TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS CANTONES A complete course in Cantonese — ideal for the beginnerTEACH YOURSELF BOOKS Cantonese, the dialect of S.E. China, is the best known form of Chinese in the West, as it is spoken in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Macao, and so is the form most commonly spoken by Chinese communities in Europe and the United States. The emphasis of this book is on learning to speak Cantonese, and so the graded lessons are in dialogue form which encourages the student to speak aloud the phrases and so learn the different tones essential to comprehension. Chinese grammar is ; comparatively straightforward — difficulties arise mostly in pronunciation. All the dialogue is given in both phonetic script and Chinese characters, © | BIBLIOCANTONESE R. Bruce TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS Hodder and StoughtonCONTENTS Preface . . . . . . . . . ov Introduction The Cantonese Language 1 Mandarin . : . : - » 2 Written Chinese. . 2 The Sounds and Spelling of Cantonese 3 Method of Study 4 Pronunciation o : : . : . 6 The Tones . 5 5 . . . + 12 The Lessons 1. Greetings 5 5 5 5 5 + 16 a Arrival 2. . ee 3. Meeting People =. 5 wet 4. Getting About . : : : : + 40 5. Street Scene. S : 5 : . 49 6. Shopping . . . . «58 7. Learning Chinese... eC 8. Lunch . . . OB g. Interview Be 8B 10. Weather . . . . . + 97 11. Friends and Relations . : 5 + 106 12, HongKong 2 wee 13. Students Talking 2. . ss 1 14. Onthe Telephone . 5. 34 vii15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. CONTENTS Going to a Party People Work 5 Going for a Walk A Train Journey Housekeeping . Chinese Character Version of the Dialogues English-Cantonese Vocabulary . 146 . 156 . 164 173 182 + 190 = 197 + 242INTRODUCTION The Cantonese Language Cantonese is one form or “dialect” of the Chinese language. It is spoken in Kwangtung, the most south-easterly province of China, of which Canton is the capital. The word ‘Canton’ is a rather rough rendering by early European visitors of the name of the province, Kwangtung, the city itself being to the Chinese Kwangchow. The province of Kwangtung has a population of some forty million, most of whom speak Cantonese as their mother tongue. There are other Chinese dialects in Kwangtung (Hakka, Hainanese and Ch’aochow) but most people who speak them can also speak and under- stand Cantonese. Outside China Cantonese is by far the most widely- spoken form of the Chinese language. It is the native speech of Hong Kong (population 4 million) and of Macao. In Malaysia Cantonese is the most important form of Chinese among the 4 million people of Chinese race who live there. It is true that the Chincse of Singapore and Penang are mainly speakers of Hokkien but they also understand Cantonese. (Hokkien is the speech of Amoy and other places in south Fukien, the province adjoining Kwangiung to the north-east.) Cantonese dominates Chinese-speakers in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Seremban. In Malaysia generally Cantonese has higher prestige and a wider currency than the other Chinese dialects. Most of the Chinese in Vietnam and Cambodia are Cantonese speakers. In Thailand they are few, the majority being Ch’aochow speakers. Their numbers are also small in the Philippines, Indonesia and Burma. In Britain practically all the proprietors, waiters and Cooks of the numerous Chinese restaurants are Cantonesea ‘CANTONESE speakers. The same is truc of a number of countrics in western Europe. In the U.S.A. the Cantonese are by far the largest language community among the resident Chinese. This provides students in western countries with opportunities of hearing Cantonese from native speakers, an advantage much less available to students of Mandarin, the National Language of China. Mandarin The principal form or dialect of Chinese is Mandarin or Kuo-yii (‘National Language’). This is a form of Northern Chinese, particularly that spoken in the capital, Peking. Mandarin, with regional variations, is spoken over a very wide area of China, embracing about three-quarters of the population. For the study of Mandarin there is ‘Teach Yourself Chinese’ by H. R. Williamson. Kuo-yii is the official language for government and education and modern Chinese is written in the National Language. However, it is estimated that there are more than 150 million people who speak dialects other than the northern form, most of them in the coastal region of south-east China, from Shanghai to the southern frontier, the provinces of Chekiang, Fukien and Kwangtung. All Chinese dialects are basically very similar but they are not mutually intelligible. The south-eastern dialects, including Cantonese, have more complex sound systems than Mandarin. They retain many old features of the Chinese language which the northern speech has shed. Written Chinese This is a text-book for teaching yourself how to speak the Cantonese dialect of Chinese. There is a Chinese character version of the Dialogues but this is for a Cantonese-speaking. Chinese to read aloud to you and give you the true sounds of the language. The characters in the Tone Drill are for the same purpose.INTRODUCTION 3 The written Chinese language is a much more formidable undertaking than the spoken. After a few months study of these lessons, only an hour a day, you should, with the opportunity of practice, be able to conduct simple con- versations. It will take at least two years of full-time study to learn enough written Chinese to read the newspapers. Modern written Chinese is in the idiom of Mandarin. The Chinese version of the Dialogues in this book is exactly the same as the romanised form and thus contains vocabulary and usage which are not standard. However, students of written Chinese who are learning to speak Cantonese will find the character version of the Dialogues very useful. The Sounds and Spelling of Cantonese The real difficulty in learning to speak Cantonese, or any other form of Chinese, lies in the sounds. Chinese grammar is easy compared to any of the European languages. Nouns, Pronouns and adjectives do not change according to number, gender or case. Verbs do not change according to tense or mood. In fact Chinese words do not change at all except for an occasional variation in the tone. In other words we have no problem like the German ‘der’, ‘die’, ‘das’ and the French ‘le’ and ‘la’, the English ‘am’, ‘is’, ‘are’ and the great complexities in the conjugation of regular and irregular verbs. In fact it is only the tones which are difficult for speakers of non-tonal languages. That is why it is essential for you to find a Cantonese-speaking Chinese, get him to read the Sound Tables and the Dialogues from the Chinese and imitate him with the greatest possible accuracy. Chinese has far fewer sounds than English. For example there are no words with a group or cluster of consonants Such as the first three letters of the word ‘street’. No Chinese Words end with f, I, s, sh, ch, r, or v. The comparative Scarcity of sounds results in large numbers of words being4 CANTONESE very similar to cach other or even exactly the same or differing only by the pitch of the voice, the Tones. To write down, that is to spell, Cantonese words using the Roman alphabet we have tried to follow standard (R.P.) English pronunciation and spelling usage, bearing in mind, of course, that there are a great many inconsisten- cies in English spelling from the point of view of rendering the sound. Unlike English spelling this text spells consistently so that once you know the value or sound given to the letters or their combinations you should always pronounce them in that way. But the most infallible guide must be your ear, not your eye, and you must therefore find your Cantonese speaker and record him if possible. In addition to the spelling there is the method of in- dicating the Tones. In this book we use marks above the vowels, each mark attempting to give a graphic or pictorial description of the tone it indicates. Thus the tone which is given in a high pitch and falls sharply is indicated by a grave accent, the middle rising tone is shown by an acute accent and so on. Even more than with the rendering of the a, b, c you must rely on a Cantonese-speaking Chinese for imitating and memorising words in their correct tone. The faithful reproduction of vowel and consonant sounds and the tones is the one real problem of Chinese. By following the advice given in the next section, Method of Study, you can overcome this difficulty. Method of Study Here are nine rules to follow: 1. Acquaint yourself thoroughly with the sound values given to the letters of the alphabet and their combinations as shown in the section on Pronunciation. You will quickly become familiar with the system in reading the Lessons. When in doubt refer back to the table.INTRODUCTION 3 2, Repeat many, many times the Tone Table, from top to bottom, following the actual voice or a recording of a Cantonese speaker if at all possible. 3. Start reading Lesson 1 quite soon, even after your first reading of the Pronunciation and Tone Tables for practice in using these sounds as much as for the meaning of the material. Read it many times, particularly the Dialogues and the Drills. Before beginning a new lesson go through all the Dialogucs of earlier Lessons from Lesson 1 up to the new Lesson. Always revert to the tables of sounds and tones before tackling new material at Icast for the first half dozen Lessons. 4. Read aloud and read frequently the Dialogues and Drills. You cannot do this too frequently. It may be a bore but it is the only way to acquire fluency and accuracy. 5. Study every day, preferably for an hour but even less if you cannot manage it. An hour every day is much better than three or four hours once or twice a week. 6. Aim at fluency not vocabulary. If you can master a fair number of basic patterns you can add vocabulary later. A lot of words are no use if you cannot use them. 7. Control your Tones. It is unnatural for speakers of languages like English to speak words with fixed tones. constantly change or inflect the tones of words according to their position in a sentence or the emphasis we seek to use. With a few exceptions the Chinese tone remains unchanged. Therefore you must exercise vigilant control over the tone of each word you utter. This is difficult to begin with, much easier later. Mimic the native speaker. 