Loan words and overseas Teochew language
A substantial fraction of Teochew people live outside of mainland China. As a result their languages have diverged, and overseas Teochew has developed its own distinctive dialect terms. Here is a sample of some interesting examples, mostly from Singapore and Malaysia. Many of the examples are from Li (1991).
Contents
- Local words
- Loan words or code-mixing from Hokkien
- Loan words from Malay
- Loan words from English
- References and further reading
Local words
These words are not commonly used in mainland Teochew, or used in a different sense among overseas Teochew communities.
bhah4 • 肉 • “meat”
The word used for “meat” on the mainland, nêg8, is cognate to Hokkien jiok and Mandarin ròu. However, the origin of bhah4, which is also used in Hokkien, is unclear.
gong1si1 • 公司 • “shared”
Standard usage is like Mandarin, meaning “company” or “clan organization”, however in Singapore Teochew it is also used as an verb or adverb meaning “shared”.
tsi³⁵ko⁵³ mueʔ²kĩã³⁵ kʰoiʔ² niŋ⁵³ nõ¹¹ naŋ⁵⁵ koŋ³³si³³
Zi2(6)go3(2) muêh8(4)gian2(6) koih8(4) ning2 non6(7)-nang5 gong1si1.
只塊 物囝 乞 恁 兩儂 公司。
This-piece thing give you (pl.) two-people share.
This is for you two to share.
(example from Li, 1991)
pang5(7)gêng1 • 旁宮 • “room”
The mainland pronunciation is bang5(7)goin1 房間.
niŋ⁵³ boi³⁵ keŋ³³ tsʰu²¹³ kui³⁵kai¹¹ pʰaŋ¹¹keŋ³³
Ning2 bhoi2(6) gêng1 cu3 gui2(6)-gai5(7) pang5(7)gêng1?
恁 買 間 厝 幾個 旁宮？
You (pl.) buy CL house how-many rooms?
How many rooms are there in the house that you’ve bought?
(example from Lim, 1991)
deng5(7)nang5 • 唐儂 • “ethnic Chinese”
Obsolete term in mainland Chinese, but the expression survives in Mandarin Tángrénjiē 唐人街 “Chinatown”.
deng5(7)suan1 • 唐山 • “mainland China”
One speculative etymology for this term is that emigration from China was primarily from coastal regions in the South, where coastal lowlands were backed by mountain or hill ranges. Someone leaving that by ship and looking back would hence see their homeland as a mountain across the seas.
huang1boin5 • 番畔 • “overseas”
In contrast to deng5 唐 for terms relating to China, huang1 番 is used for terms related to foreign places (i.e. outside mainland China). Huang1boin5 refers to “foreign countries” in general; guê3(2)huang1 過番 means “going abroad” or “emigrating”; a huang1gian2 番仔 is a foreigner.
The prefix huang1 番 still survives in words like huang1ze5 番薯 “sweet potato” (Mandarin fānshú), which could be translated as “foreign yam”, as the plant is actually native to the New World.
Loan words or code-mixing from Hokkien
za1bhou2 • 查某 (渣𡚸) • “woman”
This is the main word for “woman” in Hokkien, whereas in mainland Teochew it should be ze1niê5 諸娘. In mainland China, za1bhou2 has taken the meaning of “prostitute”, similar to how Mandarin xiáojiě 小姐 “miss” has also come to mean “prostitute”. However this change in meaning has not occurred in overseas Chinese language.
dam7boh8 • 淡薄 • “a little bit”
The Teochew equivalent is dih4(8)gian2 滴仔. See “Comparisons, degrees, and quantity”.
bhoi6(7)sai2 • 袂使 • “may not, cannot”
The Teochew equivalent is mo2 孬. See “Negatives”
pai2(6)sê3 • 歹勢 • “embarrassed”
The Teochew equivalent is mo2(6)i3(2)se7 孬意識, similar to the Mandarin bùhǎo yìshì 不好意識.
ai⁵³ lau³⁵sɯ³³ kaʔ² lɯ³⁵ kʰioʔ⁵ / pʰai³⁵se²¹³ boi¹¹ pʰai³⁵se²¹³
Ai3(2) lao2(6)se1 gah8(4) le2(6) kioh8, pai2(6)sê3 bhoi6(7) pai2(6)sê3.
愛 老師 佮 汝 挈， 歹勢 袂 歹勢。
Want teacher for you take, embarrassing not embarrassing?
