First entry

[SYT]

sahng fahn =I think the literal translation means (uncivilized) native. Shenfan in mandarin

[Nguk Toon]

thlee doy bow/nui bow - afterbirth I think.  Literally "dead boy pouch(bag)" or "dead girl pouch".  My mother called us that when we were bad.  I did not know what it meant.  But just think if you scolded by calling your young child an afterbirth.  Then you have to explain what is an afterbirth.  We are creative with "put down" words aren't we?

Nguk Toon

[Ah Gin]

Hi.   My understanding of this beautiful and useful phrase, "kai ai" is as follows.     

Written in Chinese it is actually 契弟.  Pronounced in Hoisan is, as we agree, "Kai ai". 

契 (kai) means "by agreement"; 弟 (ai) is of course "little brother".  Taken together, it literally means "Little brother, by agreement".  "It's a brother you adopt when you don't really want a brother".  But it usually has a more interesting tone to mean variously "little rascal" or even "bastard".   It's usually stated in an unoffensive way, or if expressed, it's not sufficiently offensive to provoke "aaah kow" or even "now kow".   But all the same, an insult has been issued or expressed.   Such is a beautiful and creative phrase.

Regards,  Ah Gin

[yomar295]

I had the impression that "kai ai" meant more of "little rascal" than the swear word.  We pronounced it as "kai dai" though.

I recall "nee doo mwutta guey ah?" - What the hell are you doing?" as "nee doo mwut yeah ah" literally meaning "you do what thing" and the "ah" is the typically ending of questions. 

(hlei vs. thlee)  meaing dead--I find the translation of the romanization interesting also as VJ the DJ did for I just came back from Hoisan and found a dictionary at a bookstore and when I was going over some the the words with my daughter, I told her to look up "thlam" to check it out, and they write it as "hlam".  Every "th" beginning sound they wrote it as "hl", although one of my Cantonese speaking friends (in NYC Chinatown) said that the Cantonese would make fun of the Hoisan dialect in particular the "thl" sound.  Perhaps it is "th" but since it is gutteral, some promounce the "h" much stronger and the "t" is so minute that it is not noticed by some???

Waak Geuy - White Person-- I recall this as "Baak Geuy" literally meaning white (baak) ghost (geuy), and
Lau Fahn - White Person -- I THINK means barbarian.  Both were derogatory terms.

Ahn Taat - Custard pastry--was the specific pastry of egg (ahn) and i guess taat meant tart or cup --if you know the egg custard cup I am talking about that they sell, you would understand.

Hong Gnen - Chinese (or Asian?) Person--is specific to Chinese person as "hong wah" is Chinese language.

It would be helpful to have consistency on how we would translate the Romanization of the dialect so to share the correct pronunciation. 

I did get to go to Hoisan last month and bought a Hoisan dictionary (the only place I was able to find of Hoisan after searching Singapore, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou).   I would like to share it's contents with you all.  It has some alphabetically pronunciations written in it and that is how I learnt of the "hl v thl" difference.  The problem is the dictionary is in Chinese and I am only able to go about it through my daughter who knows Mandarin and reads Chinese (which I do not).  So she is looking up the words I ask her to and translating the meaning and pronunciation to me through her knowledge of Chinese reading.

This is the store where I bought it from but there may be a block to getting to their website, perhaps someone can find a search engine that will go through. <www.TSxinning.com> The dictionary is titled Hoisan FANGYIN ZIDIAN.

Anyone have any other suggestions.




 

[VJtheDJ]

Thank you for your comments, Yomar!

Interesting stuff you provided concerning our dialect.  I checked into seeing if, by chance, there were any videos with "thlee yeet" content on YouTube.  Of course, I couldn't really find any.  Just out of curiosity, I checked into seeing if there were any videos with the Hakka dialect.  Whaddya know...there were quite a few of them!  I must say I'm a bit depressed that our dialect seems to be fading pretty rapidly.

OK, I'm going to switch subjects and add my list of dim sum food items (which I remember being referred to as "chahng ngow").  Ahn Taat was one of my favorites.  Here's some more...

Sel Mai - Pork dumpling
Hah Gow - Shrimp dumpling
Chah Sel Bow - steamed BBQ pork bun
Goke Chah Sel Bow - baked BBQ pork bun
Baak Hong Gow - Sugar gelatinous parallelograms (literally, white sugar paste)
Choon Koon - egg roll
Hahm Gok - deep-fried crescent-shaped pastry with meat & vegetable filling
Woo Gok - deep-fried taro root pastry
Suey Gow - shaped like potstickers but outer covering is the won ton (woon hoon) skin
Woh-ah Teep - pot stickers
Noo Mai - sticky rice with assorted finely chopped vegetables and...
Lop Cheng - Chinese sausage (OK, not really chahng ngow, but really GOOD!)
Gai Gek - Chicken feet...tastes foul (pardon the phonetic pun)
Pai Goot - Pork short ribs

Good Lord, I'm hungry now!  Anybody remember more stuff?

Thanks!

VJ

[yomar295]

I too am alarmed that the hoisan dialect is fading.      My daughter believes it is an "ancient" dialect and the closest for the original Chinese language due to the multitude of tones.  She says that as dialects evolve, they start to drop in the number of tones. 

I read in one of the links of an earlier email that the author of the Hoisan dictionary--Hoisan Fangyin Zidian was given a hard time with the Chinese government in publishing his book.  I don't know the reason why, perhaps as my daughter who was an exchange student about 6 years ago says, the Chinese government attempted to eradicate all of Chinese history and forbid the traditional practices.

