwanese)
• suka, to like
• tapi, but
• tuala, towel (via Malay from Portuguese)
• sampah, garbage

There are also many Hokkien words which have been borrowed into Malay, often with slightly different meanings, e.g. 樓頂 loteng (attic), 馬車 beca (trishaw), 麵 mi (noodles), 米粉 bihun (rice vermicelli), 先生 sinseh (traditional Chinese doctor), 茶 teh (tea), 茶壺 teko (teapot), 粿 kuih (cake), 豆腐 tauhu (tofu), 中華 Tionghua (Chinese), 鮭汁 kicap (sauce), 瓜子 kuaci (edible watermelon seeds), 日本 Jepun (Japan), etc. The Sanskrit language (Skt. ...

English

Penang Hokkien has also borrowed some words from English, some of which may have been borrowed via Malay, but these tend to be more technical and less well embedded than the Malay words, e.g. brake, park, pipe, pump, etc.

English words borrowed from Hokkien include 茶 tea and 鮭汁 ketchup.

Useful books

• The Rev. Carstairs Douglas, Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, with the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects, 2nd corrected ed., London, Publishing Office of the Presbyterian Church of England, 1899 (first published 1873), bound with the Supplement by Thomas Barclay [Shanghai, 1923]), ISBN 1-86210-068-3

See also

• Taiwanese language
• Singlish
• Medan Hokkien (in Indonesian)
• Lan-nang (Philippine variant of Min Nan)
• Place and street names of Penang
• 'Learn to speak...Penang Hokkien dialect', by Tan Choon Hoe (without PhD)

See alternative meanings for other possible definitions. ... Singlish, a portmanteau of Singapore and English, is the English-based creole spoken colloquially in Singapore. ... Lan-nang, or more properly known as Lan-nang-oé, is the Philippine variant of Min Nan, also known as Southern Fujianese or Hokkienese. ... Mǐn N n (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name B ; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... The street and place names of George Town, capital of Penang, reflect the multicultural heritage of the island. ...

External links

• Holopedia - Wikipedia in Peh-oe-ji
• Online Hokkien Forum (in English)
• Listen to Penang Hokkien conversations at Penang Hokkien Podcast.