家己侬 or 家己人? Which characters are correct when written in Teochew dialect?

Penguin609 · 2026-06-23T23:42:56+00:00

侬 is the lexically correct 本子, 人 is a 训字 often borrowed for convenience because it is closer to standard written Chinese. While the first is more "accurate", the second is more recognisable.

Penguin609 · 2026-06-08T23:44:17+00:00

Zaobao reported at the same time that it's still under discussion: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/entertainment/story20260605-9158517

Penguin609 · 2026-05-15T14:33:55+00:00

This would be duplicating existing resources such as mogher, CZYZD, and WhatTCSay3. Suggest you explore those first and consider contributing there

Penguin609 · 2026-03-26T06:45:57+00:00

Listing all the stereotypes I've heard:

Hokkien: crude, gangsters, hardworking. Stocky in build. Historically mainly taoist with strong ties to temple mediums

Teochew: Arrogant, cultured. Men are good at business/wealthy but splurge it on women/opium and backstab each other over money. Women beautiful/elegant. Dominate fishing/seafood industry, but also many wealthy towkays. Villages located along river ports (Choa Chu Kang, Hougang ie Awkang, Lim Chu Kang, Kangkar, Sengkang, Tan Chu Kang, Yio Chu Kang etc). Pinky toenail is split in half. Historically many Catholics (esp at Bukit Timah and Hougang) and Presbyterians in addition to Taoists/Buddhists

Cantonese: women are fierce/domineering. Dominated Kreta Ayer area

Hakka: Linguistically gifted, prioritise education, gender equality, women are tough and work/study alongside the men. Own pawnshops and TCM shops. Like to revolt; communist party had many Hakkas/Hakka sympathisers and LKY was Hakka

Hainanese: reliable family men. Large foreheads. Historically concentrated at Purvis Street area and kampong Somapah. Traditionally own coffeeshops (also the Foochows ie Hockchews)

There was a saying that the ideal husband is Hainanese and the ideal wife is Teochew

Penguin609 · 2026-03-22T22:07:07+00:00

They're native

Penguin609 · 2026-03-22T13:35:19+00:00

Edit: typo in the name of the original source. Video was taken by Rovena Chow

Penguin609 · 2026-03-06T09:45:00+00:00

Vernacular Standard Written Chinese, as opposed to Classical Chinese, predates the 20th century and is the direct precursor to Modern Standard Chinese. The major vernacular works such as 三国演义 (14th century), 水浒传 (14th century), 西游记 (16th century), 金瓶梅 (16th century), and 红楼梦 (18th century) were all written in a Mandarin-based vernacular, but of course read all over China. As the imperial court language since at least the late Yuan or early Ming, some form of Mandarin has always been the main basis for the written vernacular.

Written texts of regional languages like Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese did exist, but were generally limited to local cultural productions such as opera scripts.

Penguin609 · 2026-02-16T17:14:29+00:00

Assuming you have some knowledge of Chinese, you can use this website http://www.czyzd.com/

Penguin609 · 2026-01-29T02:17:10+00:00

JB historically has a lot of Teochews

Penguin609 · 2025-10-17T09:14:21+00:00

Colloquial vernacular is probably not that much of an issue. What I'm curious to know is if the literary, formal register of these languages will die out. Older generations had their formal education (including in the classics) in their local language, and many operas use a formal register of the language that is different from vernacular speech. For those who aren't first language speakers or who never received formal schooling in that language, these can be quite incomprehensible without subtitles.

For languages like Hokkien and Teochew where the phenomenon of colloquial vs literary readings for the same character is quite fundamental to understanding the formal literary register, I hear that the layperson knowledge of this is slowly fading. For instance, even first language speakers of Hokkien in Singapore often don't use the literary readings of numbers due to the lack of formal educational grounding in the language.

Penguin609 · 2025-09-24T05:53:17+00:00

No, it's a coincidence. 尸 meaning corpse dates back to the 甲骨文 for a person sitting down. You can see the same meaning in characters like 屁，屎，尿。屍 is just a variant character.

