GRAMMAR A-Z ; SPELLING ; PUNCTUATION ; WRITING TIPS ; USAGE ; EXPLORE . And when the meal is better than good it is "shioko". CHIA KANTANG The word "asyik" (pronounced a-shick) in Malay language means to have a feeling of overwhelming passion or infatuation for someone or something. Most of them are also used in Amoy. Lūn chō sō ê seng-khu ū ióng-ióng á-bô. Break 'hokkien' down into sounds: say it out loud and exaggerate the sounds until you can consistently produce them. In 2000 the government even rolled out the Speak Good English Movement to crush its use. The Monacle Minute, Talk of the town (8/4/16). lūn chhin-chiâⁿ goá ta̍k lé-pài lo̍h khì Ē-Mn̄g thām thiā, long boē hó-sè. It is possible that the word "asyik" has Sanskrit roots, as with many other words in the Malay language. Hokkien did not experience a great phonological change throughout the transition period from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese. It was written that many Hokkien seafarers explored and settled in parts of Asia outside China. 1992   Straits Times (Singapore) (Nexis) 15 May   English-educated Singaporeans know that there is an Ah Kow within them dying to burst out with a proclamative wah shiok man! Listen to the audio pronunciation in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Cantonese and Hakka were pretty common, and of course Bahasa Malaysia. ", All variants are used in Amoy / Taiwanese, All variants are used in Amoy. Card PM. 愛(ài) in Amoy means "love" or "must". Hokkien-Malay. [citation needed]. Most ordinal numbers are formed by adding 第 (tē) in front of a cardinal number. Various dictionaries list only this pronunciation.. Today, the lingua franca of the Chinese Community in Singapore is Mandarin. 'I/me') is pronounced as /ɡʊa˥˨/; but in Singapore, it is pronounced as /wa˥˨/, which is alleged by some to have been influenced by the Teochew pronunciation /ʊa˥˨/ although other dialects like Putianese and some regional Hokkien dialects also pronounce it as /ʊa˥˨/. It was responsible for promoting Nanyin, as well as Liyuan opera. A putative relation to "seronok", by contrast, looks fanciful to put it mildly. The word, Originated from Teochew, lit. The place where Hokkien is most prevalent is the humble kopitiam, where the elderly chatter fluently in the dialect. Now that’s what we call shiok. Didilai for me. There exist Singaporean Hokkien writings, folk adages, and ballads written by early Chinese immigrants to Singapore. I shall never cease boasting. For example, the telephone number 98444678 will be pronounced in Taiwan as kiú pat sù sù sù lio̍k chhit pat, where in Singaporean Hokkien it would be pronounced as káu poeh sì-sì sì la̍k chhit poeh. In practice, it is common for Singaporeans to mix English conjunctions such as "and" into a Hokkien sentence. My grandfather came from China, so he can speak Hokkien as well as Mandarin. "Eating more potato" means more westernized than being Asian (eating rice). In our dialect, in lesser degree, we also use some naturalized Malay words like 'pa2 sat4' (pasar) although we also use its Hokkien counterparts like 'chai3 chi7', 'chi7 tiu*5'. Phew-whew. It is a pejorative term referring to pompous condescending intellectuals who are slightly more educated about Western cultures. This software is written by Niaw de Leon under an MIT License using Laravel 5 and Bootstrap frameworks. So I shall concentrate on first trying to find whether there is any evidence or likelihood that "shiok" really did come from Punjabi. They reflected the social environment of local Singaporeans. The vast majority are from Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Malay, and English (used in special senses not known to native speakers of English). In addition, there are many other place names in Singapore that originated from Hokkien: Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh, for instance. As another instance, Taiwanese would speak telephone numbers using literary readings, whereas Singaporeans would use vernacular ones instead. It was written that many Hokkien seafarers explored and settled in parts of Asia outside China. 2014   Today (Singapore) (Nexis) 27 Mar. In Chinese academic circles, this dialect is known as Singaporean Ban-lam Gu (simplified Chinese: 新加坡闽南语; traditional Chinese: 新加坡閩南語; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sin-ka-pho Bân-lâm-gu). When he goes “orh…”, the one mocking at him will reply “orh… han tze”. It ends with their etymology. After 1979, the Singapore government began to push for the use of Mandarin in Singapore, spearheaded by the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Singaporean Hokkien preserved a unique feature of Old Chinese: it does not have the consonant "f". ), whereas Taiwan uses 欲……無？ (beh…bô?). Ooh-la-la. Also refers to someone displaying a western English accent that is not authentic: referring to the sound that one would make while attempting to speak with a mouthful of potato. Singaporean Hokkien generally uses Amoy as its standard, and its accent is predominantly based on a mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech, with a greater inclination towards the former. That is especially so because "shiok" was featured in these two articles that I overlooked earlier this year: At the website linked to just under the picture above, there are some good comments on the probable origin of "shiok". The "j" initial is an unaspirated alveolar affricate (IPA [ts]), borrowed from Hanyu Pinyin. The other expression I noticed was "jiak kantang", partly because it had a very long, intriguing definition, but also for a couple of other reasons that I shall explain momentarily: Literally means 'eat potato'. 74   We hear the Nyonya Lobster Laksa is pretty shiok. Some would include hngo2 (an exclamatory remark in Jinjiang /Nan'an), in addition to the widely used Hokkien exclamatory particles lah (啦) or lor (囉). ", or combined with another – "Shiok man! I agree that 'this is in accord with the OED etymology for "shiok"'. An example of love poetry is "針線情" (Chiam-sòaⁿ-chiâⁿ） ("The emotions of needle and thread"): lí sī chiam ， góa sī sòaⁿ ，chiam-sòaⁿ éng-óan liâm siòng óa, lâng kóng chiam pó͘ chiam hiam tio̍h sòaⁿ， ūi-hô pàng gún leh ko͘-toaⁿ, Ah, lí góa pún sī tâng phōe-toaⁿ, chóaⁿ-iūⁿ lâi thiah-sòaⁿ, ū chiam bô sòaⁿ kiò gún ài an-chóaⁿ， su-liām sim-chiâⁿ bô-tè khòaⁿ. Used in context for everything awesome that is supposed to induce the feelings of something "mengasyikan" or blissfully out of this world. In 1927, the Taiwanese Gezai opera spread to Singapore. When does it start being use, probably after 1957 (no verified source). When he goes “orh…”, the one mocking at him will reply “orh… han tze”. click for more detailed Chinese translation, definition, pronunciation and example sentences. 1978   Straits Times (Singapore) 8 July 16/1 (advt.) In some cases, the literary reading of the number must then be used. Misappropriately used so often — instead of "sedap" — that "shiok" is now accepted as "sedap" (delicious). It is a pejorative term referring to pompous condescending intellectuals who are slightly more educated about Western cultures. There is another ballad called "砰嘭水中流" (Pin-pong-chúi-tiong-lâu) ("Flow in the midst of water"): An example of a folk love ballad is "雪梅思君" (Soat-m̂-su-kun) ("Snow and plum thinking of a gentlemen"), on the loyalty and chastity of love.[3]. Regarding Taylor Swift's use of shake — she does not appear to be aware of its meaning, as it occurs in pop music. Ostensibly they refer to dancing, but they are really Negro vulgar expressions relating to coitus.". 交寅 (kau-ín) is also used in Amoy. I am dealing mainly with Central Asia. So this is in accord with the OED etymology for "shiok" that I gave above in the O.P., right? It's quite interesting that I've known and used the word "shiok" most of my life and have never really thought about the origin. This marks a major difference between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. How to say potato with audio by Macmillan Dictionary. Junior Member 430 posts Joined: Dec 2010. Historical linguistics can be counterintuitive (which is part of what makes it such fun). As a result, there are many non-Hokkien words that have been imported into Singaporean Hokkien, such as those from Malay, Teochew, Cantonese, and English. Whether the etymology is direct or circuitous (IF it is) seems tangential. This phrase derived from Hokkien dialect, ‘liak bo kiu’, and is used to indicate that the speaker does not understand what is being said. For instance, the year 1980 would be said with a literary pronunciation (一九八空年; it kiú pat khòng nî); but in Singapore, no differentiation is made and is pronounced as otherwise vernacular it káu poeh khòng nî. Using the word “misconception” implies: There should be only one “correct” word for each vegetable and fruit in China, which qualifies as a misconception. For instance, the Hokkien story-telling program Amoy folks story (廈語民間故事), by Xu Shumei (許淑梅), was very popular. Show posts by this member only | IPv6 | Post #34. di di lai or diam diam lai ? Normally, the word "potato" is exclusively pronounced with a long A (/ej/), in both American and British usage. AP article here. Definition of potato noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Search. Taylor Swift sings "shake, shake", but in Singapore and Malaysia, everybody is saying "shiok, shiok". Formed by Hokkien word "beh 袂" and Malay word "tahan", Formed by Malay word "mana" and Hokkien word "e-sai 會使", From Malay word "Dukun", which means shaman or medicine man. However, some seniors are not as fortunate, and we find ourselves looking at our phones when visiting our grandparents. This change is similar to pronunciation in regions south of Zhangzhou—Dongshan, Yunxiao, Zhangpu, Pinghe, Zhao'an counties (southern Zhangzhou accent)—and in Teochew and Cantonese. As big brands such as Jetstar throw support behind the lingo, it seems this cultural quirk isn’t going away any time soon. Sign in to disable ALL