Not feeling well - how do we say this in Teochew?

I came across this sentence on a website about Chinese dialects. It about saying one is not feeling well. 

It writes in Taiwanese MinNan hua, to say one is not well is as follows.

我家己人有淡薄無爽快。

And in Mandarin we would say,

我自己有一點不舒服。

or

我有一點不舒服。


Then how about in Teochew?  I have been thinking and I would say it as 

Ua2 ci3dioh8 dih4gian2 m6 ho2si3. [I am not feeling too well.]

我試著滴仔唔好勢。

The m6 唔 could be said as bho5 無 as in 我試著滴仔無好勢。

A little could be said in many ways instead of dih4gian2 滴仔. Another is like the Taiwanese way as dam6boh8 淡薄 [see Zhang XiaoShan page 389].  It could also be said as su1gian2 須仔 or as written in ZXS page 333 須囝.

Regarding dih4gian2 滴仔 - do not get confuse and say dih8gian2 碟仔 for a little plate or saucer. We have changing tones and we actually say the opposite to what is written in our Teochew PêngIm. 

So the little plate becomes dih(4)gian2 碟仔 - changes from tone 8 to 4 and the reverse is true for a little 滴仔.

I am sure you have as many ways of saying you are not feeling well. Do comment if you have.

I have tried to avoid using su'hog 舒服 because it has been used in the Mandarin example in the website and people do say su1hog8 instead of ho2si3. However, in my family we have always said bho5ho2si3 無好勢 for not feeling well.

I hope you find this post helpful in helping you to know more about your mother tongue. 

la5bian2 朥餅

It was Dong1'ciu1 中秋 yesterday - Mid-Autumn Festival - and for us Teochew, we eat la5bian2  朥餅, drink gang1hu1 dê5 工夫茶, bai3 ghuêh8nion5 拜月娘 on this festival.

I made a few la5bian2  朥餅 and I thought you might want to see pictures of them.

My Chinese friend, originally from HK, came late for tea and brought a ghuêh8bian2 月餅 and by then people have tasted our Teochew la5bian2  朥餅 by then and these guests all preferred our la'bian.

Apparently, our Teochew la'bian is one of the famous moon cakes in China and others which are famous include those from Guangdong and Suzhou. A Shanghai man told me the Suzhou yuebing looks and tastes very similar to our la'bian.

Language and culture

If you want to get rid of a group of people, the best way is to get rid of their language and stop them speaking, reading and writing their language.  Language and culture are inextricably linked - get rid of one's language and one's culture disappears as well.

For me to access our Teochew culture, I need to be able to read, write and speak the language.  It has taken me many years to learn our language.

Overseas Teochew people will always call our language and culture "Teochew" which is a word in the English Oxford dictionary.  However, some people in mainland China, due to political reasons, call us Chaoshan or Diosua 潮汕 in Teochew dialect.  I hope I am not offending anybody by just using the word Teochew, an English word, to describe our people, language and culture, in this blog.  

In East Guangdong province, there is a city known as Shantou 汕頭. which is just about half an hour from Chaozhou 潮州 [Teochew or Dioziu] by bus.  Shantou in English is listed as Swatow and this word too is in the Oxford English dictionary.

In future postings of this blog, I will focus on our Teochew language / dialect.  I hope you will join me in discovering this beautiful Tang dynasty language.  Did you know that Tang dynasty poems is best read in Teochew for it to sound good?  Tang dynasty poems do not sound good in Mandarin.  However, we are Chinese and we must study Mandarin and must be able to speak this language well too.  So see it as a challenge and learn both Teochew and Mandarin.  For us to be good in Teochew, we need to learn Mandarin well.   

Things you need to know about making ganghu dê 功夫茶 gong1fu5cha2

In this posting, we will learn the terms you need to know for making ganghu dê 功夫茶 gong1fu5cha2  Gongfu cha in Chaoshan hua is said as ganghu dê. I will first give you the standard Chinese names, then the Chaoshan hua names and finally the English names.

Chinese 中文 / Chanshan Hua 潮汕話 / English 英文
cha2 茶 / dê5 茶/ tea
cha2ye4 茶葉 / dê5bhi2 茶米 / tea leaves
gong1fu1 cha2 功夫茶 or 工夫茶 / gang1hu1 dê5 功夫茶 or 工夫茶 / kungfu tea
Tie3guan1yin1 鐵觀音 / Tih4Guang1Im1 鐵觀音 / Powerful Goddess of Mercy [tea]
Gang1yin1 Wang2 觀音王/ Guang1im1 Uang5 觀音王/ Supreme Goddess of Mercy [tea]
bei1zi 杯子 / buê1 杯 / cup
shiu3 水/ zui2 水/ water
cha2hai3 茶海 / Dê5buan5 茶盤 / tea tray
gai4 wan3 蓋碗/ Dê5ao1 茶甌 or gai3 uan2 蓋碗/ a covered tea cup
gong1dao4 bei1公道杯 / 茶盅 cha2 zhong1  / pitcher or jug - This is an item which some Teochew people call it a  dê5hu5 茶壺 or a dê5hai2 茶海.
cha2 hu2 茶壺 / dê5 hu5 茶壺 / tea pot 
lou4 dou3 漏斗 / lao7 dao3 漏斗 / tea strainer


鐵 – has always been given the definition of iron – iron goddess of mercy. However, this character also mean strong and powerful. I have therefore chosen powerful goddess of mercy for I think it is much more informative and relevant to the goddess of mercy and to the tea.

Making a cup of rea! ganghu dê 功夫茶 gong1fu5cha2

In standard Chinese we say pao4 cha2 泡茶. Pao4 cha2 means to steep or soak tea leaves – obviously in hot water. However, in Chaoshan hua we say cong1 dê5  沖茶 Where cong1 means "within a dash". In gongfu cha, that is actually what we do – the boiling water is poured unto the tea leaves and the tea is decanted within a ‘dash’! In English slang, a dash is a very short while like a minute. Another meaning of cong1 dê5 [a Chaoshan hua phrase] is to pour boiling water from a height over the tea leaves. It should be said as gao1 cong1 高沖. Cong1 dê5 in standard Chinese is zhong1 cha2. In Chaoshan tradition, we pour hot water over the tea leaves and within a minute we decant the tea completely and not allowing the tea leaves to be soaking in the hot water and be over brewed. For other Chinese, they brew tea or pao4 cha2 and allowing the tea leaves to sit in hot water for sometime before decanting the whole tea pot.