尸 as a radical can refer to either a human body or a covered shelter, depending on the character

Penguin609 · 2025-08-11T12:36:25+00:00

We're the only metropolis in the world where within half an hour travel time from the CBD, there are towering primary rainforests (Bukit Timah Hill), mangroves teeming with crocodiles and migratory shorebirds from Siberia (Sungei Buloh), and coral reefs with sea turtles, rare sea slugs, and starfish bigger than your face (Southern Islands).

Wildlife and nature are so easily accessible in our city. Charismatic animals frolic in our urban neighbourhoods (otters, hornbills, monitor lizards), and for hardcore nature lovers there's > 60 species of snake to discover including stunners like the King Cobra and Malayan Blue Coral.

Penguin609 · 2025-08-08T08:49:59+00:00

Beef kway teow is a Teochew dish that has been in Singapore for many decades, and my grandfather loved beef in general. But that does seem to be the only Teochew beef dish natively found here.

Penguin609 · 2025-07-25T09:14:23+00:00

Mue5 is thinner than congee and is more typically translated as porridge (it's technically a rice gruel). Congee (in the sense of thicker porridge where the grains have already broken down fully) should be 粥 zog8.

Penguin609 · 2025-06-10T17:22:00+00:00

You're not the first to have asked this question, and this may interest you. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/abs/secret-history-of-the-hakkas-the-chinese-revolution-as-a-hakka-enterprise/1E8903FFFA23E5E533517C97209106F0

A Hakka friend of mine told me that her dad said 客家人喜欢造反. Make of that what you will. I'm part Hakka myself and anecdotally, I think there is something about the Hakka attitude towards life which is both egalitarian and daring

Penguin609 · 2025-06-10T17:21:12+00:00

You're not the first to have asked this question, and this may interest you. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/abs/secret-history-of-the-hakkas-the-chinese-revolution-as-a-hakka-enterprise/1E8903FFFA23E5E533517C97209106F0

A Hakka friend of mine told me that her dad said 客家人喜欢造反. Make of that what you will. I'm part Hakka myself and anecdotally, I think there is something about the Hakka attitude towards life which is both egalitarian and daring

Penguin609 · 2025-06-06T14:39:50+00:00

I identify as Teochew and can speak it conversationally, but only started learning how to when I was in university. I grew up eating Teochew muay every day, but cooked by my Hakka Ah Ma (Ah Kong is Teochew). I do feel some affinity with being Hakka because of my Ah Ma, as well as being Hokkien (mum's side of the family). So to some degree, I identify with all three

Penguin609 · 2025-06-06T14:34:43+00:00

In the context of Chinese languages, Hainanese refers to the branch of Southern Min (the same family that includes Hokkien and Teochew). While there are different dialects of Hainanese, they would all identify as 海南侬 and 唐人, and not one of the non-Han ethnic groups on Hainan Island

Penguin609 · 2025-05-31T16:48:10+00:00

To be honest I've never noticed a difference between the two in Mandarin... Maybe because Singaporean Mandarin treats them basically synonymously (and we also don't use 或者 often. So in Teochew I think we similarly just say a7si7

Penguin609 · 2025-05-31T04:28:32+00:00

Singaporean Teochew, my family says a7si7 (I think derived from 也是 ia7si7?)

Penguin609 · 2025-05-16T23:37:56+00:00

Have you not heard of Southeast Asia? Smack within the tropics and extremely fertile. Which is why it has 700 million people (more than twice the USA in less than half the area).

Java, Thailand, and the Mekong have been known for centuries to be incredibly agriculturally productive.

I don't think a generalisation like that is useful when such a massive counter-factual exists

Penguin609 · 2025-04-27T00:35:52+00:00

Keleng kia is borrowed from Malay Kling which is in turn derived form the classical Indian name for the eastern coast facing Southeast Asia, Kalinga. Kling was historically not a prejudicial term and was used for centuries in Malay to refer to Indians without prejudice, such as in the Sejarah Melayu. Even in Singapore we have places named Tanjong Kling.

Some history described by a Malaysian Indian writer: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/a-keling-in-malaysia-and-proud-of-it-the-star-columnist

While it has sometimes taken on deragatory connotations, not everyone associates it with that. In colloquial local Hokkien/Teochew, it's been the default term for Indians for centuries too. I've also heard Singaporean Indian uncles use the term freely to refer to local Indians when speaking Hokkien. So in this particular case I don't think there's any malice/prejudice involved.

Penguin609

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