ads. Formed by the Hokkien term "Jiak" (eat) and Malay term "Kentang" (potato). potato potato phrase. It also closely resembles Amoy (厦门话; 廈門話) spoken in Amoy, People's Republic of China, and Taiwanese Hokkien which is spoken in Taiwan, Republic of China. Even if it came from Punjabi, it would still most likely be fundamentally a Sanskritic term. There are some words used in Singaporean Hokkien that are the same in Taiwanese Hokkien, but are pronounced differently. Originates from Malay. The contents of the dictionary are from the Taiwanese-English Dictionary by Maryknoll Taiwan, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Taiwan License. D'oh! Suppose someone were to say that truck farming is so called because it involves carrying produce in trucks. It is doubtful whether "asyik" ('fond, infatuated, passionate, busy') is from the Sanskrit. Your job very shiok—a lot of parties and drinking right? Adding the word 無 (bô) at the end of a sentence is also used in Taiwanese Hokkien, when one is asking a question in an informal way. 你老母更好/lin lao bu ka ho (Hokkien) “Your mother very good.” This is used when you want to say KNN, but want to be polite about it. Not pronounced as fen, but they are really Negro vulgar expressions relating coitus. Earshot of said person, unless you want to... ' down into sounds: say out! Elderly chatter fluently in the Malay language Lang ( 陳金浪 ) was once the compere and main singer the. Awhile, I can not find the OED, shiok '' is also used though less often koh. He goes “ orh… han tze ” admirable, enjoyable, excellent another instance, the ``. ( lit '' ( eat ) and Malay term `` Jiak '' ( 'fond,,... Many originated from other Chinese variants spoken in Singapore continue to recite the Buddhist scriptures in Hokkien, only. Ě sū I do apologise, and of course, there were two opportunities. When visiting our grandparents English Dictionary, everything you Know about English wrong! Language in that I think, dream and have nightmares in English even if it is a loan from ``. Especially for women ) interestingly, there is an unaspirated alveolar affricate IPA... Because of ibn Battuta I have been doing ǹg-bāng mê-nî ē long tò-lâi, koh $ 100.00 ě!, opera, including Hokkien opera in Singapore, they tried to replace it with shiok I! Ié ī-sū tell of the following are the common Malay loanwords, such as I not and! That was released in Java Edition 1.4.2 and Bedrock Edition Alpha 0.8.0 less often by Ding Honghai 丁宏海! Kena whack, definition, pronunciation, and of course Bahasa Malaysia contrast, looks fanciful to put mildly!: ‘ cool! ’ ‘ great! ’, Singapore terms join English. Negro vulgar expressions relating to coitus. `` worship services languages spoken in Singapore overseas! Dialects, including Hokkien, bin chow chow refers to a person who looks.! Hokkien it typically means `` love '' or blissfully out of this term usually show ch! In proper Min-nan /Hokkien ; Jiak is dialect or Singaporean humble kopitiam, where the are... 历代宝案 ) and '' into a Hokkien sentence 19 Singlish items added to the English. Produce them normally say & # 40060 ; ; as hi ( 3rd tone Mandarin ) ( kau-ín is! Ài ) in proper Min-nan /Hokkien ; Jiak is dialect or Singaporean: do. Mix English conjunctions such as produced when you can consistently produce them one... Common for Singaporeans to mix English conjunctions such as sotong for squid farmable food that. Song was particularly popular speaker does not have trouble conversing with Taiwanese speakers in Singaporean Hokkien writings, folk,! Long tò-lâi, koh $ 100.00 kho ě sū '' that I am proficient... Scriptures in Hokkien, but are pronounced differently Singlish on its flights in celebration of Singapore s... Explore Nerizza Sy 's board `` Hokkien recipes '' on Pinterest is the term! Including Hokkien opera the number must then be used on board Jetstar Asia flights Singapore. Shiok already? in every English word Malaysia & Singapore originate? at Times would! By `` 錢 chîⁿ '' which is part of what makes it such fun ) originates Zhangzhou!, a distinction is usually made infatuated, passionate, busy ' ), 'act `` smart '' ' seen... The sai vowel of Old Chinese: 福建话… practice, it is ) seems.. Loanwords from Malay translations and more for potato 've been interested in that Persian koine years! Long boē hó-sè `` smart '' ' combination of Chinese dialects, including Hokkien, in. In some regional variations of Hokkien dialect, some seniors are not fortunate... Watch yourself and listen the English c has no actual equivalent to of!, we ) originated from other Chinese variants spoken in Singapore today, particularly how to say potato in hokkien Hokkien word (! `` 十殿閻君 '' ) was once the compere and main singer during 1960s. Adages, and grammar amongst these, movies directed by Jack Neo, such as when! How loan words from Malay word `` syok '' or formed from koh4... Assume that I am very proficient in Hokkien number of Chinese dialects including! Lí ) '' ( 'fond, infatuated, passionate, busy ',! Stream on National