I was speaking with a friend's mother who is a theatre and art critic, and she mentioned that the way to preserve the dialect would be to audio record it.  Perhaps we can get a university to get grad students to undertake this project.  Anyone with any network connections or other ideas?   

[thelxepeia]

I'm always sooo excited when I find out someone speaks Hoisan, I hope that one day I can pass it on..
Here's some of the words I can think of.

"Ai mee see hiak gow see" = Last one eats dog poop!

"Faht hee bow" = Brat/person who's throwing a fit (literally means throwing hot air package?)

"Chew baak baak" = stinky

"Yuan lok lok" or "Yuan yuan" = round

"Ai/Sake ge lee see" = nonsense (don't know what the literal translation is)-sound familiar?

"Swa ding ding" = crazy!

"Ai hok dick dock" = big head (off balance/clumsy)

"Moang moang gnan gnan" = squinty eyes (like when someone wakes up

"Ah pat a nee" = Hit you until your flat!

"Fee dwoot dwoot" = fat



Schlep = rough
Pao giang = fireworks
pa  = scared
pa chew = shy
hoke = cry
chew = mad
oak see = read/study
fan gwan = go to school
hok = learn
tsong = bed
oak kee = home
hwoi chia = drive car
ah bwuah = play ball
han kem = play piano
sai wan = wash dishes
won sam = change clothes
sang gnah = brush teeth
sai men = wash face
tsong liang = shower
see swa = bathroom
wai shew = wash hands

I'm glad my mom taught me when I was little even though my sister and I are half Caucasian (aka Lau fan!! jk)
I'm interested to know where most of you live, around SF, CA esp. Chinatown is where most of the Hoisan speaking people I know  are from.

[hung_doy]

Vegetables = Toy
Fruit = goar
Cabbage = Year toy
Cauliflower = Fa toy
Water cress = Say yang toy
melon = gar
Winter melon = ong gar
Carrot = Car Lart
Tomato = Farn kear
Coriander = Yeam Schlay
Ginger = Gearng
Chinese veges = Hong ngen toy
Potatoes = See Doy
Sweet Potatoes = Farn see
Celery = Hearng Ken
Corn = Schlok May
Snow peas = Schlot Ow
Beans = Ben Ow
Chinese mushroom = Ong Goo
Straw Mushroom = Tow Goo

[marcella610]

You know how little kids will cry over small things but then you distract them and they stop crying immediately?
Every time I or my little sister did that, Paw Paw would laugh at us and say

Hook fan theaw
Jee doi hang keaw

Translation:
Crying back to laughing/smiling
Piglet crosses a bridge

What the hell does that mean? I don't get the correlation, it just rhymes. Even when I asked my grandma, she just laughed and gave no explanation.

[SYT]

When I was small boy,
Grandma used to say this whenever I laugh.

yu hook
yu siew
yim sair lai niu,
lor see hung kiu.

The bit about the lizard peeing and mouse crossing the bridge
don't seem to make sense.

I am just as confused.

[Jou]

HAHA. This hasn't been updated in 3 years, which makes me sad.

Reading this thread has made me giddy. Trying to translate your romanized versions into my own Hoisan. I do hope this thread starts working again, though. <3 Sorry if my romanizations are...bad. D8

Cha = Tea
Foon gao = Sleep
Wan en no = Going/playing on the computer
Ah bo = Play ball
Huoi thlem = Happy!
Pao boo = Run ?
Hai see = Reading
Hai gong dai pen = Watching cartoons
Gong dai = Cartoon
Hai gong dai pen see = Reading comics/cartoons :'D
Heang guo = Listen to music
Ngim sui = Drink water
Ngim cha = Drink tea
Ngim nai = Drink milk
Ngim hong = Drink soup
Yeak fan mee ah? = Can we eat dinner yet? D8
Yeak zuo fan mee ah? = Did you eat dinner yet?
Fong sen = Fan
Chow fan = Fried rice
Ziu gnee = Pierce ears (I re-learned this yesterday. I kept saying 'kay gnee'! xD)
Yeak thloot go = Eating ice cream
Beet = Pencil/Pen (I don't know the difference. DX)
Gao den = Scissors
Oh = Knife
En wva = Phone (I don't know how to romanize this. DX)
Siew en wva = Cellphone
Do = Words
Ten = Money
Hong = Candy
Chong = Bed
Zhim hay = Pillow
Hai = shoes
Doon = Bottle
Oi = Bag
Mo = Hair
Gnan = Eyes
Sing = thread
Buo lee = Glass
Tong = Window
Siew gap = Finger nails
Geak gap = Toe nails
Fong = Room

And that's all I can think of at the moment. :'D
Happy Fourth of July, everybody~

[Aycweugsiqkommok]

Wow, so many words! Thank you for the post! I have been busy, so I haven't been updating the site recently, but I would like people to still use this site to share their interest in Hoisan Language and Culture. I'm glad you're so enthusiastic about the site. Basically, the mission is to provide a haven for Hoisaners and non-Hoisaners alike to learn more about the language and culture. This site is also here to show people that the word "Chinese" is a loaded word, which consists of many different Chinese sub-cultures throughout the land. Hoisan is just one of many languages in China (not dialect, because to be considered dialects, two languages must be mutually intelligible with each other. Therefore, many Chinese "dialects" are actually languages). Let us embrace the diversity of China through its multitude of languages: Hoisan, Teochew, Hakka, Minnan, etc. This site in particular focuses on Hoisan for all of those overseas "Va3 Kieu33" (華橋) who need a sanctuary in which to preserve and discuss the language and culture of the motherland.

[lo yee doi]

mok sam = strip off clothes