A Chinese dialect brought by sailors and traders who braved pirates, rough seas, and tropical disease still thrives on the island of Penang.
Penang Hokkien is often described as sounding very musical and is as far removed from Mandarin as English is from German. Yet, like all Chinese languages spoken around the world, Penang Hokkien is slowly fading away as young people abandon it in favour of Mandarin.
Originating in China’s Fujian Province, Hokkien is actually the name of a group of related dialects forming a distinct group among China’s myriad tongues. These dialects include Taiwanese Hokkien (the mother tongue of the majority of Taiwan’s inhabitants—although sadly, Mandarin is fast replacing it among younger generations), Teochew (a language spoken by descendants of Chinese immigrants in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, among other areas), as well as the various vernacular forms that have developed over the centuries among overseas Chinese such as Penang and Singaporean Hokkien.
There are, in fact, other languages or dialects spoken in Fujian that are not mutually intelligible with Penang Hokkien, for example the Fuzhou and Putian dialects.
Contents
- Where is Penang Hokkien spoken?
- Unique features of Penang Hokkien
- Fun facts about Hokkien
- Writing in Penang Hokkien
- Penang Hokkien into the 21st century
Where is Penang Hokkien spoken?
Penang Hokkien is spoken in Malaysia, on the island of Penang as well as in neighbouring regions on mainland Northern Malaysia. It used to be spoken by the local Chinese community as far north as Phuket in Thailand. A very similar dialects is spoken by ethnic Chinese in large parts of North Sumatra, Indonesia, particularly in the city of Medan and surrounding regions.
It is quite different from, but largely mutually intelligible with, Singaporean and Southern Malaysian Hokkien, due to the fact that their ancestors came from villages in different parts of Southern Fujian, having brought their ancient linguistic differences with them when they left China to settle in Southeast Asia.
Penang Hokkien speakers can usually understand Taiwanese, although with some difficulty. Like most Taiwanese, the Chinese community are descended from sailors and traders from Southern Fujian Province, hence the reason for their similar dialects.
Unique features of Penang Hokkien
One of the more unique aspects of Hokkien pronunciation is the fact that it has more sounds than Mandarin. Words can end in a variety of consonants and some words are made entirely by closing one’s mouth and releasing a breath through one’s nose. There are also more tones than in Mandarin—Penang Hokkien has six tones and varieties like Taiwanese have seven tones!
To make things even more interesting, all Hokkien varieties have a complex feature where tones shift and change depending on their position in a sentence. Words are more likely to change tones at the beginning and in the middle of sentences. So unlike with Mandarin, a learner will have to remember not only the tone of any new word they learn but also how that tone may change in a sentence!
Penang Hokkien words also do not contain the letters ‘f’ (unlike Mandarin and Cantonese, among others), and ‘v’ (unlike Shanghainese). Like most Chinese languages, it also does not have the sound ‘th’, as in English ‘this’.
Fun facts about Hokkien
The Hokkien word for ‘tea’ is tê, which was the word Dutch traders first borrowed centuries ago from Hokkien speakers in Amoy and Quanzhou in China. They then brought this fantastic beverage and its name back to Europe where, eventually, tê became the source of the English ‘tea’, German ‘Tee’, French ‘thé’ and Italian ‘tè’, among others.
Hokkien also gave the English language the old military and naval term ‘cumshaw’. A cumshaw was a favour or gift given to someone in a position of authority, often in exchange for special treatment or favours. In other words, a small bribe. This word comes from the Hokkien kám-siā, meaning ‘thank you’. British sailors who landed in Amoy or Quanzhou must have overheard Hokkien speakers there saying ‘thank you’ and then borrowed it without realising what it really meant!
In addition, many words and phrases come directly from ancient China and are no longer used by Mandarin speakers in Beijing! Many words in Hokkien sound like words in Korean or Japanese, and this is no coincidence, as the pronunciation of words borrowed by Koreans and Japanese people centuries ago tend to be better preserved in Hokkien dialects than in Mandarin.
Penang Hokkien, like many Chinese languages spoken overseas, has a lot of words that have been borrowed from other languages. A couple of common ones include su-kah, meaning ‘to like something’, from Malay, and móo-tó, from the English ‘motorcycle’. The English ‘good morning’ and ‘thank you’ are often used as well, though Penang Hokkien equivalents are available.
As a matter of fact, Penang Hokkien does not have specific words for ‘good afternoon’, ‘good evening’ and ‘good night’. A common way to greet someone is to ask, “Have you eaten yet?” (Lú tsia̍h-pá bōe?), to which one should reply either, “Yes, I have,” (Tsia̍h-pá liáu) or “No, I haven’t.” (Á-bōe).
Writing in Penang Hokkien
Penang Hokkien does not have a standardised writing system and is mostly a spoken language. In ancient times, all writing was traditionally done in Classical Chinese, an ancient form of Chinese now considered archaic even in China.
In modern times, Penang Hokkien can sometimes be written in Tai-lo—an alphabet using Roman letters with accent marks that was invented in Taiwan and originally used to write the related Taiwanese Hokkien variety.
Our app uses Tai-lo alongside Taiji, a recently-invented script created by Timothy Tye from Penang. Timothy’s Taiji script uses numbers to show the various tones and was designed to be easy to use on a keyboard or keypad.
Penang Hokkien into the 21st century
Penang Hokkien is a unique language, in many ways both very ancient and very modern. It preserves features of older forms of Chinese yet freely borrows from Malay and English in a very efficient way to convey modern concepts.
Learning Penang Hokkien is a way to connect with the past and the old-world elegance of the island of Penang, with its rich colonial history. It’s a perfect way to immerse oneself in the rich cultural, linguistic, and even culinary (yes, Penang is commonly regarded as Malaysia’s food capital!) history of one of the most dynamic regions of Malaysia.
Want to learn Penang Hokkien? Get started with uTalk today! Subscribe and you’ll be learning practical Penang Hokkien words and phrases in minutes. Happy language learning!