8. Practice in natural conversation. Do this right away, even you can only say ‘Good morning’. Of course, you will map fioored by the response of the Chinese speaker, all the aes if you say your little sentence perfectly as he will ¢ you have a good knowledge of the language. But if beTONESE, with real practice you will gain confidence after the initial set-backs. g- Do not translate. As you read the Dialogues time after time you should look at the English side less and less. The Drills have no English, deliberately. The sections called More Practice are there to make you give responses to questions in Cantonese without the intervention of your own language. Pronunciation The letters of the Roman alphabet are used to render the sounds of Cantonese as follows: Consonants The following letters are pronounced as in English: fhimnswy The following, all uscd as initials, are pronounced differently from English usage: bdgj In English these letters are ‘voiced’; the vocal chords vibrate when they are spoken. In Cantonese these letters are spoken without any ‘voicing’. The ‘unvoiced’ equiva- lent of these letters in English are p, t, k and ch. If you close your ears and say the b, d, g and j sounds you will hear them buzzing in your head. Now say the p, t, k and ch sounds with your ears closed and you will scarcely hear anything; there were no vibrations of the vocal chords. The Cantonese sounds which we indicate in this book by b, d, g and j are like neither of these sets of initials. They are not ‘voiced’ and, unlike the p, t, k and ch, they are not ‘aspirated’. ‘Aspiration’ means the cmission of 2 puff of breath after the initial letter. In English we have no ‘unaspirated’ initial p, t, k, and ch, but where the first threeINTRODUCTION 7 —p, t and k—are preceded by an s the cxact Cantonese sound is produced. Here arc examples: spin sting skin If you say pin, tin and kin (and say them emphatically) you will notice that the p, t and k are followed by a puff of air whereas these letters when preceded by s emit no puff of air. They are ‘unvoiced’ and ‘unaspirated’. Try to make these sounds by saying English words in which they occur, such as: spy sky stye spoon stool schooner span scan stand spot Scot stoat Whenever you sce in this book the letters b, d and g you must try to make the ‘unvoiced’, ‘unaspirated’ sound illus- trated by these examples. Why do we not use p, t and k to represent these sounds? Because this would tempt you to make an English p, t and k, i.e. ‘aspirated’ sounds which will distort the meaning completely. If you do make a ‘voiced’ b, d and g, as in English, this is a pity as it is not good Cantoncse but at least the meaning will not be distorted and you will be understood. And the letter j? This represents the same problem but the solution is different. The sound we want you to make is an unaspirated ch. This sound at the beginning of words in English is always aspirated, e.g. choose, cheese, church, ete. It is also aspirated when the final sound in such words as ‘much’, ‘touch’ and ‘such’. The unvoiced, unaspirated sound represented in this book by j is found in the middle et words such as ‘matching, ‘catching’, ‘coaching’, ‘poach- eu : fe the j’s in this book should have that sound, un- oes and unaspirated. We have chosen j to render the und for the same reason as we chose b, d and g; if youdo make a voiced English j this will not be very good Cantonese but it will not distort the meaning. Another initial consonant sound which does not occur in English is that represented by ts It is common as a final sound in English words, c.g. cats, rats, fits, hits, etc. It is just as easy to say in an initial position but you must be careful not to aspirate. Form the t, release no breath and follow with the s. There is no break between the t and the s, of course. ‘The following consonants as initials are pronounced as in English but with stronger aspiration: ptkch ‘The letters p, t and k also occur as finals. In these cases they differ from English as they are not exploded or aspirated. Take the three English words sip sit sick and notice that we say them with aspirated finals. It is easy to get the correct Chinese equivalent. In the first word, ‘sip’, the lips remain closed after saying it. In the case of ‘sit’ and ‘sick’ the letters are formed in the normal English way and then stopped short; no breath is emitted. There is one other initial consonant sound which does not occur in that position in English, namely ng This sound occurs in English in the middle and at the end of words such as sing, ring, singing, ringing, etc. Some people find it hard to make this initial sound. Practice by saying the English words and dropping the sound befor the ng. A good trick is to say ‘Singing and dancing’ 2™att INTRODUCTION 9 ach the second syllable of ‘singing’ to the word ‘and’ which follows. To sum up: Alll consonants are pronounced as in English except: 1. 2. 4. 5 Vor b, d, g, j which are unvoiced in Cantonese. ts which is unaspirated and occurs as an initial sound. p, t, k, ch which are more strongly aspirated than in English. P, , k which as finals are not aspirated. . ng which is pronounced as the equivalent middle sound in English. wels: Almost all Cantonese vowel sounds are easy to English- speakers. Here is a list showing how vowels, singly and in groups, should be pronounced in this book. a as in ‘father’; used alone, as an initial and a final. aa the same as ‘a’; used between consonants. It is doubled to help you to avoid the English ‘a’ in words like ‘man’, ‘fan’. a between consonants; a sound between ‘a’ in ‘ban’ _ and‘w in ‘bun’, al as in ‘high’ but shorter. aai as in ‘aisle’. Open your mouth. a as in ‘how’, ‘cow’. al in ‘how’ 3 ‘4 as in ‘how’ but much longer. Open your mouth. was in ‘awful’, ay asin ‘say’. e in ‘send? ce as in ‘send’ but longer and more open. cong oi ‘seen’ or ‘see’, jo"S the ‘e’ as in ‘send’ and the ‘ong’ as in ‘song’. iu as in ‘sick’, n i ‘© exact equivalent. Equals ee plus oox,8 CANTONESE do make a voiced English j this will not be very good Cantonese but it will not distort the meaning. Another initial consonant sound which does not occur in English is that represented by ts It is common as a final sound in English words, e.g. cats, rats, fits, hits, etc. It is just as easy to say in an initial position but you must be careful not to aspirate. Form the t, release no breath and follow with the s. There is no break between the t and the s, of course. The following consonants as initials are pronounced as in English but with stronger aspiration: ptkch The letters p, t and k also occur as finals. In these cases they differ from English as they are not exploded or aspirated. Take the three English words sip sit sick and notice that we say them with aspirated finals. It is easy to get the correct Chincse equivalent. In the first word, ‘sip’, the lips remain closed after saying it. In the case of ‘sit? and ‘sick’ the letters are formed in the normal English way and then stopped short; no breath is emitted. There is one other initial consonant sound which does not occur in that position in English, namely ng This sound occurs in English in the middle and at the end of words such as sing, ring, singing, ringing, etc. Some people find it hard to make this initial sound. Practice by saying the English words and dropping the sound before the ng. A good trick is to say ‘Singing and dancing’ andINTRODUCTION ° attach the second syllable of ‘singing’ to the word ‘and’ which follows. To sum up: Alll consonants are pronounced as in English except: 1. b, d, g, j which are unvoiced in Cantonese. 2. ts which is unaspirated and occurs as an initial sound. 3. P, t, k, ch which are more strongly aspirated than in English. 4. P, t, k which as finals are not aspirated. 5. ng which is pronounced as the equivalent middle sound in English. Vowels Almost all Cantonese vowel sounds are easy to English- speakers. Here is a list showing how vowels, singly and in groups, should be pronounced in this book. a as in ‘father’; used alone, as an initial and a final. aa the same as ‘a’; used between consonants. It is doubled to help you to avoid the English ‘a’ in words like ‘man’, ‘fan’. a between consonants; a sound between ‘a’ in ‘ban’ and ‘uv’ in ‘bun’. ai as in ‘high’ but shorter. aai as in ‘aisle’. Open your mouth. au as in ‘how’, ‘cow’. aau as in ‘how’ but much longer. Open your mouth. aw as in ‘awful’. ay asin ‘say’. e as in ‘send’ but longer and more open. ee as in ‘seen’ or ‘see’. €ong the ‘e’ as in ‘send’ and the ‘ong’ as in ‘song’. as in ‘sick’. tu no exact equivalent. Equals ee plus 00s, q' ‘q .10 CANTONESE, ° as in ‘on’, ‘rock’ when initial or middle letter. as in ‘go’, ‘no’ when final but a purer vowel than in English. 00 _as in ‘too’, ‘zoo’ or ‘woo’ when final and in words ending with ‘ng’ but not quite so long. as in ‘look’, ‘book’ in words ending in oei _ as in French ‘oeil’ (eye). ooi as in slang ‘hooey’. oy asin ‘boy’. u as in ‘sun’, ‘run’. ue —_ as in French ‘une’. uh no English equivalent; a sound between oo and u. Pronunciation Practice Repeat these sounds many times, if possible after a Can- tonese-speaker (for whom the Chinese characters are given). The tones are not important at this stage. Consonants b,d,g unvoiced, unaspirated i in ‘spy’, ‘stye’ and ‘sky’. baw i bing £& booi # ba ## baw dif bay Lt bong $$ beng #4 baak baat /\ buk dt daw % da4J daaiK doong # dong #& ding E deen @& dang %§ do #f dee aff) deng $1 duk #& gon ga KR gayMk ging IK gong iT. goong geen 54, gecm fil] geet #4 gam 4 gaan fi gaw {fl j unvoiced, unaspirated like the ch in ‘coaching’ joong tf jaf joe 5m jaw Bh) jun $i jau Fil jest jing &# jue fE juen #§ jaan % jaam Hk ts as in ‘cats’ but unaspirated. tsai fF tsee“f tso fiX tsoy HH tsuk fill tsaw A itials like the p, t and kINTRODUCTION " p, t, k, ch _ all strongly aspirated. pa fl pay peng7F* ping $# paang Hil pon iff ting f# tai‘ ta fh tong i} toong iif to if king (4 kay 4 kum #€ kau -R kung 49 ching iff chee che tft chong if! cha 3& cho ptk as finals unexploded, unaspirated. yat— laat $K baat /\ but A faat ik gut Hi yapA sup + hup f lup Xf deep #E ap ay sik $ lik) duk ## baak {i ook i lok ¥% ng an initial, like the ng in ‘singing’. ngaw #% ngaam "ii ngai f$ ngan $2 ngon Hi! Vowels English or French equivalent a father aii maft§ dadJ an % ap} aa father saanil] maan#§ faan# daan {Hl baan SE ai high hai 4% lai mai XK tai Wh gai Hf aai_ aisle taai K faai He gaai ff saai i] maai SY au cow au 4 gau% jau Ji] tau gf lau HE aau cow, but longer _gaau 4% baau {i haauf€ ngaau kaau $f: © on, rock lok ¥% gwok [Ml on 4 aw awful ay say e send ce sce i sick iu ee 00 © go cei ocil ngaw#& faw K saw fii gaw Ef jaw fe lay HE say PY may 4 day ith nay {4% fay IE meng % che #i peng F leng A ye iF teen K meen fii see jec Ml nee Ye scen fill lik YJ sik ming AA ching iif dik 9 tsik yiu % miuk) giul} siu% tiv we kiu ok #8 bok i ho lf gos lo moat bot so®é koei {fi noei & hoei # soei # choci HR00 too 00 look oi hooey oy boy us sun ue une uh — The Tones CANTONESE: woo AH} foo # joong ¥ loong fill toong [ii] dook iff look 4 fook i sook 4X yook jK wooi if pooi fii, booi % mooi tk noy iit toy Hi choy 8 oy 3% ngoy Yt mun && sun #f fun $f sup if duk # but 7 yue f{ jue fE shue #f shucn 4} luen fl. suhn ff luhn #@ yuhn i) chuhn 3 The word ‘tong’ when pronounced in a high falling pitch means ‘soup’, in a middle level pitch means ‘to iron’ and in a low falling pitch it means ‘sugar’. This shows the importance of tones. There are seven tones in Cantonese but two can be and are used interchangably so that we can limit the number to six. Here they arc. The symbols or marks scek to indicate the pitch and movement of each onc. 1. High Falling. \ We make a High Falling tone in The grave accent slopes downwards. ‘The acute accent rises. . Middle Level. The straight line is level. . Low Falling. The V points downwards. English when we give an order sharply, for cxample in drilling soldiers: ‘one! two! three!’, The torie with which this one is interchanged is the High Level which does not fall but maintains its high pitch. . Middle Rising. / This tone starts in the normal or dominant pitch and then rises. When expressing surprise or doubt we often make a Middle Rising tone. Say ‘Oh?’ in this manner. — Pronounced in normal pitch and maintained, ncither rising nor falling. V_ Pronounced in the lowest pitch with the voice falling as in a sigh.INTRODUCTION 3 5. Low Rising. U Spoken ina low pitch, falling and then The U goes rising. down and up. 6. Low Level. = Spoken in a low pitch, maintained, ‘The double neither rising nor falling. line is level. Herc is a chart showing the relative pitch and movement of the tones. High Middle Middle Low Low Low falling rising level falling rising level High 1 Ho ° 2 0 ° 3 ° ° Middle 4 0° Ho — Ho-o-o ° 5 Ho o 6 ° Low 7 Ho-o-o 8 Ho 9 ° Here is the six-tone table. Read aloud from top to bottom. Read many times until you have fixed them in your memory like a little jingle or tune. Get a Cantonese speaker to read the columns of characters downwards. Record him if possible. Speak cach word loudly and clearly. Once you have memorised the six-tone table perfectly you will have the measuring-rod for the tones of all the words you use. Table x High Falling ste F] fin 4 wai Ryde HK Middle Rising sées# fin HH wai Bye“ Middle Level sée = fain i] «wai Ryde 1K Low Falling se = fan $8 wai Bye if Low Rising sée ti = fan # wai ff -yée LL Low Level ste Ht fin fi} = wai a Be F4 CANTONESE Words ending in p, t, k are always spoken in level tones. Read aloud the following Table from left to right and from. top to bottom. a Table 2 High Level dik @# fat @ kup i Middle Level gwok faat & daap # Low Level dik fF fat fp yap A We have, of course, given the High Falling mark to the three High Level words in this table. The sound is a high, abrupt or clipped tone, often rendered when we use the slang for ‘yes’—yup!, spoken with emphasis. The Middle Level words are usually longer, more drawn out, before they come to their abrupt ending with unexploded p, t, k. The Lower Level is a very short, abrupt sound spoken in the lowest pitch. After memorising the six tones and the symbols which indicate them, try reading Lesson 1 for tone practice. Read each sentence slowly at first, then at natural speed. Correct pronunciation in the first lessons is vital. Variant Tones Some words are frequently spoken in a tone other than their original tone. When this occurs we call it a Variant Tone. The commonest and therefore the most important change is that from Middle Level, Low Level and Low Falling to Middle Rising. In these cases the word is marked with its original tone and an asterisk. A succession of High Fallings will change to High Level in the words after the first but this need not be indicated because the change is automatic and in any case High Falling and High Level are frequently interchanged. It is because of this last point that we have not devised a special symbol for the High Level. One or two other tone changes occur but they areINTRODUCTION 5 infrequent and necd not bother the student in this introduc- tion to Cantonese. You must, however, take note of the asterisk and render all words marked in this way as Middle Rising tones.Dii-yat faw Lesson 1 GREETINGS 1, Wong séen-saang, tsd sin. 2, Haw sten-sdang, ts6 sin, Gay hé ma? 3. Gay hé, nay né? Nay sik;jdw fan may? Ww, thegoy. Nay né? Néc-wait hai Lay séen- shang. Kéci hai hok- shang. 