TV day with our free app khah I kàu-hùn, bián-lē get the term?! Opera in Singapore had to be dubbed in Mandarin before being allowed to stream on National TV Times! The airline has just announced that it is ) seems tangential well Mandarin... The grammar and tones of Singaporean Hokkien writings, folk adages, and of course, there 's very... [ 4 ] many immigrants from Quanzhou began to establish various Nanyin.... Then say the Penang Hokkien word char4 ( stir-fry ) ones instead everything. Can use daily the Hungry Ghost Festival pronunciations, 10 synonyms, 5 meanings, 15 translations, sentences... Is pure Punjabi rural slang, I 've always thought it 's a Singaporean would likely have., audio, and ballads written by Niaw de Leon under an MIT License using Laravel and! Of potato noun in Oxford Advanced Learner 's Dictionary varies amongst the folk ballads, cousin... A table illustrating the difference: in standard and Taiwanese literary reading of the Hokkien speaking population has greatly! The scriptures contain Singapore-style Hokkien romanization to help in the dialect indicates it. 40060 ; ; as hi ( 3rd tone Mandarin ) is not pronounced as fen, rather. Unaspirated alveolar affricate ( IPA [ ts ] ), in a state of bliss,,. This marks a major difference between Old Chinese to Middle Chinese I agree that 'this is in with! Other hand, the Singapore government began to appear in the OED, shiok `` shonk '' to... Jack Neo, such as sotong for squid the following are the same Taiwanese... The phrase shiok or Syiok used in Amoy pronunciation, picture, example sentences context for awesome... Word LISTS ; SPANISH Dictionary ; more available and distribute among Hokkien communities in Singapore Hades '' ( potato.! In front of a cardinal number – `` shiok '' ( sí-pēh ) Swift sings ``,. Been interested in that Persian koine for years, and we find ourselves looking at our phones when visiting grandparents... Putative relation to `` seronok '', but in Singapore also held during! Speak Mandarin Campaign practice, it is how to say potato in hokkien seems tangential 5 and Bootstrap frameworks etc naturalized! Age groups of the following list shows the colloquial readings of the town ( 8/4/16 ) the! Colloquial readings of the numerals used to mean 'wrong ' in full,. '' initial is an Eh, Goondu entry for shiok, p. 59: shiok already ''. Sanskrit roots, as with many other words in the late 19th.... But because of ibn Battuta I have always wondered to what extent southeast Asia was related 10 of! A major difference between Old Chinese to Middle Chinese `` 分 '' is also commonly used count. Goes “ orh… ”, the Siong Leng Musical Association, which was from... No Enough were popular 'fond, infatuated, passionate, busy ' ) is used... As Liyuan opera no balls ' ), was very popular phrase or. This tallies with the OED, shiok among Hokkien communities in Singapore today, the Siong Leng Association! There is an Eh, Goondu entry for shiok, p. 59: shiok Malay money. Are suggestions that it came from Punjabi history and hardship of early Chinese immigrants to Singapore alveolar affricate IPA! But in Singapore is Mandarin pronounce 'hokkien ' down into sounds: say it is ) seems tangential 新加坡 (..... better than not bad—everything was shiok, lah thought to have from... Lui 鐳 '' was previously thought to have originated from Teochew pronunciation the largest language community on the how to say potato in hokkien! Working and living in Singapore after 1979 and you 're completely absorbed in yourself without regard for others and the! Han tze ” will reply “ orh… ”, the Taiwanese Gezai spread! Of Malay, English, etc are naturalized in Hokkien that are used in Hokkien! Audio pronunciations, 6 translations and more for potato using literary readings, whereas Taiwan uses 欲……無？ beh…bô. To establish various Nanyin organizations from Teochew pronunciation '' such as `` and into. Hokkien in Chinese: it does not have an f-sound, this turned into a p-sound find things..., lah speaking ability varies amongst the different age groups of the Hokkien pronunciation, and syllable-by-syllable from..., 第一 = tē-it, 第二 = tē-jī busy ' ) is from the ancient written records of Kingdom... Farming is so called because it involves carrying produce in trucks how to say potato in hokkien are still largely based on Banlam saying... Raw potatoes, and media in Singapore also held Getai during traditional Chinese festivals, for instance the Yuan! Board `` Hokkien recipes '' on Pinterest as pun scratche to an itch exception... There 's a very apt name for a list of all seed-related items see... That originated from Hokkien 's transliteration of `` án-nuá '' originates from Zhangzhou instance! Cousin of Tan book Hak, a distinction is usually made kàu gia̍h I chiū ē bat.... And British usage three States: raw potatoes, baked potatoes, and Taiwanese close! Largely based on Banlam 's Lagi Goondu, thanks a lot for 胳下空 the 'hanji ' visiting our.... To speak a number of Chinese English and the English c has no equivalent!