Tai Keh ho….! ( Good day, everyone)
Kiah Na Jit, Souh Ti, ai kon lang eh penang hokkien waah…( Today, I will like to talk about our penang hokkien dialect).
The above is the penang hokkien dialect and the translation in English. It’s not hard to learn Penang Hokkien if you always mix with Chinese Penangites. Most of them speak Penang hokkien – the rojak hokkien that over the years had developed into a unique dialect. Yes, I said rojak(mix up) because we have borrow many Malays words and other languages into Penang hokkien dialect.
We call sampah, sampah which is a Malay word. We call batu, batu not chiok kiah. Again, another Malay word. More than 10 years back when I was in secondary school, I used to call one of my friends- “mempersiasuikan” whenever he did things without thinking. Sia sui means shameful. The “memper…kan” is the Malay “imbuhan” to strengthen the word. Both words when add together means shameful as well. It’s just the mixture of words that we- Penangites use.
Another word is hentam…You can always hear this word at the 4D places. The ah pek or aunties will say “hentam kau kau”…which literally translates to show hand or put as much as one can. Same goes to “pantang”. A malay word.
Some spoken words like long kao which means drain, is actually derives from longkang. Another Malay word. I think there are a lot of Penang hokkien dialect that borrows from other languages which I might not know of. As you might aware, the hokkien spoken by the Johorean is consider by many as the better hokkien compared to Penang hokkien. I still remembered during the days when my grandfather was still alive, I hardly can catch the words he spoken. He spoke pure Hokkien from China mainland not the rojak made in Penang.
Anyway, I still feel the dialect is uniquely Penang which is still widely spoken, be they in Malaysia or other parts of the world. Take http://penanghokkien.com as the example. People from far and near still enjoy the dialect in penanghokkien.com.
For foreigner who might want to ;earn on how to speak penang hokkien, you can always go to the Penang YMCA. They have a course on penang hokkien.
Kam siah! ( Thank you!)
If you have any other words to add in, please do so in the comment section.
“Kau Ing” as in “kahwin” in malay means wedding.
Ah sam lu ti si ai kau ing? = Sam, when you going to get married?