7. Lay séen-sdang, nay hai th-hai Ying-gwok-yan? 8. Hai, ngiw hai Ying- gwok-yan. 9. Lay séen-saang hai hok- sang. Nay hdk mit- yé? .. Ngaw h8k géng-Gwéng- dong-wa*. . Lay séen-sdang sik-jaw n may? . Sik-jaw, th-goy. Vocabulary 1. d&i- 2. yat one; ‘dai-yat’ Good morning, Mr. Wong. Good morning, Mr. Haw. How are you? Quite well, and you? Have you had your meal yet? Yes, thank you. Have you? Yes, thank you. This gentleman is Mr. Lee. He is a student. Are you an Englishman, Mr. Lec? Yes, I am English. You are a student, Mr. Lec. What are you studying? I am learning to Cantonese. Have you had your meal yet, Mr. Lee? Yes, thank you. speak prefix to make ordinal numbers. first.GREETINGS ” 3. faw lesson. 4. Wong a surname. 5. séen-saang Mr.; teacher. 6. ts6 sin good morning. 7. Haw a surname. 8. gay quite, fairly; how? g. hd good, well. 10. ma a question particle. 11. n’y you (singular). 12. sik to eat. 13. -jdw verb suffix to make past tense. “ian cooked rice, food, a meal. 15. may not yet. 16. th-gdy thank you, please. (Jit. ‘not ought’). 17. ngaw I, me. 18. née- this. 19. wAi* polite classifier for person. 20. hai is, are; yes. 21, Lay a surname. 22. kéei he, she. aang a student. 24. th the negative particle. 25. Ying-gwok England. 26. yan man, person, classifier ‘gaw’. 27. hdk to learn, to study. ’ 28, mit-yé? what? 29. gong to speak, to talk. 30. Gwéng-ddong the Chinese province of Kwangtung. 31. wa* language, to say, to speak. Gwéng-ddong-wa* Cantonese. Notes 1. Each Lesson is Numbered. The ordinal numbers ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, ctc., are formed by putting the prefix ‘di’ before the number. Thus: ‘dai-yat faw’—‘first lesson’.8 CANTONESE 2. Sentence 1 and Others. In Chinese the title comes after the surname. ‘Sécn-sdang’ literally means ‘first born’ and is a fairly close equivalent to ‘Mr’. It can also mean ‘teacher’, male or female. 3. Questions. Five question forms are introduced, namely: (a) With final particle ‘ma?. Examples: Gay hé mi Nay hi hdk-siang ma? Nay hai Ying-gwok-yan ma? Questions of this kind expect the answer ‘yes’. (6) With final particle ‘né?”. Examples: Nay né? Lay séen-saang né? A statement has already been made about someone, as in Sentence 2, and now the matter is raised in regard to another person. Thus, in the two examples: ‘And what about you?’ and ‘And Mr. Lee, what about him?’. (c) ‘Yet’ questions ending with ‘may’. Examples: Nay sik-jaw faan may? Kéci sik-jaw faan may? This type of question is a little difficult for Lesson 1 but it is introduced here as the greeting which uses it is so common. ‘MAy’ in a statement means ‘not yet’ but in its question position after a verb in the past tense it contains the meaning ‘or have you not yet?”. The example has thus the implied form ‘You have eaten your rice or you have not eaten ?’. It is, therefore, much the same in structure as the next type of question. (d) ‘Yes or no’ questions. : Examples: Nay hai rh-hai Ying-gwok-yan? K6ei hai rh-hai h6k-saang?GREETINGS 19 We will find that the same simple form is found with adjec- tives and adverbs as well as with verbs. (e) ‘What?’ questions. Examples: Nay h3k mit-yé? Kéei sik mit-yé? Unlike English the ‘what?’ word comes at the end of the sentence but it is a very simple form. 4. Classifiers. Almost all Chinese nouns have Classifiers. ‘Head? of cattle, ‘flock’ of sheep are rough equivalents to classifiers but in European languages there is no real parallel. In the dead ‘language’ Pidgin English which used to cxist in commerce on the coast of China a classifier was invented serving all nouns, thus ‘one piece man’, ‘one piece table’, ‘one piece book’, etc. Some Chinese classifiers indicate the shape of the object which they classify. In a language where many nouns have the same or similar sound this is a great help in distinguishing meaning. In Sentence 6 we have our first Classifier, ‘wai*’ a polite onc for persons. The common one is ‘gaw’, giving ‘née-gaw hdk-sdang’ (this student) and ‘yat gaw hdk-siang’ (one student). 5. Transliterations. There are very few ‘loan’ words from other languages in Chinese. When a forcign personal or place name is rendered it does, of course, follow the original sound in some manner as in Sentence 7 with the word for England—‘Ying-gw6k’, the first syllable being an attempt at the ‘eng’ sound followed by the word for country or nation. The words chosen in these cases usually have a complimentary meaning, thus: Ying-gwok means ‘hero country’. May-gwok, the word for America, means ‘beautiful country’.6. Variant Tones. There are two examples in this Lesson, ‘wai*’ in née-wai*’ in Sentence 6, and ‘wa*? in Sentence 10. Here, as in most cases, the tone goes from Low Level to Middle Rising. This is an awkward complication of a difficult problem for the learner of Chinese but you must CANTONESE Faat-gwok, France, means ‘law country’, (In Man- darin Fa-guo, ‘fa’ being the first syllable of France with the awkward ‘r’ omitted. China herself is ‘Joong-gwok’, the ‘Middle Country’. try hard to overcome it. Drill I Statements with ‘hai’, the verb ‘to be’. 1, Ngiiw hai Ying-gwok yan. 2, Lay sten-saang hai Ying-gwok yan. 3. Hdk-stang hai Ying-gwok yan. 4. Wong séen-siang hai Gwéng-ddong yan. 5. Haw séen-saang hai Gwéng-ddong yan. 6, Wong séen-saang hai séen-saang. 7 8. 9 . Kéei hai hdk-sdang. . Nay hai hdk-saang. |. Ngaw hai hdk-saang. . th-hdi, the verb ‘to be’ in the negative. . Ngaiw m-hai hok-sdang. . Kéei rh-hai hék-saang. Nay m-hai hdk-saang. . Kéei rh-hai Ying-gwok yan. . Ngaw th-hai Gwong-doong yan. . Wang séen-saang rh-hai hdk-saang. . Haw séen-siang 1 , Ngaw rh-hai sécn-saang. Sy OME nenGREETINGS a III. Questions and answers with ‘hai rh-hai?’. 1, Nay hai mh-hdi Ying-gwok yan? Hai, ngaw hai Ying-gwok yan. 2. Koei hdk-saang? Hi, kéei hai hok-saang. 3. Nay hii rh-hai Gwong-doong yan? Hai, ngaw hai Gwéng-doong yan. 4. Nay th-hii séen-saang? M-hai, ngaw hai hok-sdang. 5. Lay séen-saang h&i rh-hai Gwéng-doong yan? M-hai. 6. Wong séen-sdang hai m-hdi Ying-gwok yin? M-hai, kei hai Gwéng-doong yan. IV. Questions with final word ‘ma?’. . Kéei hai hdk-shang ma? Hai, kéei hi hdk-saang. 2, Wong séen-sdang hai Ying-gwok yan ma? kdci hai Gwéng-doong yan. . Nay hai Ying-gwok yan ma? Hai. . Née-wai* hai hdk-saang ma? M-hai, kdei hi séen-saang. 5. Haw séen-siang hii sten-shang ma? Hai, kéci hAi séen-sdang. bo V. First examples of a ‘yct’ question, with answers. 1, Nay sikjaw fZan may? Sik-jaw, rh-gy. 2, Lay sécn-saang sik-jaw faan may? May. 3. Wong séen-saang sik-jaw fAan mly? Kei stk-jaw f¥an, VI. Questions with ‘mit-y@’ and answers. 1. Nay hdk mut-yé? Ngaw hdk géng Gwéng-doong wat. 2. Kéei h8k mit-yé? Koei hok Ying-gwok wa.CANTONESE 3. Lay sten-stang hdk mit-yé? Kéei hék Gwong- doong wa*. 4. Nay géng mit-yé? Ng&w gong Ying-gwok wa*. 5. Wong séen-sdang gong mit-yé? Kéei géng 6, Gwéng-doong wa*. . Nay sik mit-yé? Ngaw stk fan. 7. Wong séen-sdang sik mut-yé? Kéei stk f¥an. 8. Lay séen-siang sik mut-yé? Kéei stk fan. More Practice Read aloud and answer the following questions. The answers should be given in full form as in the first example. . Lay séen- . Nay hai h3k-saang ‘ma? . Gay hé ma? . Kéei hai Ying-gwok yan ma? . Wong séen-sdang sik-jaw fAan, Nay né? . Kéei hai Ying-gwok yan, Nay né? . Nay hai m-hai Ying-gwok yan? Hai, ngiw hai Ying- gwok yan. . Lay séen-saang hai rh-hai Ying-gwok yan? Wing séen-sdang hai rh-hai hdk-sang? Nay hdk mit-yé? . Lay séen-stang hk mitt-yé? . Kael gong mitt-yé? . Haw sten-sdang sik mit-yé? . Nay sikejdw fan mBy? Wang séen-saang silDii-yée faw Lesson 2 ARRIVAL . Nay yu mé fong*? . Yau. Nay-diy gay-daw gaw yan? . Ngaw-day long gaw yan. . Nay-ddy hai ri-hai May-gwok yin? . M-h8i, ngaw-day hii Ying-gwok yan. . Nay-day gay-sée Iai Heong Géng? . Ngaw gim-yat lai. Nedw-gé — plang-yau chim-yat lai. . Nay yiu jfie gay-ndy? . Law séen-sdang yiu jtie yat y&t. Koei ting-yat héei Sing-ga-baw. Ngaw yiu jie sham yat. . Hé 1a. Née-d8 yau yat gaan fong*, gaw-d6 yau yat gaan. Léong gaan do hé léng. . Megoy. Have you any rooms? Yes, how many are you? We are two. Are you Americans? No, we are English. When did you come to Hong Kong? I came today. My friend came yesterday. How long do you want to stay? Mr. Law wants to stay one day. He’s going to Singapore tomorrow. I want to stay three days. Alll right. Here’s one room and there’s one. Both are very nice. Thank you.2 CANTONESE Vocabulary 1. yée two; dai-yée second. 2. yau to have; there is, arc. 3. m6 not to have, thei 4. fong* a room; (df. ‘g: 5. -diy suffix to pronouns to make them plural. 6. 7 8. . gay-daw? how many, much? . léong two, a couple. . May-gwok America. 9. gay-séc? (gay-ste*?) when? 10. lai to come. 11, Héong Géng Hong Kong (lit. ‘fragrant harbour’). 12, gum-yat today. 13. -gé possessive suffix. 14. pdang-yiu a friend (df. ‘gaw’). 15. Law a surname. 16. chiim-yat yesterday. iu to want, need, wish. ie to stay, dwell. 3y long (of time). gay-ndy? (gay-ndy*?) how long? 20. ting-yat tomorrow. 21. héci to go. 22. Sing-ga-baw. (sometimes Sing-gi-baw.) Singapore. 23. saam three. 24. 14 final particle. 25. néc-d8 here (lit. this way). 26. gaw-d6 there (lil, that way). 27. do all, both, also. 28. léng pretty, handsome, nice. 29. hd very, same word as in Lesson 1, Vocabulary 9. Notes 1. ‘Yau m6’ questions. These are in the same form as the ‘yes or no’—‘hai 5 ?’—questions in Lesson 1. ‘Yau m6?’ can be translated literally ‘have not have?’ or, inARRIVAL some contexts ‘there are there aren’t?’. ‘Yau’ can render the English ‘have’ and ‘mo’ ‘not have’ as, for example: Ngaw yau hék-stang. —_I have students. Ngaw mé hdk-stang. _I haven’t any students. ‘Yau’ and ‘mo’ can also express ‘there arc’, ‘there aren’t’ as in: Néc-dd yau hok-saang. There are students here. Néc-d6 m6 hok-saang. There aren’t any students here. And in the question form: Née-d3 yéu mé hdk-stang? Are there any students here? Yau. Yes, there are. Mo. No, there aren’t. 2. Questions with ‘gdy-’. In this Lesson there are the three most useful instances of this compound: gay-daw? how many? (how much?). gay-stc? when? gay-ndy? how long? ‘Gay-?? translates nicely into ‘how?’ in the first and third examples but not so well in the second where it would read literally ‘how time?’