Wah Lau! Seepeh Interestingâ€
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Ancient Imperial Language of China - 2,000 Years Ago How Did it Sound Like?
(Mind you, it's no way similar to Mandarin) Has this Ancient Language
Survived? Who Speaks it Today? You'll be Surprised. You have heard it. You,
your parents, or grandparents may still be speaking this ancient, archaic
language! Yes, it's HOKKIEN (Fujian/Minnan Hua) Hokkien is:
1. The surviving language of the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD), China 's Golden
Age of Culture. Note: The Hokkien we hear today may have "evolved" from its
original form 2,000 years ago, but it still retains the main elements of the
Tang Dynasty Language.
2. Hokkiens are the surviving descendants of the Tang Dynasty -- When the
Tang Dynasty collapsed, the people of the Tang Dynasty fled South and sought
refuge in the Hokkien ( Fujian ) province. Hence, Hokkien called themselves
Tng-lang (Tang Ren or People of the Tang Dynasty) instead of Hua Lang (Hua
Ren).
3. Hokkien has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4. Linguists claim that ancient
languages tend to have more complex tones.
4. Hokkien retains the ancient Chinese pronunciation of "K-sounding" endings
(for instance, Hak Seng (student), Tua Ok (university), Thak Chek (read a
book/study) -- the "k" sounding ending is not found in Mandarin.
5. The collection of the famous "Three Hundred Tang Dynasty Poems" sound
better when recited in Hokkien/Teochew if compared to Mandarin.
6. Consider this for a moment: Today, the Hokkien Nam Yim ochestral
performance still has its roots in ancient Tang dynasty music. Here's the
proof: The formation of today Nam Yim ensemble is typically seen in ancient
Tang dynasty paintings of musicians.
More Astonishingly:
Although not genetically-related, Hokkiens, Koreans and Japanese share many
similar words (which are different from Mandarin). That's because Hokkien
was the official language of the powerful Tang Dynasty whose influence and
language spread to Japan and Korea (just like Latin - where many words were
borrowed by the English, French, Italian, etc).
Here are just a few words in Hokkien, Japanese & Korean for your comparison:
Hokkien Korean Japanese
Sin Boon (news) Sin Mun Shinbun -
newspaper
Cheng Hu (government) Chong Bu
Pang (room) Pang
Chia (car/vehicle) Ch'a
Mui/M'ng (door) Mun
P'hio (ticket) P'yo
Eng Wan (eternal) Yong Won
Chaek (book) Ch'ae
Ki (flag) Ki Ki
Kang (river) Gang/kang
Poh Hiam (insurance) Poh Ham
Sio Sim (caution) Cho sim
Mo Kui (demon) Ma gui
Cham (attend/join/mix) Ch'am sok
Kantan (simple) Gan Dan
Sin Sei Kai (new world) Shin Sae Gae
Kok Ka (nation) Kuk Kka
Hya (elder brother) Hyaeng
Choon Pi (prepare) Jun Bi
Si Kan (time) Si Kan
Kam tong (emotion) Kam Jong Kanjoo
Kamsia (gratitude, thanks) Kam Sa Kansha
Keat Hoon (marriage) Kyol Hon Kekkon
Oon Tong (exercise) Un Dong Undoo
Tua Ok (university) Tae Hak Daigaku
Aun Chuan (safety) An Jon An Zen
Mua Chiok(satisfaction) Man Jok Manzoku
Ai Lang (lover) Ae In Aijin
Seng Kong (success) Song Kong Seikoo
Chhiu Sat (suicide) Cha sal Jisatsu
Pu Do (grapes) P'o d'o Budoo
Chin Por (progress) Chin bo Shinpo
To all 49 Million Hokkien Speakers: Be Proud of Your Ancient Hokkien
Heritage & Language! Speak it Loud and Clear. Teach Your Future Generation
this Imperial Language, Less it Fades Away. Be Proud Children of the Tang
Emperors.
To all Mandarin-speaking friends out there -- do not look down on your other
Chinese friends who do not speak Mandarin - whom you guys fondly refer to as
"Bananas".
In fact, they are speaking a language which is much more ancient &
linguistically complicated than Mandarin. Keep in mind that Mandarin is
just:
1. A Northern Chinese dialect (heavily influenced by non Han Chinese) that
was elevated to the status of National Language by Sun Yat Sen for the sake
of China 's national unity.
2. Mandarin was never spoken by your proud, imperial Tang Dynasty ancestors.
It was probably spoken by the Northern (Non-Han) Jurchen, Mongols and Manchu
minority. Start speaking the language of your ancestors today. Other
interesting links:http://www.famouschinese.com/virtual/Penang_Hokkien -
how abt teochew?