Isn’t it embarrassing to ask the teacher to get something for you?
(example from Lee, 2003)
bhoi6(7)pai2 • 袂歹 • “not bad”
The Teochew equivalent is bhoi6(7)mo2 袂孬.
i³³ tã⁵³ tie¹¹tsiu⁵⁵ ue¹¹ tã⁵³ kaʔ² boi¹¹pʰai⁵³
I1 dan3(2) Diê5(7)ziu5-uê7 dan3(2) gah8(4) bhoi6(7)pai2.
伊 呾 潮州話 呾 佮 袂歹。
He speak Teochew-language speak until not-bad.
He’s not bad at speaking Teochew.
Loan words from Malay
Loan words from non-Chinese languages become assimilated to the Teochew phonetic system: their pronunciation is modified and they acquire tones. The following are some Malay loan words that largely retain their original meanings:
- kahwin - “marry”
- mana – “where”
- mata – “police”
- pasar – “market”
- pun – “also”
- roti – “bread”
- tapi – “but”
- sabun - “soap”, originally from Portuguese sabão
- sayang – “adore”
- suka – “like”
Some loan words are not so straightforward, or have interesting stories behind them.
bha7lu2 • baru • “new”
In Malay, the word “baru” can be an adjective meaning “new”:
Tahun baru - “New Year”
or an adverb meaning “newly”, to mark an action that has just been completed:
Isterinya baru saja beranak di hospital.
Wife-his newly only give-birth in hospital.
His wife has just given birth in hospital.
(example from Kamus Pelajar)
In Southeast Asian Teochew, baru is used in the second way, as an adverb to indicate the inceptive aspect, i.e. where something has just happened or is starting to happen:
ua⁵³ ba¹¹lu³⁵ tsau³⁵kʰi⁵³
Ua2 bha7lu2(6) zao2(6)ki2.
我 baru 走起。
I just wake-up.
I just woke up.
The native Teochew equivalents are tu1tu1 堵堵 and ngam1ngam1 啱啱 (see “Aspect and Time”):
ua⁵³ tu³³tu³³ tsau³⁵kʰi⁵³
Ua2 du1du1 zao2(6)ki2.
我 堵堵 走起。
lao2(6)gung1 • 老君 • “doctor”
Derived from Malay “dukun”, meaning “witch-doctor”.
Equivalent to ui1sêng1 醫生 (for “doctor” in general) or sing1sên1 先生 (used for Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners only).
The derivative lao2(6)gung1cu3 老公厝 (“doctor house”) means “hospital” or “clinic”.
lui1 • duit • 鐳 • “money”
A word that has gone through a chain of borrowings. Loan word from Malay “duit”, which in turn comes from a Dutch word “duit” referring to a small coin worth 1/160 of a guilder.
sig8(4)lag8 • selat • 𠰴叻 • “Singapore”
The Malay word selat means “straits”, and was then adopted to refer to Singapore in particular. It has been represented in Chinese characters as 石叻 or 實叻.
ziah8(4)huang1 • 食風 • “to take a trip/joyride”
Calque from Malay “makan angin” (“eat wind”), meaning to take a stroll or pleasure trip.
i³³ naŋ¹¹ loi³⁵pai⁵⁵zik⁵ tso¹¹ tsʰia³³ kʰɯ⁵³ tsiak²huaŋ³³
I1-nang5(7) loi2(6)bai3(5)rig8 zo6(7) cia1 ke3(2) ziah8(4)huang1.
伊儂 禮拜日 坐 車 去 食風。
They Sunday sit car go joyride.
They went out motoring on Sunday.
(example from Li, 1991)
Loan words from English
English loan words are probably as numerous in Singapore Teochew as in any other language spoken there, because it is the lingua franca and the main working language of business and government.
In a sample of four conversations, Lee (2003) found that the vast majority of loan words used were from English, of which 84% were nouns. She argues that this means they are mostly cultural borrowings – words that are borrowed because the other language doesn’t have a word for what the speaker wants to express. These include place names, specialized terms related to education or professions, and modern technology or concepts.
References and further reading
- Lǐ Yǒngmíng 李永明 (1991), 「新加坡潮州話的外語借詞和特殊詞語」
- Lee Cher Leng 李子玲 (2003), 「新加坡人講的潮州話」
- Lín Lúnlún 林倫倫 (2012), 《潮汕方言：潮人的精神家園》, Chapter 2