. However, the meaning is clear and in any event we should not translate from one language to another in learning a new one. ‘Gay-daw?’ is usually, not always, followed by a classificr, eg. gay-daw gaw yan? yat gaw. gay-daw gaw hdk-stang? —_Iéong gaw. gay daw gaan féng*? sdam gaan. ‘Gay-sée?” is always a question and cannot be used for ‘when’ as in ‘when I was a student’. We will come to this later. “Gay-ndy? means ‘how long?’ of time only, not distance.26 CANTONESE, 3. ‘Léong’ is always the word used for expressing ‘two’ objects of any kind. ‘Yée’ is used in the ordinal—‘second’— and in all higher numbers, 12, 20, 22, 32, etc. 4. Where the tense is clear from context as in Sentences 6, 7 and 9, Chinese verbs do not require a suffix (like ‘-jAw’) or other device to indicate time. 5. ‘Today’, ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’. These ‘time when’ words—‘gim-yat’, ‘ting-y4t’, ‘chiim-y&t’—almost always come before the verb, the opposite of English usage. The first part of ‘chiim-yat’ is pronounced exactly the same as the English word ‘chum’, the colloquial usage for ‘friend’. . There are two other words for ‘yesterday’ but ‘chiim-yAt? is the most common. 6. The possessive suffix ‘-g@’ is like the English ‘’s’ as in: Lay séen-sdang-gé paang-yau. Mr. Lee’s friend. It is also attached to pronouns: ngaw-gé plang-yau. nay-gé séen-sdang. kéei-gé hOk-sdang. 7. Only the personal pronouns add a suffix to indicate plural—ngaw-day’, ‘nay-day’, ‘kéei-day’. The plural in all other nouns can be told by context—‘saam gaw yan’, ‘gong gaan fong*’, ‘hé daw h&k-saang’, etc. 8. In the last part of Sentence 10 it will be noticed that there is no verb ‘to be’. Here are one or two other examples of this very simple usage: Héong Gong hé léng. Née-gaw hdk-saang hé léng. Gaw-gaan féng* hé léng. The verb ‘to be’ is also omitted in Sentences 2 and 3. It could have been used but where the sense is quite clear Chinese prefers to economise in the use of words.ARRIVAL Drill I. ‘Yau mé...?? ‘Have you. ..?’, ‘Are there any. . .?, 1. Nay vi mé feng*? Yu, ngiw yiu yat gaan. 2. Née-d3 yu md hdk-saang? M6, née-dd md hdk-sdang. 3. Gaw-d3 yéu mé h8k-stang? Yau, gaw-d3 yau Iéong gaw. 4. Wong séen-sdang yau md hdk-sdang? Kéci mé hBk-sdang? 5. Lay séen-sdang yau mé sécn-saang? Yau, kéei yau yat gaw. 6. Nay yéu mé paang-yau? M6, ngdw md piang- yau. II. ‘Gay-daw?? ‘How many?’ ‘How much?’, . Gay-daw gaw yan? Yat gaw yan. . Géy-daw gaw h8k-saang? Léong gaw. . Gay-daw gaw sten-siang? Saam gaw séen- sang. . Gay-daw gaw Ying-gwok yin? Yat gaw. . Gay-daw gaw May-gwok yan? Léong gaw. . Nay-day gay-daw gaw yan? Ngaw-day saam gaw yan. . Kéei-day gay-daw gaw yan? Kéei-day long gaw yan. III. ‘Gay-sée?? ‘When?’. 1, Nay gay-sée lai? Ng&w gim-yat lai. 2. 3. Koei gay-sée Iki? Kéci chiim-yat Iai. Lay séen-stang gay-ste hdci? Kei ting-yat haci. 27!ANTONESE 4. Nay gay-sée héei Héong Ging? Ngiw ting- 5. Koei gay-ste héei Sing-gi-baw? Kéei gum-yat hoei. 6. Wang séen-sdang gay-sée lai Héong Géng? Kéei gim-yat lai. IV. ‘Gay-ndy? ‘How long?” (of time). - Nay yiu je géy-nBy? Ngdw yiu jfle IBong y&t. 2. Nay di Aw lai-jaw saam y&t. 3. Lay séen-stang héei-jaw gay-ndy? Koei héci- jaw yat yat. 4. Nay lai-jdw Héong Gong gay-ndy? Ngaw lai- jaw long yat. 5. Haw séen-saang lai-jaw gay-ndy? Koei 1ai- jaw Wong yt. 6. Koci-day lai-jaw gay-ndy? Saam ya. 7. Wong séen-saang yiu jie gdy-ndy? Koei yiu jie yat yat. V. ‘2’, the possessive suffix. . Kei hai ngiw-gé paang-yau. . Ngiw hai kéei-gé paang-yau. . Nay hai ngiw-gé paang-yau. Wang séen-saang hii ngiw-gé séen-saang. - Née-gaan fong* hi ngiw . Gaw-gaan fong* hai Kéci-day hai ngaw-gé paang-yau. , Ngaw-day hai koei-gé hdk-saang. PY ME PO Make all the above into ‘hai m-hai?’ questions and answer them,ARRIVAL VI. Questions with the verb ‘yiv’, ‘to want’, ‘need’. 1, Nay yiu th-yiu stk f¥an? Yiu, ngaw yiu sik 2. Kéci yiu rivyiu jie née-d5?_Kéci rh-yiu. . Nay yiu meyiu lai? Yiu, ngaw yiu lai. 3 4, Kéei yiu rh-ytu héci Sing-ga-baw? Yiu, kéei yiu héci. 5. Nay yiu rh-yiu hdk Gwéng-doong-wa*? ngaw yiu hak. VII. Adjective-without-verb sentences. . Kéei hé léng. . Née-gaan fong* hé léng. . Gaw-gaan fong* rh-leng. . Héong-Géng hé léng. Née-d8 th-léng. . Gaw-dé léng m-léng? Hé léng. . Koei léng ri-léng? — Keei hé léng. aw hai 5? Koei hé ho. . Gaw-gaw hdk-saang hé rh-hé? Kéei th-hé. COW APP HON = VIII. ‘do’ meaning ‘both’, ‘all’ and ‘also’. a) ‘Both’. 1. Léong gaw hdk-saang dé hé. 2. Léong gaw do hai Ying-gwok yan. 3 4 . Léong gaan fong* do hé léng. . Léong gaw hok-saang dé hai May-gwok yan. (6) “alr. . Ko 1 lay sham gaw do hai h6k-saang. 2, Saam gaw 3. Ngaw-day stam gaw do hi May-gwok yan. 4. Nay-day sam gaw da hii séen-siang. sdang do hai Ying-gwok yan. Yiu,CANTONESE (c) ‘Also’, ‘too’. 1. Ngaw do hai hdk-shang. . _Kéei dd hai May-gwok yan. . Lay séen-sdang dd hai Ying-gwok yan. Ngaw dé héei. . Ngaw ting-yat dé héei. . Wong séen-saang do lai. . _Kéei do hai séen-sdang. Ngaw do yau yat gaan féng*. . Kéei do yau hok-sdang. . Nay dd yau yat gaw séen-sdang. SO PY aU RwD More Practice Read aloud and then answer the following questions: Do me SS SIRES EASC OY DURw Dm . Nay gay-sée lai? Lay séen-saang gay-sée lai? . Wang séen-siang gay-sée hoi? . Nay gay-ste hoei Héong Géng? . Nay yéu mé fong*? . Lay séen-sdang yau mé fong*? . Née-d3 yau mé hdk-stang? . Gaw-d6 yau md yn? Née-d8 yau gay-daw gaw hdk-saang? . Gaw-d6 yau gay-daw hdk-saang? . Nay yéu gay-daw gaan fong*? . Law séen-shang . Née-wai* hai mh au gay-daw gaan fong*? Ying-gwok yan? w-wai* hi rh-hdi May-gwok yan? . Kéei lai-jaw may?Dai-saam faw Lesson 3 MEETING PEOPLE . Chéng mfin nay gwai sing? . Ngaw sing Lay. Nay laijéw “Héong Gong gay-ndy? sik géng oong: gwok wa*? . Siu siu. Nay lai Héong Gong ts5 saang-yéc, hii ma? . M-hai, ngaw lai d5ok- shte. Nay 14i d6ok mée-yé shite? . Ngaw lai d3ok Joong- miin, hdk gong Gwéng- ddong wa*. Bécn-gaw ngiw-gé tdai-taai* tOong-miai hai Lay séen-saang. May I ask your name? My namcis Lee. And yours? My name is Jeong. How long have you been in Hong Kong? Four days. Goodness! Four days! And you can speak Chinese? Just a little. You've come to Hong Kong on business, have you? No, I’ve come to study. To study what? To study Chinese and learn to speak Cantonese. Who is coming? It’s my wife with our children, This is Mr. Lee.3 CANTONESE, 12, Jéong taai-taai* sik Do you speak English, Mrs. gong Ying-miin ma? Jeong? 13. Ngaw m-sik gong; I can’t speak English; I can ngaw sik téng siu siu. understand a little. 14. Nay-day hai béen-shie Where do you live? jie? 15. Ngaw-ddy hai Géu- We live in Kowloon. And long jiie. Nay né? you? 16. Ngaw hai Waan-tsdi I live in Wanchai. jfie. 17. Bi-ya! Ngiw-day yiu I say! We must go back for faan-héci sik fan 1a. dinner. Goodbye. Tsdy géen. 8. Tsdy géen. Goodbye. Vocabulary 1. chéng to invite; please. 2. mfin to ask. 3. gwai honourable; dear, expensive. 4. sing surname. 5. Jeong a surname. 6. say four. 7. éi-yA! expression of surprise. 8. sik to know how to; to know. g. Joong-gwék China (lit. Middle Nation). 10, siu a little. II. ts6 to do, to make. 12. shang-yée business. 13. ddok-shite to study (lit. read (study) books). 14. mée-yé? what? alternative to ‘mit-yé’. 15. Joong-miin written Chinese, short for ‘Joong-gwok- min’, 16. béen-gaw? who? which person? 17. taai-taai* Mrs, wife. 18. tong-maai_ with, and.MEETING PEOPLE 33 19. sdi-min-tsdi_ children. 20. Ying-miin written English, but here ‘spoken English’. 21. téng to hear, listen. 22. hai at, in. 23. béen-shiie where? alternative to ‘béen-do’. 24. Gdu-Léong Kowloon (lit. ‘nine dragons’). 25. Waan-Tsai Wanchai, a district in Hong Kong (lit. ‘bay child’, i.e. little bay). 26. faan-hédei go back, return. 27. la final particle. 28, tsdy-géen goodbye (lit. again mect). A Reminder If you have not done ten minutes Tone Drill (page 13) before beginning this Lesson, please do so now. And remember that words beginning with j, g, d and b are written like that as a rough guide. The real sounds of these initials are unaspirated and unvoiced. Some of the words beginning with j (e.g. Joong-gwok) sound like the ‘tch’ in ‘catch’. Listen to a Cantonese-speaker and imitate. Notes 1. ‘Chéng min. . .’ is a polite usage which can precede any question and is similar to the English ‘May I ask . . In this Lesson it is followed by the equally polite ‘gwai sing?’—‘your honourable surname?’—which is still a common form in Hong Kong and among the Chinese of South-cast Asia. It is no longer in vogue in the Chinese People’s Republic. 2. ‘Sing’, a surname, is here used as a verb meaning ‘to be surnamed’. 3. In Sentences 3 and 4 ‘lai’ (to come) is used where in English we use ‘have been’. The translation in the right- hand column is meant to be idiomatic and colloquial and in no way attempts to follow the Chinese word for word.Ey CANTONES Translation is to be avoided. With each reading of the Dialogue in Cantonese it becomes less and less necessary to read the English. In due course you should ignore the English side of the Dialogue. 4. ‘hai ma?’ in Sentence 7 is a common alternative to the ending ‘ma?’ or to the fuller form ‘hai mh-hai?’ which could also be used at the end of this sentence. 5. In Sentence 11 we have two examples of the personal pronoun meaning ‘my’ and ‘our’ without the possessive suffix ‘-gé’. This is common practice but it would also be correct to use the suffix. Another way of making the posses- sive is to use the classifier instead of the suffix. Thus we may say ‘ngaw gaan féng*’ instead of ‘ngdw-gé fong*’ (my room), ‘kéci gaw séen-saang’ instead of ‘kéei-gé séen-saang’ but in each of these examples there must be either a classifier or a possessive suffix. Euphony helps to determine the best way but it is also a safe rule to use the suffix although it is often omitted as in Sentence 11. 6. In Sentence 11 we also have the word for ‘and’ or ‘along with’. The word ‘and’ is very easy in English but not so easy in Cantonese. ‘Tdong’ or ‘toong-maai’ is used to link two objects in the sense of ‘along with’ but cannot be used to connect two phrases as in English, e.g. ‘he went to Hong Kong and studied Chinese’. We will come to this kind of sentence later. 7. Sentence 15. Chinese distinguishes between ‘where are you going?’ and ‘where do you live?’. Thus: Nay hdi béen-shiie jie? Lit. ‘at which place do you live?” Nay héei béen-shiie? ‘where are you going?”. In each case ‘béen-dé ?’ can be used in place of ‘béen-shiic?”. 8. In Sentence 17 we have the final particle ‘la’. Cantonese has many final particles. Some are used for euphony and emphasis as in this case. They are not essential to meaning but are important for idiomatic usage. They can be best learned by imitating native speakers.Drill I. ‘chéng’—to invite. Il. MEETING PEOPLE 35 . Ngaw chéng nay Iai. . Kéei chéng ngaw héei Sing-ga-baw. . Wang séen-saang chéng ngaw sik fan. Wang tiai-taai* chéng ngaw sik fan. . Jeong taai-taai* chéng ngaw hdci Gau-long. . Kéei chéng ngaw faan-hoei. . Haw séen-saang chéng nay faan-lai. WOE EO DH ‘chéng’—please. « Chéng lai, . Cheng Iai née-shite. . Chéng h Chéng héei gaw-shiie. . Chéng lai stk fan. Chéng nay ting-y4t faan. Chéng nay ting-yat hoei Héong Gong. . Chéng nay ting-yat lai sik fan. . Chéng géng Joong-gwok wa*. . Chéng gong Ying-gwok wa*. SOO FURY PH II, ‘sing’—surname, to be surnamed. 1, Nay gwai sing? Sfu sing Wong (‘little name Wong’—polite). 2, Nay sing mée-yé? (less polite). Ngaw sing Wong. 3. Kéei sing mut-yé? Koei sing Lay. 4. Gaw-gaw hdk-saang sing mit-yé? Kéei sing Lay. 5. Née-w4i* séen-saang sing mit-yé? Koei sing Jeong. 6. Yau hé daw yan sing Lay.36 CANTONESE 7. Yau hé daw yan sing Wong. 8. Yau hé daw yan sing Haw. g. Yau mé yn sing Jéong? Yu, yau hé daw. 0, Yau md yan sing Lay? Yau, yau hé daw yan sing Lay. 11. Nay gwai sing? Siu sing Lay. IV. ‘jaw’—the past tense. . Wong séen-siang |ai-jaw. . Lay sten-sdang héci-jaw. . Law séen-shang faan-jaw lai. Wong tdai-taai* faan-jaw héei. g. Koei faan-jaw lai hd ny. 10, Ngaw faan-jaw lai léong yat. Note. In the last four sentences ‘-jaw’ is inserted between the two parts of the compounds ‘faan-héei’ and ‘faan-lai’. SV OPE P= V. ‘sik’—to know how to. . Ngaw sik gong Ying-gwok wa*. . Kéei sik géng Gwéng-doong wa*. Nay sik rh-sik gong Ying-miin? Siu siu. . Nay sik r-sik gong Joong-gwok wa*? Ngaw sik. Lay séen-saang sik gong hé daw Gwéng-ddong war, Jeong taai-taai* sik géng hé stu Ying-min. Haw séen-siang rh-sik gong Ying-gwok wa*. . Ngaw th-sik tsd saang-yée. Wang séen-saang sik tsd saang-yéc. . H6 daw Joong-gwok yan sik ts saang-yée. POA SEED wVI. VII. MEETING PEOPLE 37 ‘sik’—to know people or places. 