Grammar
Alphabet: A-Z
Medan Hokkien originally used the English alphabet A-Z without diacritics. Chinese characters are currently being tested to write Medan Hokkien sentences.
Tones
Hokkien is said to have between five to eight different tones, depending on the dialect. Hokkien dialects in Mainland China and Taiwan tend to possess seven tones, whereas Hokkien dialects in Southeast Asia tend to have six. However, four Mandarin tones are considered enough to distinguish Medan Hokkien words.
- First tone: flat tone; written as number 1
- Second tone: rising tone; written as number 2
- Third tone: low tone; written as number 3
- Fourth tone: high tone; written as number 4
Tone Sandhi: a general term linguists use to describe tone changes that occur in response to how adjacent words or syllables are pronounced.
Tone Sandhi often occurs in tonal languages. It appears also in Hokkien since Hokkien is a tonal language.
3 types of E, 2 types of O
[ə] as in "bird" [bəːd] written as "e"
[e] as in "may" [meː] written as "ay"
[ɛ] as in "fat" [fɛt] written as "ae"
[o] as in "go" [ɡoː] written as "o"
[ɔ] as in "not" [nɔt] written as "or"
Nasalization
Speech sound in which the airstream passes through the nose. A duplicate letter denotes the nasal sound that the letters represent. Nasalization is important because it also changes the meaning.
- to send - kia3 奇
- glass - kiia3 (with nasal sound) 鏡
Nouns
Used to identify people, places, or things.
- mother - mak3 媽
- car - chia1 車
- table - tuk1tayng4 桌頂
- cookie - piia4 餅
Pronouns
Used to refer to someone or something previously mentioned, rather than using a noun repeatedly.
- we - wa4lang2 我人
- they - i1lang2 伊人
- my - wa4 ay1 我的
- your - lu4 ay1 你的
Verbs
Expresses an action. It is used along with a noun or pronoun to describe what the noun or pronoun is doing.
- eat - ciak1 食
- sing - chiior3 唱
- think - siior3 想
- walk - kiia2 行
Adjectives
Describes the qualities of nouns. An adjective usually comes next to a noun.
- beautiful - sui4 媠
- tall - kuan2 高
- far - huui3 遠
- happy - huua3hi4 歡喜
Adverbs
Used to modify verbs or adjectives. Adverbs usually answer questions such as "How", "Where", or "When".
- quickly - khuai3 快
- at school - uan1 ork3teng2 彎學堂
- on Monday - pai4it3 拜一
- never - em3bat1 毋捌
Prepositions
Used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, time, place, or location.
- inside - lai3bin3 內面
- at - uan1 彎
- over - koi3 過
- of - ay1 的
Conjunctions
Used to connect words or phrases.
- and - kak3 佮
- but - ta3pi4 答畢
- because - ui3liau4 為了
- so that - ja3di4 加底
Interjections
Expresses different levels of emotion, spontaneous feeling, or reaction.
- Oh! - O4! 喔!
- Wow! = Wa4! 哇!
- My goodness! - Wa4 ay1 thi1! 我的天!
Tenses
There is no conjugation, verbs stay the same for every pronoun and adverb of time.
- I ate - wa4 ciak1 我食!
- I eat - wa4 ciak1 我食!
- I shall eat - wa4 ciak1 我食!
- Eat! - ciak1! 食!
References
Photo by raja meliala on Unsplash
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