Write in Hokkien Singapore

Table of Content

• Do you speak Chinese ?
• Simplified vs. Traditional Chinese
• Hanyu Pinyin vs Wade Giles
• Romanized and Latinized
• Chinese or Chinese ?
• Fukien People’s Government
• Min Language in South-East Asia
• Linguistic Imperialism as Unification
• Significance of Hokkien in Singapore
• Written in Hokkien
  • Common Terminology
  • Fruit and Food
  • Essential Beng Terminology
  • Loanword from other dialect
  • Anatomy and Biology
  • Loanword from Malay language
  • Contraction of word from other language

Simplified vs Traditional Chinese

Simplifying the Chinese writing system was conceived as early as in the 1900s. Due to the vigorous manual handwriting of the complicated Traditional Chinese (繁體字) writing system that is ‘detrimental in modernizing China’. Lu Xun (鲁迅), a renowned Chinese author prompted “If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die” (汉字不灭，中国必亡). Simplified Chinese (简体字) was developed by the 1950s just when the People’s Republic of China was formed and implemented by the Communist Party.
In my opinion, it all comes to avail in present time. My younger Chinese colleague I knew in Shanghai do not write Simplified Chinese as well as I expect them to, let alone to read in Traditional Chinese. In Singapore, we have access to both writing system in library, bookshops and was able to benefit from our neutrality (or maybe not, maybe because I was older! does the younger generation still go to library or bookstore?). Similarly with American and British English. We are fine with ‘color & colour‘ or ‘tyre and tire‘. It is the fight between them, we are a spectators, we are adaptable and we spoke their language. Born in the era of keyboards and predictive writing, you can literally key a sentence with a few letter – ‘srkl’ to type ‘生日快乐‘ or ‘生日快樂’. So Mr.Lu, China was saved!

My preference ? just compare the character of dragon (龍) , the symbol of power and strength. Write it in Simplified Chinese and it becomes (龙). It literally turns itself into a covering lizard. For this fact alone, beside who write manually anymore ? Please China, correctly People’s Republic of China (Mr. Mao’s), as the Son of the Dragon (龍的傳人). Abolished Simplified Chinese!

Hanyu Pinyin (HYPY) only works for ‘Mandarin‘ – that dialect from ‘language of the north‘ (北方話). And in the 80s, there is a national exercise to convert all our names to HYPY, instead of the localized Wade-Giles (WG) translation. Overnight, we have 2 romanized name (3 if you include name in Chinese character), and in the next generation there are family with different romanized surname, a mixture of HYPY and WG romanization.

With the wider adoption of HYPY names, no longer can we trace the dialect origin of a person by their surname. Where surname 陳 is ‘Chan‘ for Cantonese, ‘Tan‘ or ‘Tang‘ is a Hokkien or Teochew and ‘Chin‘ for a Hakka origin. Or depending on the officer in the Registry of Birth and Death how he would (mis)translate your name on your registration day. But now there is only a ‘Chen‘ (陈) , like the millions of others ‘Chen‘ in the Mainland China. This makes ‘Beng‘ a way cooler and unique name than millions of other ‘Ming‘.

Romanized and Latinized

Having said that, do remember we that only romanized our name for the convenience of the lesser civilization adopting the mono-tonal alphabet of latin/roman characters. Our real name are spelled in strokes! Which they are incapable of deciphering.

Even though tones was incorporated for both system, the spiritus asper and diacritic mark (ā, á, ǎ, à) are usually ignored. Lazy to type in keyboard or just making it easier for the English speaking world. This can be most helpful for them who can only speak in their native mono-tonal language. Did you find whenever they try to pronounce your name, even if it’s already romanized, they sounded so Ching-chong!

Chinese or Chinese ?

Dear Oxford English Dictionary. Can we have another word for Chinese to replace Chinese ? ‘Chinese‘ to indicate a nationality and ethnicity. Since we don’t call a Tibetan a Chinese, even the Chinese themselves do not. So why we do have to name all Chinese a Chinese ? Hong Kong have Ar Chan (阿燦) and we tried Ah Tiong (啊中), but these are quite derogatory to my Chinese friends. I am already confused. How about ‘Cathay‘, do you still remember this name?

The last few times I read an online news that the Chinese (Mr. Mao’s, of course!) government proclaimed (yet again!) that the American or Japanese ‘hurt the feelings of all Chinese‘. I was having an boner, from the same suspect, on my second monitor. My feeling wasn’t hurt (as it should?), only felt left out, only a spectator, a non-participant!

Please Oxford, find a new definition word for non-Chinese Chinese! For Trump’s sake!

Min Language in South-East Asia

Min (闽语) as it is officially classified. It have sub-branches namely Minnan (閩南), Mindong (閩東), Minbei (閩北), Puxian (Henghua/蒲縣), Minzhong (閩中). Minnan (Min South), Minbei (Min North) and Puxian are known or rather unknowingly spoken in Singapore and Malaysia. Different region in Malaysia with concentrated Chinese population spoke a though intelligible but slight variants of Hokkien particularly in Johore, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang. Medan in Indonesia are similar to Penang, Malaysia due to their close proximity. And are inter mixed with expression and description from the Malay language.

In Jakarta, their Hokkien are heavily blended with Bahasa Indonesia and Hakka. Some of their Hokkien verse are unintelligible to me, likely because of their different ancestry region. But Hokkien heavily influenced Bahasa Betawi (originally spoken by native people of Batavia – old name for Jakarta) the common language of Indonesia, also known as Bahasa Indonesia). “it‘ (1/一), “ji cap” (20/二十), “go pek” (500/五百), “lak ceng” (6000/六千), “kau ban” (90000/九萬), “gua or gue” (I or me / 我) instead of aku or saya as an example of words of Hokkien origin are use instinctively among the population.

Hokaglish is spoken in Philippines, in a mix of Philippine Hokkien, Tagalog and English. Though I am not familiar with this variant to note further.

Hokkien and Thai language too have a etymological relationship. For example in numerals of ๔ (4/si), ๕ (5,/ngo [‘ha’ – old Minnan pronunciation]), ๗ (7, chet), ๙ (9/kao). The other numeral are influenced by dialects of Hakka and Cantonese (๓/3/sam, ๖/6/lok, ๑๐/10/sip).

Having said that, Hinduism had a more significant importance in shaping the history of ancient South East Asia. But their history of dominance are gradually being systematically erased by religious and educational bureau. This will a topic reserved for another day. Their influence are unavoidable and will be more noticeable than Hokkien. As the mark of Hinduism and Brahmanism (oh India, as a country does not exist then) are imprinted all over the popular destinations and culture throughout South-East Asia.

Significance of Hokkien in Singapore

Starying with the Chinese name of Singapore, 新加坡, was a transliteration from Hokkien – sin-ka-por. That is how influential the dialect is, and not from some foreign northern dialect in China. Even the name of some historical estates in Singapore are named in Hokkien.

The following are a list of estates in Singapore that is named in Chinese characters from their pronunciation or name in Hokkien and Malay. The latter where some name are deformed throughout period of time.

The following will not make any sense in their name written in Chinese as they are phonetically transliterated from their pronunciation in Hokkien.

Fruit and Food