1, Ngaw sik kéei; kéei rh-sik ngaw. 2, Ngaw sik Wong séen-saang. 3. Ngaw sik Wong taai-taai*. 4. Nay sik rh-sik kéei? Ngaw sh-sik kéei. 5 6. . Nay sik mh-sik Wong séen-saang? Sik, ngiw sik kéei. . Jéong taai-taai* sik rh-sik n’y? Sik, kéei sik ngaw. 7. Nay sik rh-sik née-gaw hdk-saang? M-sik, ngaw th-sik kéei. 8. Haw séen-siang rh-sik gdw-gaw yan. g. Née-wAi* mh-sik ko 10. Ngaw sik hé daw yan. 11, Kéei sik hé siu yan. 12. Hé siu yn sik kdei. 13. Hé daw yan sik Lay séen-saang. 14. Hé daw h8k-sdang sik kéei. ‘béen-gaw?’—who? 1, Béen-gaw lai? Wang taai-taai*. 2, Béen-gaw hoei Héong Géng? Ngaw hoci. ay hai béen-gaw? Ngaw sing Lay, ngaw hai shang. 4. Been-gaw sik téng Ying-gwok wa*? Jéong tai-tiai* sik téng. 5. Béen-gaw chéng nay lai? Jéong sten-siang. 6. Béen-gaw chéng nay sik f¥an? Haw séen- shang. . Béen-gaw d&ok joong-miin? Ngaw. . Been-gaw héei Sing-ga-baw? Law séen-saang. 9. Béen-gaw sik gong Gwéng-doong wa?* Ngaw sik géng stu siu.38 CANTONESE VIII. ‘béen-shic?’, ‘bécn-dé ?’—where? 5 1, Nay héci béen-d6? Ngaw héci Gau-léong. 2. Ko 3. 4. Lay séen-stang hai béen-shie jfle? Kéci hai hdci béen-shiie? Kéei héci Héong Géng. Nay hai béen-d6 jfile? Hai Gau-léong. Ying-gwok jfic. Nay hai béen-d8 d6ok-shiie? Ngaw hai Heong Géng déok-shie. 6. Lay sten-sdang hai béen-shiie? Kéei hai Ying- gwok. . Haw séen-saang hai béen-d3? Kéei hai née- shie. . Wong séen-saang hai béen-shiie? Kéei hai gaw-dd. . Wang taai-taai* hai béen-d3? K6ei hai née-dd. . Kéei gim-ySt hdei béen-d3? Kéei héci Sing- ga-baw. IX. ‘faan-héci’ and ‘faan-lai’—to go back, come back. 1 Cou grEe 8 Kéei gay-ste faan-lai Héong Géng? Kéci chiim-yat faan-lai, . Nay gay-sée faan-hiei Ying-gwok? Ngaw ting- yat faan- . Koei-day ting- yat faan-lai. . Wong séen-saang giim-yit faan-lai. |. Hok-sdang faan-lai d5ok-shite. . Kéei-day faan-hdei Jaong-gwok. . Chéng ni . M-gay, ngiw-day ting- . Béen-gaw faan-hdei Sing-ga-baw? Law séen- ting-yat faa ‘At faan-lai. saang faan-hoci. Jeong taai-taai* faan-hoei Gau-loong.MEETING PEOPLE 39 More Practice Read aloud and answer in as many ways as you can. . _ Koei lai ts5 saang- yee, |. Nay sik risk Wong séen-saang? . Wong séen-sdang sik rh-sik nay? atta Teer ata 8S BISGESEA SO ey onse rn . Nay gay-sée lai Héong Gong? . Nay sik r-sik géng Joong-gwok wa*? Nay sik rh-sik teng? Nay yau m6 sdi-min-tsdi? Nay gwai sing? . Gaw-gaw hdk-sdang sing méc-yé? Nay hai béen-shiie jie? w Héong Gong gay-ndy? lai Héong Gong ddok-shie? . Kéei lai-jaw Heong Gong gay-ndy? . Béen-gaw sik gong gwéng-ddong wa*? . Béen-gaw sik gong Ying-miin? . Weng séen-stang gay-sée faan-hdci May-gwok? May-gwok yan? i* hai rh-hai Ying-gwok yin?Lesson 4 GETTING ABOUT 1 . Lay séen-saang, ts sin. Good morning, Mr. Lee. Chéng chaw. Nay gum- Please sit down. Where are yat hdei béen-dé 4? you going today? 2, Ngaw héei géen ngiw- I’m going to mect my friend. gé paang-yau. 3. Kéei hai béen-d8 jfie 4? + Where does he live? 4. Koei hai tsdu-déem He lives in a hotel. 5. Lay née-shiie yiien Far from here? yiien ne? 6. Hé yiien. Ngaw yiu Yes, very far. I must go by chaw ba-sée w&ak-jé bus or taxi. dik-sée hoei. 7. Nay mé hay-ché? You haven’t got a car? 8. Mé. . . Wai! Dik-sée! No, I haven't. . . Hey! Ngaw yiu héci Ming Taxi! I want to go to the Wa tsdu-déem. Nay sik Ming Wa Hotel. Do you th-sik 18? know the way? g. Sik. Lay née-shite gong Yes. Two miles from here; Ying-lay; hé kuin ja. it’s quite near. 10. Léong Ying-lay? M-hai Two miles? Not very far... gay yin. . .Neé-ga This car’s going very fast. ché haang-duk hé faai. 11, M-hai sip fun faai. Not very fast. There are Née-shiie yau hé daw lots of cars here. Now I ché. Ngiw yée-ga yiu must go more slowly. hdang mian-dee.Gul . Nay déem-yéong* lai Héong Géng ga? . Ngaw chaw fay-gay lai. Ngaw-gé tiai-taai* chaw shiien 141 . Nay sik rh-sik ja che? . M-sik; ngdw yée-ga hak ja. . Née-shiie hai Ming Wa tsdu-déem. . H6 daai gaan! Gay-daw chéen*? . Ng min. . . Daw tsé. Vocabulary TING ABOUT ” . Ei-ya! Gam daw ché! Goodness! What a lot of cars! How did you come to Hong Kong? I came by plane. My wife came by ship. Can you drive a car? No; I’m learning to drive now. Here’s the Ming Wa Hotel. What a big place! How much? Fivedollars. . . Thank you. . tsdu-déem hotel, classifier ‘gaan’ (lit. ‘wine shop’). lay from, separated from. yiien far. chaw to sit; go by. ba-sée bus (loan word) classifier ‘ga’. géen to meet, see. . waak-jé or; perhaps. taxi (loan word) classifier ‘ga’. car (lit. ‘air vehicle’) ; classifier ‘ga’. . wai! hey! . 18 a road, classifier ‘tiv’. . Ying-lay English mile. No classifier. . kim near. . je only. . hang to go, walk. . -diik adverbial suffix. . fai fast. . sp-fin very, extremely (lit. ‘ten parts’).2 CANTONESE 19. yée-ga now. 20. maan slow, slowly. maan-dée slower. 21, -dée comparative suffix. 22. giim so. 23. déem-y&ong*? how? 24. fay-gay aircraft (lit. ‘flying machine’), classifier ‘ga’. 25. shiten a ship, classifier ‘jek’. 26. jA to drive (a car, etc.). 27. dai big. 28. chéen* money. 29. ng five. go. min a dollar, no classifier. 31. daw-ts® thank you (lit. many thanks). 32. ga a final particle used for cuphony. Notes 1. In this Lesson ‘chaw’ is used in its two senses: (a) ‘to sit’, its original and literal meaning, and (b) ‘to go by’, its derived meaning. The latter can be rendered by another word (daap) but ‘chaw’ is the more common, Note the word order—'I by bus go’, not the English way. 2. The loan words for ‘bus’ and ‘taxi’ are examples of the very small number that have been borrowed by Chinese from foreign languages. (See Lesson 1, Note 5.) In China the word for ‘bus’ is rendered by Chinese words meaning ‘public-together-vehicle’ —‘giing-giing-ché’ — (reminiscent of omnibus) but in Hong Kong and South-east Asia ‘ba-sée’ is preferred. Chinese is one of the ‘purest’ of languages in the sense that it has so very few foreign words in its vocabulary. This is partly due to its cultural supremacy in East Asia for two or three thousand years. On the other hand Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and other neighbouring languages have borrowed thousands of words from Chinese.GETTING ABOUT 8 For new words such as ‘telephone’, ‘television’ and ‘air- caf’ Chinese has invented appropriate terms—electric language’, ‘electric vision’, ‘flying machine’. 3. The Chinese measure of distance ‘li’ (Cantonese ‘lay’) is about onc third of an English mile. ‘Ying-lay’ is in very common use. 4. In Sentence 9 the final particle ‘j@” is one of a large number in Cantonese. Some have little or no meaning and are used for their rhythmic valuc. ‘Jé’, however, means ‘only’, It must be used as a final. 5. Sentence 10. The suffix ‘dik’ attached to verbs is always used with a following adverb. The original meaning of this word is that of ‘have’, ‘get’ (or ‘got’), ‘possess’ or ‘can’, ‘have the power to’. Thus a literal rendering of ‘haang-dik h6 faai’ could be: ‘go have very fast’. Without the following adverb the suffix simply means ‘can’. Here are examples of the two uses: hiang-duk can go. gong-dik can speak. sik-duk can eat. lai-duk can come. hiang-dik hé faai is going quickly. géng-dik hé maan is speaking very slowly. sik-diak hé fai is cating very quickly. lai-dak hé maan is coming very slowly. 6. Sentence 11. The combination ‘sfp-fiin’—literally ‘ten Parts’—is very common to render ‘very’, ‘extremely’, etc. 7. In Sentence 11 we have the first example of the suffix ‘dée’ which gives the comparative of adjectives and4 CANTONESE, adverbs. Here are all the adjectives or adverbs we have had so far with their comparative forms: ho hé-dée —ndy_—ndy-dée~—Méng__léng-dée gwai gwai-dée siu siudée —ytien_-ytien-dée kin kin-dée fai faai-dée © man m&an-dee daai diai-dée daw daw-dée Where the comparison is extended to include the thing compared, e.g. ‘this is bigger than that’ another form is used. We will deal with this later. 8. Sentence 12. The word ‘giim’ means ‘so’, ‘to such an extent’ but is commonly uscd, as here, to render ‘what a lot of. . , , ‘what a big. . .’, etc. g. In Sentence 18 we have the use of the classifier by itself, meaning ‘one’—of the class of objects which it defines. It has been translated ‘what a big place’ as we would say this in English but it could also be ‘it’s a very big one’ (referring back to ‘hotel’ mentioned in the previous Sentence). The Chinese could also have read ‘giim d&ai gaan’ as in Sentence 12. 10. In the last Sentence we meet the second expression for ‘thank you’. The first was ‘rh-gdy’, introduced in Lesson 1. “Daw ts®’, literally ‘many thanks’, is used on receiving @ gift or service of some importance. ‘M-goy’ is a polite acknowledgement. It can also be used to mean ‘please’ in making a request, whereas ‘daw ts’ obviously can only express thanks. Drill I. ‘chaw’, to sit. 1, Chéng chaw. 2. Chéng chaw née-shic.GETTING ABOUT 4 . Chéng chaw gaw-shiie. Kaci hai fong chaw. . Kéei hai béen-shiic chaw? Hai tsdu-déem. . Chéng Lay sécn-saang chaw née-shiie. . Chéng héci gaw-d8 chaw. Ome Il. ‘chaw’, to go by (a vehicle)... . aw chaw ba-sée Iai. 'y séen-saang chaw fay-gay lai Héong Gong. ._Kéei taai-taai*chaw shiien lai. . Ngaw chaw ba-sée héei Gau-léong. Wong sten-saang chaw dik-sée héei . Chaw fay-gay héei Ying-gwok hé £4 Kéei chaw ba-sée héei géen paang-yau. au-déem. oe ee ps > UL. ‘lay’, from, distant from. . Lay née-shite hé yiien. . Lay née-dé rh-hai siip-fin yiien. . Ying-gwok lay Sing-ga-baw stip-fim yiien. . May-gwok lay Héong Géng dé hé yiien. Gau-léong lay née-shite ho kiin je. . Tsdu-déem lay née-shiie stam Ying lay. . Kéei gaan fong* lay née-d6 hé yiien. . Gau-léong lay Héong Géng yat Ying lay. OW DPE a IV. ‘-dik’ as an adverbial suffix. . Née-ga ché hdang-dik hé faai. . Gaw-ga hdang-dik hé man. . Ba-sée ché haang-dik ho faai. & dik-sée hdang-dik hé maan. . Née-jék shiien hiang-dik hé faai. 1 2 3. 4. 5.46 CANTONESE, V. ‘giim’, so, what a. SO PY MURWHH . Giim daw ché li née-shie! . Gaim daw hék-saang . Giim daw yan hai Héong Géng! k-shie! Wong taai-taai* gim léng! . Gam sfu hék-sdang! . Gaim hé Gwéng-déong w*! . Kéei géng Ying-miin, géng-dik giim hé. . Ba-sée che haang-dk gam faai! . Kéei sik géng giim siu! . Kéei sik gam siu fan. VI. ‘déem-yéong*?’, how? . Nay déem-yéong* Idi? Ngw chaw shiien Iai. . Kéci déem-yéong* lai? Kéei chaw fay-gay lai. . Lay séen-shang déem-yéong* héei? Kéei chaw hay-che héei. . Haw taai-taai* déem-yéong* lai? Kéei chaw ba-sée . Nay déem-yéong* héei May-gwok? Ngdw chaw fay-gay héei. VII. Numbers one to five. OUD HPWH . Yat, yée, sam, say, fig. . Yat gaw yan, léong ga ché, stam gaan fong*. . Gay-daw ga cha? Say ga. . Gay-daw ga fay-gay? Ng ga. . Gay-daw chéen?* Yat min, léong min, stam min, say min, fig mun. . Gay-daw jék shtien? Léong jek. . Say gaw hal . Ng gaw hik-saang ddok Joong-min. -stang hdei Joong-gwok.GrrTING aBouT ” 9. Nay yiu jie ga yat? Sdam yat. 10. Lay séen-saang yiu jtic gay-daw yat? Say yi. 11. Ngaw lai-jaw fig yat. 12, Yat, yée, sham, say, fig. More Practice Read each of the following sentences aloud, turn them into questions, then answer the question differently from the original. The question word or form is given for each group. Example: Néc-shie yau léong gaw hdk-saang. Née-shiie yau gay-daw gaw hdk-sdang? Née-shiie yau ig gaw hok-saang. yau sham ga fay-gay. (gay-daw?) Gaw-shiie yu yat gaan tsdu-déem. Née-shiie yu yat gaw yan. Kéei lai-jaw stam (gay-ndy?) Lay séen-sdang lai-jaw léong yat. Haw sten-shang IAi-j4w hé ndy. Lay tdai-tdai* ting yat Iai. (gay-ste?) Wong séen-saang chiim-yat lai. héei Sing-ga-baw. 1. Kéei yau yat ga ché. (ydu m6?) 2, Wong séen-saang mé che. 3. Née-shiie yu stam jek shtien.48 CANTONESE, () 1. Kéei-day hai Ying-gwok yan (hai rh-h3i?) 2. Lay sten-saang hai May-gwok yan. 3. Lay tdai-téai* hai hdk-sdang. Y) 1. Joong-gwok lay née-shiie hé yiien. (yiien th-yiien ?) 