Monday, October 24, 2011

Basic Course: Lesson 19 Vocabulary

This lesson’s grammar points are similar to the last lesson, as they both review how to modify verbs with the word 得 ak.

  1. 貴姓呀?· gwi lhing a? · what is your surname? (honorific form)
  2. 幾妥樣 · gī-họ-yịang* · how is it? in what manner?
  3. 喊做 · ham du · to be called as, to be named as
  4. 名 · mïang* (mïng) · name, given name
  5. 生意 · sang-yi · business
  6. 昨晚 · dọng-mạn* · last night
  7. 駛(趕)· sōi (gōn) · to drive, use, employ, cause
  8. 做生意 · du sang-yi · to do business
  9. 唔使 · m̈-sōi · need not, it is not necessary, do not have to
  10. 唔使拘 · m̈-sōi-kui · don’t stand on ceremony
  11. 瞓 · fun · to sleep, lie down
  12. 快得逮 · fai-ak-dài · too fast
  13. 慢得逮 · màn-ak-dài · too slow

One of my favorite terms is 得逮 ak dài, which roughly corresponds to English “too” as in “too fast” fai-ak-dài 快得逮. By modern Cantonese convention, this term is written 得滯 (dak1 zai6); the character 滯 is otherwise pronounced zài in Taishanese. In the Kaiping dictionary, Deng Jun uses the character 济 (濟), which is otherwise pronounced dai (as in 經濟) or dāi (as in 濟濟).

Please don’t hesitate to drop a comment if you have any comments—especially if you notice any typos!

2 comments:

  1. What is the context of 唔使拘? I don't think I've heard this one before.

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  2. I have to apologize for my neglect of this blog over the past couple months. I’ve posted up the lesson 19 dialogue, which has the phrase in context. I’m assuming it has a similar meaning to the corresponding Cantonese phrase, but it’s not one that I can say I’m familiar with. Thanks for your comment—and for your continued blogging as well!

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