Behold, a Humble Particle!

An indispensable Cantonese expression is 你食咗飯未呀？ sik6 zo2 faan6 mei6 aa3? “Have you eaten yet?” It’s a common greeting, with a very similar equivalent in Taishanese. (See the lesson 12 dialogue.)

The corresponding phrase in Taishanese is almost exactly the same, 你食嗲飯未呀 你吃嗲飯未呀？ Ni hiak-e fàn mì a? Some of the tones are (predictably) different. You should also notice that the Cantonese word 咗 zo6 is replaced with the Taishanese word 嗲 e. In my opinion, it sounds very schwa-like (but that’s just my opinion). What’s the meaning of 咗/嗲?—I’m still trying to figure that one out.

Another way to write this particle is with the character 誒, which Deng Jun uses in the Kaiping Dictionary. I’ve never really thought about writing this word before, or if it has the same meaning in Taishanese as the word 咗 in Cantonese.

So, I’m just curious for my occasional blog readers—how do you write this word in Chinese? How would you transcribe it in English? Does it have the same meaning as 咗 in Cantonese?

A Guide to the Tai-shan Dialect

I did some more snooping around ERIC, and I found a manuscript titled A Guide to the Tai-shan Dialect by the prolific academic Anne Yue-Hashimoto. Clearly my literature review wasn’t as thorough as I thought it was! Abstract below.

This document provides a description of the Tai-shan dialect of Chinese. Maps illustrate the area where the dialect is spoken, and introductory remarks concern previous study of the dialect, sources of current information, and relationship to other dialects. The phonological description provides information on syllable structure, initials, finals, tones, syllables in sequence, combinations of initials, finals, and tones, tone change, and colloquial versus literary forms. In the lexicon section, morphemes are arranged in the matrix of Ancient Chinese sound categories in order to afford easy comparison with similar items among other dialects. The tables are arranged according to rime group distinction, division distinction, and tonal distinction, in that order. A sample colloquial text is provided and the grammar notes that follow include remarks on pronouns, deictics, interrogatives, aspects, negatives, copula and locative, sentence particles, common classifiers, affixes for nouns, possessives, and modifying clauses. An annotated bibliography lists books and articles relevant to the Tai-shan dialect and a character index is provided.

This is one really big file—366 pages compressed into 39.87 MB. I haven’t read it yet, and considering my professional reading list, it will be a while before I get around to this tome. Yue-Hashimoto also recently published a monograph on the Dancun dialect (台山淡村方言研究), available from HKU.

Hoisanese Sanctuary

Few Taishanese-English dictionaries exist, none of which exist online. The closest thing you’ll find to an online dictionary is Hoisan Sanctuary. This website hosts a short word list of some 40 words covering primarily family terms and function words (e.g. pronouns, question words, etc.). The site also provides a brief English-oriented sketch of the sound system with a partial orthography and discussion of tones.

Beyond the linguistic description, you will also find the Hoisan Sanctuary Forums, which foster language-oriented discussions on Taishanese. Most of the enthusiasts who frequent the forums are individuals of Taishanese heritage who are seeking to explore and renew the bond with their home language. Their enthusiasm is remarkable. Most also lack a background in linguistics, and few appear to speak Taishanese as a dominant or primary language.

The forum discussions shed light on common attitudes and experiences shared by many overseas Taishanese. For example, contributors often share words that have been seared into their memory since childhood. (These are often rather colorful expressions.) But some also report back on individual research and resources they’ve identified. For example, it was through the Hoisan Sanctuary Forums that I learned about the DLI coursebook’s audio file supplements at Ben’s Cantonese Practice Journal.