2. Tsdu-déem lay née-dd saam Ying lay. 3. Gau-loong lay née-d3 hé kin. 2. Kéei héci-jaw M& 3. Lay séen-sdang Idi. (4) 1, Wong séen-siang sik gong Gwéng-doong-wa*. (sik rin-sik?) 2. Kéci sik gong Ying-gwok wa*. 3. Kéei sik teng Ying-miin. () 1. Kéei-day hai Héong Géng jiie. (hai bécn-shie?) 2. Ngaw hai Ying-gwok jie 3. Nay-day hai May-gwok jiie. -ga ché hiang-disk hé faai. (fai rh-faai?) Aw-ga ba-séc hdang-dik hé man. 3. Née-jék shiien haang-ditk hé faai. () 1. Kéei chaw hay-ché lai. (mat-yé. . .?) 2, Wong sécn-saang chaw shiten héei Joong-gwok. 3. Ngaw chaw dik-sée héci tsdu-déem. ‘The more you do of these exercises the better.Dii-ag faw » Lesson 5 STREET SCENE . Née-tiu 16 yau giim daw pd-tiu*! Nay séong rh- séong miai yé? . Ngaw th-séong. Née- ghan m&ai mit-yé? . Née-gaan mai shite; gaw-gaan mai saang- gwaw. Tsdw-béen gdw-gaan hi rh-hdi ngdn-hdng? . M-hai, gdw-gaan hai tsau-ga. Nay gay-déem joong stk an-jau? . Yat déem jdong. Yée- ga gay-déem? . Yée-gi sfip-yée déem say gaw ts&e. M-hii, yée-ga siip-yée déem boon. . Née-tiu hai mée-yé 15? . Née-tiu hai Joong Saan LB. Yau-béen hai Dai Ching D3. Gaw-shiie yau yatgaan hay-yfien*. . Nay joong-yée tdi hay ma? What a lot of shops there are in this street! Do you want to buy anything? No. What does this one sell ? It sells books; that one sells fruit. Is that a bank on the left? No, that’s a restaurant. What time do you have lunch? One o'clock. What time is it now? It’s twenty past twelve. No, it’s half past twelve now. What street is this? This is Chung Shan Road. On the right is Tai Ching Road. There’s a cinema there. Do you like going to the cinema?12, M-jdong-yée. No, I prefer reading. joong-yée tai shie. 13. Chaw gaw-dd ga What is that woman sitting néci-yan tsé mée-yé? _—over there doing? 14. Kéei mai bé-jée. She’s selling newspapers. 15. Bi-yA! Gtim daw che! Goodness! Whata lot ofcars! Gim daw yan! Ngiw Whata lot of people! I must yiu faai-dée faan Sok- go home right away. It’s kay. Yée-ga sfip-yée twenty-five to one now. déem chat gaw tséc. 16. Ngaw do yiu faan dok- I must go home too. I have kay. Ngaw sfip-yée lunch at a quarter to onc. déem sam gaw gwit Goodbye. sik an-jau. Tsdy géen. 17. Tsdy géen. Goodbye. Vocabulary 1, tiu classifier for roads and some other long, narrow objects. 2. po-tau* a shop, classifier ‘gaan’. 3. séong to wish, want. 4. maai_ to buy. 5. maai_ to sell. 6. sdang-gwaw fruit. 7. tsaw-béen left, left side. 8. ngin-héng bank (lil. ‘silver firm’), classifier ‘gaan’. g. tsdu-ga restaurant, classifier ‘ghan’. 0. gay-déem joong? what time is it? (lit, ‘how (many) strikes clock?”). 11. an-jau lunch. 12. sGip-y&e twelve. 13. tsée a character, digit. 14. béon a half. 15. dS a road, way, classifier ‘tiv’.STREET SCENE st 16. yau-béen right, right side. 17. hay-yfien* cinema, classifier, ‘gaan’. 18. joong-yée to like, enjoy. 1g. tai to look at. tai hay to go to the cinema (lit. ‘look at show’). tai shie to read, to read books. 20. ndei-yan woman, classifier ‘gaw’. 21. bd-jée newspaper (lit. ‘report paper’), classifier ‘jeong’. 22. dok-kay home (lit. ‘house stand’). dok a house, classifier ‘gaan’. 23. chat seven. 24. gwut a quarter. Numbers one to twelve yat one ig five gau nine yée two Tok six sip ten sadam three chat seven siip-yat cleven say four baat eight siip-yée_ twelve Notes 1. Note carefully the subtle difference in the sounds of ‘maai’ and ‘miai’, to buy and to sell. 2. In Kwangtung and South-east Asia the word for ‘road’ or ‘street’ is usually rendered by ‘I’ or ‘gai’. In Hong Kong the commonest word is ‘d’. This word is also used in the abstract sense of Way or Way of Life, i.e. Principle. You will recognise it in its Mandarin form ‘tao’ in Taoism. 3. The first meaning of the word ‘hay’ is a theatrical per- formance on the stage. In the-phrase ‘tai hay’ it now usually Means ‘to go to the cinema’. The full form for cinema is ‘ying-wa-hay’, literally ‘shadow picture show’, but the short form is much more common. To render ‘theatre’, ‘stage show’ or ‘play’ the Chinese say ‘dai hay’, i.e. great or big theatre.oe CANTONESE 4. In Sentence 13 we have an cxample of a ‘relative clause” pattern. In this case the English could, rather clumsily, read ‘What is the woman who is sitting over there doing ?’, that is using the relative pronoun ‘who’. In Chinese there is no relative pronoun. The clause or phrase which describes the person is, quite logically, rendered as a group of adjec- tives put before the noun which they describe; thus, ‘sitting over there that woman’. A similar form is found in Sentence 4. 5. In Sentences 15 and 16 the word ‘yiu’, already intro- duced in Lesson 2 (Vocabulary 17) is used to render ‘must’ or ‘need to’, It should be contrasted with ‘séong’ in Sentence 1, meaning ‘to wish’ or ‘to want’, that is having a lesser degree of necessity or urgency than ‘yiu’. 6. Note that ‘faai-dée’, translated ‘right away’ is the comparative form of ‘faai’ but it does not here mean faster or more quickly. It is simply an idiomatic usage and a very common one. 7. ‘Fan’ was introduced in Lesson 3 (Vocabulary 26) in conjunction with ‘héei’, to go, and also in Drill 1 with ‘1a, to come. In Sentences 15 and 16 of this Lesson ‘faan’ is used by itself meaning to go back or return, In this phrase ‘faan dok-kdy’, to go home or return home, ‘héei’ is almost always omitted. Note too that Chinese will say ‘go back’ or ‘return’ home when in English we usually say simply ‘go home’. Drill I. ‘séong’ to wish to, want to. 1, Nay séong ts8 mut-yé? Ngw séong maai yé. 2, Kéei séong tsS mut-yé? Kéci s¢ong maai yé. 3. Nay séong maai mut-yé? Ngiw séong miai saang-gwaw.STREET SCENE 3s 4. Kéei séong m&ai miut-yé? Kéei séong mai shite. 5. Ngaw th-séong héei. Kéei rh-séong Iai. 6. Kéei rh-séong ddok-shie. Kéei séong tai bé- jée. 7. Koei ti-séong stk faan. Kei séong tai shite. 8. Nay séong rh-séong héei Héong Géng? Séong, ngaw hé séong hoei. 9. Ngaw th-séong chaw fay-gay. Ngiw s¢ong chaw shen. 10. Kéei séong faan-héei Ying-gwok. II. ‘yiu’, to need to, require to, want, must. 1. Yée-ga yat déem jéong; ngaw yiu faan dok-kay sik an-jau. 2, Nay ts0 sdange-yée, yiu th-yiu sik Joong-miin? Yiu. 3. Nay yiu m-yiu sik géng Gwéng-doong wa*? Yiu. 4. Nay yiu jfie gay-ndy? Ngaw yiu jie lok yat. . Ngaw yiu yat gaan fong*; ngaw-gé pAang-yau do yiu yat gaan. Aw yiu ddok-shie; kéei dd yiu ddok-shie. i-taai* yiu maai saang-gwaw. . Ngaw yiu faai-dée fhan dok-kay; yée-ga Iéong déem jdong. 9. Wong séen-sdang ting-y&t yiu faan-héei Joong- gwok. 10. Ngaw yiu hdk géng Gwong-doong wa*. 5 6. 7. 8. III. ‘mia’, to buy, and ‘mai’, to sell. 1. Née-gaan pé-tau* mai mit-yé?_ Miai shie. 2, Ngiw séong maai shie. Hai béen-dd miai shue?3s CANTONESE . Koei m§ai-jaw kéei ga ché. . Ngaw séong miai yat ga che. . Hai Joong Saan D8 yau hé daw pé-tau* maai shite. Née-dée stang-gwaw th-hé; ngaw rh-séong miai. . Née-gaan pé-tiu* maai Joong-miin ba-jée. w hé daw Joong-gwak shite. jaw yat gaan ts4u-déem. . Née-wai* t36 shang-yée; kéei mai che. SHeaON dm Ee IV. Telling the time. 1. Gay-déem joong? Yat déem. 2. Nay gay-déem joong sikfaan? Lok déem. . Yée-ga gay-déem joong? Yée-ga léong déem bdon. 4. Fay-gay gdy-déem jdong Idi? Saam déem say gaw tsée. 5. Nay gdy-déem hédei Gdu-ldong? Ng déem chat gaw tsée. 6. Ngaw yat déem yat gaw gwit sik an-jau. 7. Kéei-day sip déem siam gaw gwit Iai née- 8. 9. shite. . Ngaw slip-yat déem stip gaw tse Lai. . Yée-ga siip-yat déem ldok gaw tste. M-hai, stip-yat déem chat. 10. Ngaw yat déem lai, kéei éong déem lai. 11, Ngaw-day chat déem béon sik fan. 2, Lay séen-saang gay-déem jdong sik fan? Baat déem. V. ‘The man who. . .’, the relative clause. 1. Chim-yat lai gaw-gaw yan hai Wong séen- shang. (The man who came yesterday was Mr. Wong.)14. 15. . Sing Lay gaw-gaw . Sing Law gaw-gaw hai rh-hai Joong-gwok yan? STREET SCENE . Chaw shiien 14i Héong Géng gdw-gaw hai Lay taai-taai*. . Yau-b8en gdw-gian h-h@i ng&n-héng, hii hay-ydien*. . Sik gong Gwéng-doong wa* gaw-gaw hai Haw séen-shang. . Héei-jaw Ying-gwok ddok-shite gaw-gaw hai Jeong séen-saang. ‘Tsd shang-yée gaw-gaw hi ngaw-gé pAang-yau. May-gwok yan. Hii. . Tai bd-jée née-gaw hii hdk-siang. . Lai Héong Géng déok-shie née-gaw hai Lay séen-sdang. . Ja dik-sée gaw-gaw sing Jéong. . Chaw jaw-béen gaw-gaw hai ngiw-gé séen- sang. . Chaw fay-gay héei Ying-gwok hai Haw taai- taai*. Yau hay-ché gaw-gaw hai Wong séen-sdang. Héei-jaw May-gwok tsd sdang-yée gaw-giw hai Law séen-sdang. VI. Practice with numbers one to twelve. fs 2. Yat, yée, stam, say, fig, lok, chat, baat, gdu, stip, stip-yat, sfip-yée. Nay yau gay-daw gaw hdk-stang? Ngaw yau chat gaw. . Weng séen-saang yau gay-daw gaw hdk-siang? Koei yau siip-yat gaw. . Née-shiie yau gay-daw gaw yan? Stip-y&e gaw. . Yat gaw séen-saang ydu baat gaw hdk-saang.. Yau CANTONESE yat gaw hdk-stang héei Ying-gwok jSok-shite. : Nee tiu 18 yau gay-daw gaan po-tau*? Sfip- gaan. . Gam -yt yu léong gaw hdk-saang hdei Sing-ga- baw. . Yat ga ché, léong jék shtten, stam gaan fong*, say gaan tsdu-déem, fig gaan po-tau*, l6ok gaan hay-ytien*, chat gaan tsdu-ga, baat tiu 18, gau tiv dd, stip gaw Ying-gwok yan, stip-yat gaw May-gwok yan, stip-yée gaw Joong-gwok yan. . Yat gaw, Iéong gaw, stam gaw, sdy gaw, jig gw, l6ok gaw, chat gaw, baat gaw, gau gaw, sip gaw, slip-yat gaw, slip-yée gaw. . Yat, ye, sham, say, fig, 160k, chat, baat, gdu, sp, stip-yat, sip-yée. VIL. ‘joong-yée, to like, to like to. . Ngaw joong-yée hoci. . Ngaw-day m-jdong-yée ddok-shite. . Béen-gaw jdong-yée ddok-shie? Lay séen- sdang joong-yée. . Ngaw-diy joong-yée chaw shtien; kéei-day jdong-yée chaw fay-gay. ‘Jeong taai-taai* joong-yée tai bo-jé Ko iy joong-yée tai hay; ngaw rh-joong-yée. . Nay joong-yée Héong Géng ma? Joong-yée. . Nay jdong-yée mh-joong-yée ké Mi ? M-joong- yee. . Nay-day joong-yée tdi hay ma? Joong-yée.STREET SCENE 37 More Practice Read aloud and answer the following questions. Repeat the exercise many times, answering the questions in as many different ways as possible. 1. Nay-day gay-déem joong sik an-jau? 2, Lay sten-saang gay-déem joong sik fan? 3. Wong tai i* séong maai mut-yé? 4. Nay-day séong héei béen-d8? 5. Née-gaan po-tau* maai mit-yé? z 5 7 8. E18? . Nay joong-yée tai b6-jéq ma? . Kéei gdy-déem yiu fan dok-kéy? g. Nay gay-sée héei tai hay? 10. Nay yiu mé chéen*? Yin rh-yiu héei ngan-hong? 11, Née-shie yau mé ngin-héng? 12. Gdw-tiu 1S yau gdy-daw gaan tsdu-ga? 13. Haw séen-sang yau gay-daw gaan po-tiu*? 14. Gaw-gaw néci-yan ts6 mit-yé? 15. Nay séong rh-séong hoei Heong Géng? 16. Nay séong hk mit-yé? 17. Nay déem-yéong* faan dok-kéy? 18. Kéei-d&y déem yfong* lai Héong Gong? 19. Nay joong-yée ts6 mit-yé? 20, Lay séen-saang joong-yée déok-shie ma?Dai-l3ok faw . M-hai_ gwai; Lesson 6 SHOPPING . A-Ying! — Ngaw-day chdot-gaai maai yé. . Nay-diy faan rh-faan lai stk an? Faan; ngiw-diy yat déem faan-lai sik an- jau. . . . »Gaw-bdon shite gay-daw chéen*? Née-béon Joong-miin i, gaw-bdon Ying- miin-gé. Née-béon stip-séy min. Gam gwai 4! h6 péng- ge je. . Ngaw th-miai. Née-jée birt gay-daw né? . Néejée mik-sdei but chat min. . Hé, ngiw miai long jee. - . Oy rh-dy ytien-but né? . M-oy. Ngaw yiu maai dée jée. Née-dée gay- daw? A-Ying! We're going out shopping. Are you coming back for lunch? Yes, we'll be back at one o'clock for lunch. ..+How much is that book? This Chinese book? No, that English one. This book’s fourteen dollars. So dear! It isn’t dear. It’s very cheap. I don’t want it. How much is this pen? This pen is seven dollars. All right, I'll buy two. Do you want a pencil? No, I don’t. I want to buy some paper. How much is this?ai. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. SHOPPING 59 . Saam gaw chat iig-sip jong. Nay dy gay-daw jeong? . Ngaw yiu yat baak jéong. Dé yiu yat bd bé. . Nee-b8 bé sy hd jéc. Oy th-dy? . M-dy. Gaw-bd né? . Gaw -bd péng-dée. Siam hd jéc yat bd. Oy thoy? . Yiu. Ngiw yiu léong b3. Hiim-ba-Hang gay- daw chéen* ? Léong jée mik-sdei bat siip-say min, yat baak jéong jée chat gaw say, Téong bé bé ldok hé jéc, hiim-ba-ldang _yée-siip yée min. Neée-shiie — saam-stip min. Ngaw bay-faan baat min nay. Daw-tsé, daw-tsé. Tsdy-géen. Tsdy géen. . . Ngiw séong maai dée fa. Née- dée gay-daw chéen* ? Née-dée hdong-sik-gé? Née-dée saam hd jée yat jée. H6 gwai. Gaw-dée baak-sik-gé né? Gaw-dée péng-déc. Léong ho jée yat jée. Three dollars seventy for fifty sheets. How many sheets do you want? A hundred. And I want a note-book. This one’s forty cents. Do you want it? No. And that one? That one’s cheaper, thirty cents. Do you want it? Yes, I want two. How much is that altogether? Two pens fourteen dollars, one hundred sheets of paper seven forty, two note books sixty cents, altogether twenty-two dollars. Here’s thirty dollars. I give you back eight dollars. Many thanks. Goodbye. Goodbye. . . I want to buy some flowers. How much are these? These red ones? They are thirty cents each. Very dear. And the white ones? They're cheaper. Twenty cents cach.0 CANTONESE 28. Ngaw jdong-yée dée I like the white ones. Give biak-sik-gé. Bay I8ok — me six. One twenty? Here’s jée ngaw. Gaw yée ma? two dollars. Née-shite léong min. 29. Ngaw bay-fian baat hd Eighty cents change. This nay. Née-gaw yfiet dée month the flowers are most fa tsdci lng. Hai Héong beautiful. In Hong Kong Géng sfip-yat ydet dée flowers are most plentiful in fa tsdci daw. November. Vocabulary 1. A a common prefix to personal names in addressing servants, children and familiars. . Ying common name for girls (lit. ‘brave’), as in *Ying-gwok’, Lesson 1. 3. chdot-gaai to go out (lil. ‘go out strect’). 4. béon classifier for book. 5. -g& one (see Notes). 6. gwai dear, expensive. (Lesson 3, Vocabulary 3). 7. ping cheap. 8. jée classifier for pens, etc. g. bit writing instrument. 10. miik-séei_ ink. 11. mik-séei-bit pen. 12. ytien lead. 13. yiten-bit pencil. 14. 15, 16. 7 18. 19) 20. 21 » . dy to want, like, love. 3. dée some, the plural classifier. . jée paper, classifier ‘jéong’. . bd note-book, classifier ‘bd’. . yat hé jée ten cents (Jit. number one paper). . hfim-ba-lang all, altogether. . slip-siy fourteen. . yée-siip twenty. 22, sham-siip thirty.SHOPPING 6 23. bay to give, bay-faan to give back. 24. f4 a flower, classifier ‘jee’. 25. hdong red, hdong-sik red colour. 26. baak white, baak-sik white colour. 27. yict month, classifier ‘gaw’. 28. siip-yat yfiet_ November. 2g. sip-y&e yiet December. 30. tsdei_ superlative prefix. Notes 1. The prefix ‘A’ is used in addressing servants, children and other familiars. It is not used by Northern Chinese and even among the Cantonese its use is restricted. Among educated people who are on friendly terms it is customary to use the given names without the prefix ‘A’. The Chinese surname comes first. The given name may consist of two words, or characters, or one, the former being the more common practice today. Unlike the Western. way of choosing a name from a limited stock the meanings of which are usually unknown or forgotten (John, Mary, William, etc.) the Chinese choose given names at will from an almost unlimited vocabulary, selecting those which have the attributes they would like their children to possess or with some literary or historical allusion. 2. The word ‘chdot’—like ‘faan’—is usually joined to another verb, namely ‘héei’, to go, and ‘Iai’, to come. This expression ‘chéot-gaai’ meaning literally ‘go out street’ is very common. An alternative is ‘hdei-gaai’—‘to go street’. The pronunciation of ‘choot’ is rather difficult. It almost thymes with ‘soot’ but is less rounded. 3. In Sentences 2 and 3 note the use of ‘faan’ with and without its co-verb, in this case ‘lai’.6 CANTONESE 4. ‘To have lunch’ can be rendered by ‘sik an’ or ‘sik 4n-jau’. ‘An-jau’ by itself means noon. 5. Sentence 8 ‘gwai’ is here used in the sense of expensive. Cf. Lesson 3, Vocabulary 3. 6. The possessive suffix “-gé’ is used frequently to render ‘one’ or ‘ones’. (Sentences 6, 25, 26, 28.) It isa logical and simple usage as can be seen from the example ‘ngiw-g@’, mine or my one. 7. The plural classifier ‘dée’ is sometimes used for ‘some’ as in Sentence 14. It also stands for ‘the’ before plural nouns when not preceded by a modifier or numeral, as with all classifiers in the singular. Examples: Ngaw dy déefZan —_I want some rice. Dée fan th-ho The rice isn’t good. 8. The extraordinary three-syllable word ‘hiim-ba-ldang’ (Sentence 20), meaning ‘all’ is said to be a non-Chinese loan word from an aboriginal language of South China, but it is more likely from ‘pidgin’ English ‘all-belong’. g. In Chinese the direct object comes before the indirect. (Sentences 23 and 2g.) In English we say: ‘I give you the book’ but in Chinese it goes: ‘Ngaw bay bé shue nay’. 10. Sentence 29 gives examples of the word for ‘month’ which is the same as for ‘moon’. The old Chinese calendar is lunar. Itis still used for festivals such as Chinese New Year. The names of the months are simply ‘yat yet’, ‘ye yet’, ‘stam yfict’ and so on to December, the twelfth month.SHOPPING 6s Drill I. ‘Faan’ with and without co-verbs; also with ‘bay’, to give. 1. Ngaw ting-yat faan-lai; kéci gum-yat faan. 2, Lay sten-stang yiu faan-hoei Ying-gwok; ngiw mh-faan. . Kaci faan-jaw héci, faan-jaw dok-kdy. . Kéei faan-jdw héei Sing-gi-baw may? Faan- jaw héei. . Nay gay-déem joong faan-lai? Ngaw stam déem joong faan. Nay faan rh-faan dok-kay sik fan? Fan. . Chéng bay-faan gdw béon shie ng: Ngaw yiu bay faan dée chéen* kéei. . Bay-faan jée bit Lay séen-saang. . Ngaw mh-bay-faan dee chéen* nay. bo Sem d w II. The suffix ‘-gé’ meaning ‘one’ or ‘ones’. 1. Ngaw joong-yée b&ak-sik-gé; kéei dy hdong- sik-gé » Zz ¢ hdong-sik-gé hai ngiw-gé (referring to ‘car’ or other vehicle). 3. Gaw-ga blak-sik-gé hai Lay sten-siang-gé. 4. Gaw-béon héong-sik-gé hé gwai. 5. Née-gaan daai-gé hai Wong séen-siang-gé. 6. Née-dée léng-gé hé gwai. III. Money. One dollar ” or ‘yAt gdw ngan-chéen*’. ‘Ten cents , One.cent ‘yal gaw séen’ (loan word). yathd toc. say hd goc. chat hoc.6s CANTONESE Wong hd 20c. ghd 50c. baat hd Boe. saam hd 30c. lok hd Goc. gauhd —goc. yat min $1 yat gaw ngan chéen* $1 to S2: yat min or yat gaw ngan chéen* $1. yat gaw yat (hd jée) $1.10. But more commonly as follows: gaw yat $1.10 gaw I8ok $1.60 gaw yée $1.20 gaw chat $1.70 gaw saam $1.30 gaw baat $1.80 gaw say $1.40 gaw gau $1.90 gaw boon $1.50 Iéong min or léong gaw ngan chéen*. Igong gaw yat_ $2.10 saam gaw chat $3.70 Igong gaw yee $2.20 sam gaw baat $3.80 Iéong gaw stam $2.30 sam gaw gau $3.90 Iéong gaw say $2.40 say min $4.00 Wong gaw béon $2.50 Practice with money e . Née-dée gdy-daw chéen*? Stip sam gaw chat. . Née-béon shite gay-daw? Yée-siip gaw bdon. . Néc-dée gay-daw? Née-dée hd péng, saam mim yat béon, Gaw-dée f& gay daw chéen*? Say hd jée yat jee. Née-jée ytien-bit gay-daw chéen*? Baat hd jée. Née-jéc mfik-séei-bit né? L3ok gaw say. . Née-béon Ying-miin shite gay-daw? Siip-say gaw béon. . . Dée hdong-sik fa gwai rh-gwai? M-gwai, lok jee stam gaw lok.SHOPPING 65 g. Dée baiak-sik fa Idok jée say gaw yée. 10. Chaw ba-sée héei gay-daw chéen*? Léong hé jee. 11. Chaw dik-sée né? Saam gaw baat, hé gwii. 12, Née-jéong bé-jée gay-daw? Saam hd jeéc. $10 to $100. sip min Iok-sip man yéc-sip min —_chat-siip min saam-siip min baat-sip min say-sip min —gdu-sip min yat baak mtn IV. Numbers 100 to 200 at intervals of 10. yat baak baak say baak baat baak yat baak fig baak gau baak yée baak ldok yée baak baak stam baak chat Numbers 100 to 110. Here is a new word not introduced in the Dialogue or the Vocabulary: ling nil, zero. yat baak ling yat_ ror —yat baak ling 80k 106 yat baak ling ye 102 at baak ling chat 107 yat baak ling sam 103 yat baak ling baat 108 yat baak ling say 104 —_-yat baak ling gau 109 yat baak ling ig 105_—baak yat 110 Numbers 100 to 1000 by hundreds. yat baak lok baak yée baak chat bak siam baak baat baak say baak gau baak fig baak yat chéen chéen—to000 is a new word, not given in the Dia- logue or Vocabulary.66 CANTONESE V. Months yat gaw yet one month née-gaw yiiet this month yat yiet January chat yfet July yée yfet February baat yiiet “August shdm yet March gau yet September say yiet April slip yéet October ng yfet May siip-yat yiet November Wok yuet June siip-yée yfiet_ December Practice with Months 1. Ngaw saam yet faan hoci Ying-gwok. . Lay séen-shang fig yiet lai Héong Géng. . Ngaw-day gau yiiet yiu déok-shie. ‘ok yfict hai Ying-gwok yau hé daw fa. Siip-yée yet mé fac i gay-sée Si? Kéei stam yiiet lai. Nay gay-sée hdci Joong-gwok? Ngaw yée yiict héei. . Haw taai-taai* gay-sée faan-lai? Kéci chat yiiet faan. g. Née-gaw hai mée-yé ytet? Née-gaw hii say yiiet. 2 WARES 10, Gdu-yfet dée hdk-siang yiu faan-lAi ddok-shie. VI. ‘Give’ with direct and indirect object. . Bay dée chéen* ngaw. . Bay gaw-béon shite Wang séen-sdang. . Koei bay-jaw dée fa Haw taai-taai*. . Chéng nay bay-faan dée chéen* ngaw. . Ngaw bay say min nay. grey aSO RUD SHOPPING . Ngaw yiu bay hé daw chéen* kéci. . Bay gaw-béon shite Wong sten-siang. Bay née-jée bit Lay séen-saang. . Bay dée baak-sik fa ngaw. . Kéei yiu bay yat baak min ngaw.Dai. chat faw Lesson 7 LEARNING CHINESE - Nay déem-gdai d3ok Why are you learning Joong-min? Chinese? Yan-wai hé yau yfing. —_ Because it’s very useful. Hai ma? Néc-gaan hdk- Really? How many students haau yau gay-daw gaw are there in this school? hdk-shang? Ngaw thejée. Ngiw I don’t know. I think there gw6o yau cha-th-daw are about thirty. stam-sip gaw hdk- sang. . Nay w& hdk Joong- Do you think Chinese is min naan mh-ndan né?_— difficult? . Hok géng m-hi stip- Learning io speak isn’t very fin naan, dfan-hai hdk difficult; learning to write sé tséc hé naan. is very hard. . Hk Ying-min ydong- Is English easy? yée th-ydong-y&e né? Mc-hai sfip-fin yéong- ” No, not very easy. yée. Nay wé6oi rh-wooi sé Can you write Chinese? Joong-gwak tsée. . Ngdw th-wéoi dian-hai No, but my friend Mr. Law ngaw- piang-yau can. Law séen-saang wo . Kéei sik rh-sik ti Joong- Can he read Chinese news- mtin bé-jéc? papers?Qn. 22, 23. . Nay LEARNING CHINESE 69 . May; kéei diok-jaw Joong-miin mé gay ndy. Kdei ho sik gong Gwéng-ddong wa*. . Nay sik rhesik géng Gwok-yiie? . Siu, siu. Ngaw nam Gwok-yiie md Gwéng- déong wa* giim naan. Gwak-yiie ydong-y8e gwaw Gwéng-ddong wa* née? Déem-gaai? . Yan-wai Gwok-yiie mo giim daw yum. . Yée-ga yau hé daw Sai- yan hk Joong-gwok wa*. . Hai 4. Yée-ga hé daw May-gwok téong-ma: Ying-gwok dai gaau Joong-min. . Nay yiu hék Gwéng- doong wa* gay-ndy? Léong stam néen. Yan- wai ngaw rh-hdi_ yat- k-shiie, sAw-yée ngaw hdk-dik hé m&an. Nay yée-ging sik géng hé daw. M-hai, hé siu-gé je. Gum-yat lai-baai gay? Not yet; he hasn’t studicd Chinese very long. He speaks Cantonese very well. Can you speak Mandarin? Just a little. I think Man- darin is not so difficult as Cantonese. You think Mandarin is easier than Cantonese? Why? Because Mandarin hasn’t so many tones. There are many Westerners learning Chinese now. Yes. There are many Ameri- can and British Universities teaching Chinese now. How long will you study Cantonese? For two or three years. As I am not studying every day I learn very slowly. You can speak a lot already. No, just a little. What’s today? Friday? No, today’s Thursday.» CANTONESE 24. M-gan-yiu. Ngaw séong It docsn’t matter. I would chéng ngaw-gé_séen- like to invite my teacher to saang lai-baai 160k sik a meal on Saturday. chaan. Vocabulary 1. déem-géai? why? (lit. ‘how explain?’). 2. yan-wSi because. 3. yong usc, to use, yu y6ong-useful. 4. je to know. 5. gw6o to think. 6. cha-th-daw about, more or less (lit. ‘differ not much’). 7. naan difficult. 8. ddan-hai but. g. sé to write. 10. ydong-yée easy. 11, wooi to know how to. 12. Gwok-yiic Mandarin (lit. ‘national language’). 13. num to think. 14. gwaw than, to cross. 15. yum tone, sound. 16. Sai-yin European, Westerner (lit. ‘west-man’). 17. dai-hdk university (lit. ‘great learning’). 18, gdau to teach. 1g. néen year. 20. yat-yat daily, every day. 21. saw-yée therefore. 22. yée-ging already. 23. ldi-baai week, classifier ‘gaw’. . léi-baai say ‘Thursday. Friday. lai-baai I60k Saturday. 25. th-gan-yiu it doesn’t matter. 26. séen-saang teacher. 