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what about all the cb,nb,knn leh?
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i hepchu fill up the missing ones !
Hokkien Korean Japanese
Cheng Hu (government) Chong Bu Sei Hu
Chia (car/vehicle) Ch'a Sha
Mui/M'ng (door) Mun Mon
Eng Wan (eternal) Yong Won Ei En
Poh Hiam (insurance) Poh Ham Ho Ken
Kantan (simple) Gan Dan Kan Tan
Sin Sei Kai (new world) Shin Sae Gae Shin Sei Kai
Choon Pi (prepare) Jun Bi Jun Bi
Si Kan (time) Si Kan Ji Kan -
Originally posted by Cool-gal:
how abt teochew?
dis article oni sae hokkien, but u r rite, hokkien, teochew all the way up to hainanese r the oldest surviving fossil stones of ancient chinese. -
Originally posted by stellazio:
what about all the cb,nb,knn leh?
cb the second word is 屄 (bai), oso from ancient chinesenb is contraction of nin-lau-bu-eh, �� (lau bu) oso from ancient chinese
knn is contraction of kan-nin-lau-bu, ditto above oso from ancient chinese
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so last time de emperors got scold knnbccb one lo?
cool sia!
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emperor got scold no scold we cant noe
but the article means if we now say hokkien, if the emperors are long-life enough today they can understand we speak hokkien.
if we speak mandarin now, they cannot understand
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i hope they do!
imagine the 圣旨的 contents
奉天承�皇��曰knnbccb
lolol
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I din noe that some hokkien words are similar to korean and japanese words.. though i noticed some of them do sound hokkien to me
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yes babelfish u r rite man
i reproduce the counting from one to ten in Japanese and Korean u take a look !
(in actual pronunciation, not written form)
Japanese:
itch, ni, san, shee, go, lok, shich, hach, ku, ju
Korean:
eel, ee, sam, shee, o, yuk, shil, pal, ku, ship
Hokkien (conversation):
it, li, sa, see, go, lak, tshit, pueh, kau, tsap
Hokkien (book reading):
it, li, sam, su, ngor, liok, tshit, pat, kiu, sip
Cantonese:
yat, yee, sam, sei, ng, lok, tshat, pat, kau, sap
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No wonder alot of northern Chinese dislike the Southern Chinese in Mainland China. It's all in the blood........
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Originally posted by Kacang:
No wonder alot of northern Chinese dislike the Southern Chinese in Mainland China. It's all in the blood........
quite true to certain extentif we backup with genetics, southern chinese are closer to the southern people (zhuang, miao, yao) in their blood allelles and the northern chinese are closer to the northern people (manchu) in their blood allelles
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one of the forumers who teaches Mandarin, says he had to study dialects phonetics and all that
turned out Hokkien is one of the oldest surviving dialect, together with Teochew and Cantonese
Mandarin or Beijing dialect, doesnt come up till much later
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How bout sio kan?
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Originally posted by laurence82:
one of the forumers who teaches Mandarin, says he had to study dialects phonetics and all that
turned out Hokkien is one of the oldest surviving dialect, together with Teochew and Cantonese
Mandarin or Beijing dialect, doesnt come up till much later
to add on so that we can haf a clearer picthough Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese r direct decendents of ancient chinese, they are also subjected to local influences from the minority groups of that area and languages themselves also undergo gradual self-change over 1000 years
therefore in terms of ancient chinese, Hokkien preserved "more kinds of ancient traits" nia, not all. but still Hokkien has lost a lot of things like nasalization of the vowels in place of the consonant finals in the spoken forms; glottal stops in place of the stop finals in the spoken forms; and great changes to the vowel inventory. Teochew is on par with Hokkien albeit some main differences. Cantonese is considered to preserve "less kinds of ancient traits" but "more quantity" than Hokkien. For example though cantonese has preserved in its spoken formss the consonant finals and stop finals in which hokkien has lost, all these traits were less ancient than the traits hokkien had preserved, such as preservation in bilibial stops where all other dialects has changed into bilibial fricatives, etc etc
therefore that even the emperor became a 僵尸and live till today he oso will not be able to understand fully all the hokkien, teochew, cantonese and whatever
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Originally posted by Midlusionz:
How bout sio kan?
kan i tink may not be an old word. coz most kinds of taboo words do not haf a long history. -
just like how mandarin is a very new language, so is english.....
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/me ish teochew
and proud of it
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teochew nang, kha chhng ang ang
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tau mor tit tit buay lau sit
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i like kachng
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Song bo!
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Originally posted by laurence82:
i like kachng
Whose? -
hmm easy question, easy answer