27. chaan a meal.LEARNING CHINESE n Notes 1. The word-order in Sentence 1 differs from English with the subject, as always, coming first, not the question- word ‘why?, 2. Many Chinese words can be nouns, verbs or adjectives according to context. In Sentence 2 ‘yong’ is a noun meaning ‘usefulness’. It is just as frequently the verb ‘to use’. Note also the simple construction ‘very have use’. This could also be ‘yau hé daw ySong’ but it would not be so idiomatic. 3. ‘Jée’ (Sentence 4) is the verb ‘to know’ of facts and events, not to know a person or place and not to know how to. 4. Also in Sentence 4 we have the very common expression for ‘about’, ‘approximately’ or ‘more or less’, It is sometimes rendered ‘cha-bit-daw’, ‘bit’ being the literary (and Mandarin) word for the negative ‘mh’. 5. ‘Wa’, to say, speak, is used in Sentence 5 meaning to think. This is paralleled in English with ‘you would say. . .”. Two of the standard words for ‘to think’ in the sense of to have an opinion, not to ruminate, are introduced in this Lesson, viz. ‘gwéo’ and ‘nam’. 6. Learn the expression ‘md gay néy’ by heart (as in so many other instances) rather than puzzle out the meaning. The literal rendering ‘not have quite long’ is very clumsy and in any case the meaning is clear. 7. In Sentence 12 there is another good example of ‘hd? (very) used before the verb as in Sentence 2. There it was ‘very have use’ and here it is ‘very know how to speak’. Another simple, neat Chinese usage.n CANTONESE 8. In Sentence 13 we translate ‘Gwok-yiie’ with some reluctance as Mandarin as this word harks back to the Ch'ing Dynasty (before the Revolution of rgt1 when China became a Republic). In those days the officials of the Imperial Government were called Mandarins by forcigners. They could speak ‘official language’ (ic. the Peking form of Northern Chinese) but ‘Gwék-ytic’, National language, is a modern term with a very different connota- tion. However, we will have to use the word Mandarin for want of another. g. In Sentence 15 the comparative ‘than’ is introduced. Note that the adjective docs not assume the comparative form. ‘Better’ is ‘hd-dée’ but ‘he is better than me’ is simply ‘kei hé gwaw ngaw’. 10. Sentence 20. There is no need for the word ‘or’ when we say ‘two or three’ in Chinese. 11. Sentence 20. The duplication of a word is sometimes, but not very often, the method of intensifying its meaning or, as in this casc, rendering ‘every’ or ‘cach’—‘ySt-yat’— ‘every day’. 12. Sentence 20. The Chinese find nothing redundant about the usage ‘because. . . therefore’. The English rendering begins ‘as’ (because) but it omits ‘therefore’ in the second half of the sentence. 13. The word for a ‘weck’ is ‘ldi-baai’ which means ‘ritual’ (or ‘ceremonial) worship’. The division of time into a seven day period is a Western arrangement; here its religious origin is revealed in the two Chinese words.LEARNING CHINESE Ey . . Because. y déem-g4ai lai Héong Gong? Yan-wai ngaw séong hk Joong-miin. . Déem-géai chaw fay-gay hdei Ying-gwok? Yan-wai hé faai. . Déem-gaai née-gi ché hiang-dik gam mfan? Yaan-wai rh-hd. . Déem-géai hdk Ying-miin? Yan-wai ho yau yéong. . Déem-gdai giim gwai? Ngdw m-jée. . Déem-gaai mé hék-saang? Yan-wai h6k-haau hé gwai. . Kéei déem-gaai yat-yat lai née-shie? ~Yan-wai yiu maai yé. . Déem-gaai faan dok-kay? Yan-w&i gnaw yiu sik faan. . Nay déem-gaai joong-yée kéei? Yan-wai kéei hé léng. . Née-dée f& déem-géai giim gwai 4? Ngaw gwéo yan-w&i yée-ga ho siu fa. II. ‘not very long.-. . Koei hd . Nay hai Héong Géng hé n8y? M-h&i, md gay . Nay lai-jaw gay ny? M6 gay ndy. . Nay h8k-jaw Gwéng-ddong wa* gay ndy? Mod gay ny. . Nay sik Lay séen-sang hé ny ma? M-hai, mé gay néy. jdw May-gwok mé gay nby. ndy." CANTONESE, III. ‘cha-rh-daw’—about, approximately. POE SYV APP OD m éem jdong? Cha-th-daw yat déem. w gay-daw fa? Cha-th-daw yée- stip jéc. . Gdu-ldong lay Héong Géng gay-yticn? Cha- th-daw yat Ying lay. . Née-gaan au yau gdy-daw gaw hok- sdang? Cha-rh-daw yat baak ga . Kéei 1ai-jdw Sing-ga-baw gay-ndy? Cha-m- daw siam gaw yliet. . Lay séen-sdang hdk-jaw Gwéng-doong w&* gay nay? Cha-rh-daw Igong néen. . Nay yiu jfile g4y-ndy? Cha-rh-daw fig gaw lai- . Jeong taai-taai* chéng gay-daw gaw yin Iai sik chan? Cha-th-daw yée-sfip gaw yan. y yau gay-daw b8 shic? Cha-th-daw yat baak be. . Nay sik gdy-daw Joong-gwok tsfe? H6 siu, cha-rh-daw fig stip gaw. -Mot...as...” Gwok-yiie mé Gwéng-doong wi* giim naan. Ngaw mé kéei giim daai. Kéei mé nay giim léng. Née-dée fA mé gaw-dée giim gwai. Chaw shiien mé chaw fay-gay gam gwai. Sing-g4 baw md Héong Gong gim dai. Ying-gwok mé May-gwok giim daai. Née-ga ché haang-dik m6 gaw ga giim faai. Née-gaan ts4u-déem mé gaw-gaan giim léng. . Hok sé ts€e mo hk gong giim ydong-yée.LEARNING CHINESE 3 V. The comparative ‘than’. OY ONRwW DH . Koei dai gwaw ngaw. | Nee+ -gian hok-hdau hé gwaw gaw ghan. . Fay-gay hdang faai gwaw shiien. . Ngdw hok Gwong-ddong wi* maan gwaw kci. . Née-dée siang-gwaw péng gwaw gaw-dee . Ying-gwok wa* yau yong gwaw Joong-gwok wa*. |. H8k sé tste ndan gwaw hdk géng. . Néc-dée tse hé gwaw gaw-dée. VI. ‘because . . . therefore’. . Yan- . Yan-wai né . Yan-wai kéci séong hdk Joong-miin saw-yée . Yan-wai guim-yit lai-baai sw-yée ngaw th-maai kéci mejoong-yée tai hay sdw-yée @k-hdau lay née-d6 hé yiien saw-yée ngaww chiw ché hdei. . YAn-wai kéei yat-yat déok-shite saw-yée hd sik Joong-min. . Yan-w4i chaw shiien gwai saw-yée kéei chaw fay-gay héci. . Yan-wai kéei giim léng dée hdk-sdang joong-yée kéei. née-gaan pd-tau* giim gwai sdw-yéc ho siu yn 14i maai yé. ¢ biut ri-hé ngaw th-maai. déok-shie. lai ne . Yan-wii sik hé daw tsée sdw-yée sik tai bd-jéc.6 CANTONESE, VII. The days of the week. t (or—lai-baai) Sunday Monday Tuesday dai sham Wednesday i Thursday Friday Saturday lai-baai gay? ay? Gim-yat lai-baai sam. Chitm-yat 14 Lay séen-sdang 1z Hiaw séen-sang 1a ai stam héei ma? M-hai, ngdw lai- bai say hoei. 10. Lai-baai I3ok yau hé daw yan héei miai yé. Practice with ‘week’. 1. Yat gaw lai-baai yau chat yat . Née-gaw Iai-baai ng&aw héei Sing-ga-baw. . Yat gaw yiet yau say gaw lai-haai. iw lki-jaw Héong Gong siam gaw lai-baai. ji ai. baai ngdw m-hdei tai hay. y lai-jaw Heong Géng gay-néy? Léong gaw lai- baai. Née-gaw ldi-baai kéei yiu déok-shite. youre s =LEARNING CHINESE ” More Practice Read aloud and answer in as many ways as possible. 1. Nay déem-gaai h6k gong Gwéng-ddong wa*? 2. Nay gwéo Gwok-yiie ndan gwaw Gwéng-ddong wi* ma? 3. Béen-gaw wéoi gong Gwok-yiie? 4. Hai Ying-gwok yau mé hék-hdau gaau Joong-min? 5. Née-gaan hék-hZau yau cha-mh-daw gay-daw gaw 6 7 8 hdk-saang . Nay jée m-jée née-d6 yau gay-daw gaw hdk-saang? . Weng séen-saang hii rh-hdi Sai-yan? . Nay ldi-jaw née-shiie gay-daw néen? g. Fay-gay gay-déem jdong lai? 10. Ting-yat ldi-baai, nay héei rh-héei hdk-haau? 11, Nay hii rh-hai d&ai gwaw kéei? 12. Ying-miin yong-yte rh-yéongyee né? 13. Nay lai-jaw hé ndy ma? 14. Nay yée-ging sik tdi bé-jée, hai rh-hai? 15. Nay déem-géai chéot-giai? 16, Kéei cha-rh-daw gay-déem faan dok-kay? 17. Béen-gaw wooi gong Gwok-yiie? 18. H6k sé ts€e ndan ri-ndan né? 19. Nay wA md gim daw hok-sdang Idi; déem-gdai? 20. H8k géng Ying-gwok wA* yau mé yong?uy Lesson 8 LUNCH . Yam béoi cha 1a. . M-goy. Née-dée cha hé hé yam. . Gay hd. Née-dée hai Joong-gwok cha. Hé héong. . Sik déc déem-sim 1a. Nay hiu rh-hiu yong faai-tsée? . Hiu, m-hai gay naan ybong. . Yau hé daw yéong* déem-siim. Nay joong- yée mit-yé? . Née-dée hai méc-yé? . Née-déc hai ha, gdw- dée hai jure-ydok, gaw- bien gaw-dée hai gai. |. Ngaw joong-yée sik gai. Oy m-dy fan? Baak fan? Chaau faan? . Yat wéon chdau faan. Nay hai m-hai sée-sée lai née-shiie sik an-jau? . M-hai, ydu sée faan dok-kay, yau sée héei dai-yée gaan tsdu-ga. Have a cup of tea. Thanks. This tea is very good. Quite good. It’s Chinese tea, very fragrant. Have some ‘deem-sum’. Can you use chop-sticks ? Yes, they’re not very difficult to use. There are many kinds of ‘deem-sum’. What would you like? What are these? These are shrimps, that’s pork and that over there is chicken. I would like chicken. Would you like rice? Boiled rice? Fried rice? A bowl of fried rice. Do you always come here for lunch? No, sometimes I go home and sometimes I ga to another restaurant.LUNGH 5 13. Néc-dée séong stip fim The food is very good. he stk. 14. H6_ ping. ‘ong. M-hé Very ordinary. You are too haak-hay. Chéng sik dée kind. Have some vegetables. choy. Oy-th-dy tong? Would you like soup? sik-dik hé baau. I've really had enough. he siu You have had very little. 16. M-hai. Ngaw yiu sik Ohno. I’llhavesomenoodles. déc méen. Wai! Faw- Waiter! Bring a dish of gay! Ning yat décp noodles. mécn 17. Ngaw jdong dy dée I would like some more cha. . .in-goy. Ei-ya! tea. . .thank you. I say! Léong déem jdong! It’s two o'clock. I must go Ngaw yiu faan sé-ts€e- back to the office. lau. 18, Faw-gay! M -daan! Waiter ! Bring the bill! 19. Daw-tsé, daw-tsé. Thank you very much. 20, M-hé haak-hay. Tsdy Not at all. Goodbye. géen. Vocabulary 1. yim to drink. 2. booi a cup, classifier {jék’. 3. cha tea. 4. héong fragrant, as in ‘Héong Géng’. 5. décm-siim savouries (lit. ‘touch heart’). 6. hiu to know how to. 7. faai-tsée chopsticks. 8. yéong* sort, kind, manner. 9. shrimps. 10. Bok pork (lit. ‘pig flesh’), classifier for pig—-jék. en over there. 12. gai chicken, classifier ‘jék’. 13. baak fAan__ boiled rice (lit. ‘white rice’).80 CANTONESE, 14. chéau_ to fry. chdau fan - fried rice. 15. wéon a bowl, classifier ‘jék’. always, frequently. sometimes. fe another, second. 19. séong food, dishes. . 20. ping-séong ordinary. 21. hdak-hay — ceremonious (lit. ‘guest air’). 22. chdy vegetables, food. 23. tong soup. 4au_caten to satisfaction. 25. méen noodles. 26. fAw-gay waiter, shop-a 27. ning to bring, take. 28. déep a plate, dish, classifier ‘jek’. 2g. j5ong still, yet. . sé-tsBc-lau office (lit. ‘write characters building’). 31. mai daan bring the bill (lit. ‘bring close bill’), classifier for ‘daan’—jéong. ‘ant. Notes 1. Thereare many final particles in Cantonese. They usually have no meaning and are used for euphony as in Sentence ! where ‘la’ makes the order ‘drink a cup of tea’ less abrupt but no less imperative. 2. In this Dialogue, Sentence 2 and others, there are many examples of the plural classifier ‘dée’. Note that it is uscd for some objects which are not plural such as ‘tea’, In Sentence 4 ‘dée’ is used to mean ‘some’. _ 3. Note how the Chinese say ‘the tea is very good to drink’.LUNCH a 4. ‘Décm-siim’, Sentence 4, is a typically Cantonese form of lunch. Meaning literally ‘touch the heart’ ‘déem-sum’ consists of a variety of small savoury dishes served in little round boxes carried in trays by waitresses who wander about the restaurant shouting their wares. The real names for ‘déem-sitm’ dishes are not given in this Lesson as they would be too advanced at this stage. Instead the words for some of the most important foods are introduced. 5. ‘Chaau fan’ is not only fried rice; it includes small pieces of pork and possibly other things. 6. Note the use of hii rh-hai’ to convey the sense of “is it the case that. . ” in Sentence 11. Also in this Sentence we have an example of the duplication of a word to intensify it, in this case to mean ‘always’ or ‘frequently’. The word ‘ste’? meaning ‘time’ was introduced in Lesson 2 in the compound ‘gay-sée?”, meaning ‘when?’. In the next Sentence, 12, ‘sé’ occurs again, in the neat expression for somctimes—'‘yau sé’, literally ‘have times’ or ‘there are times’, 7. Note how the word for ‘second’ or ‘number two’ is used for ‘another’ in Sentence 12. 8. In Sentence 14 the expression ‘th-hé haak-hay’ is very difficult to translate. It is sometimes rendered ‘do not stand on ceremony’ but we never say this in English now. It is best not translated at all and this goes for all conversation. You should speak and think in the language you are learn- ing and should not put it into English even mentally unless you have to act as an interpreter. This idiom also gives the first example of the most common form of the negative command—‘don’t’, which is rendered simply by ‘rh-ho’ plus a verb, although in this instance the verb is omitted.a CANTONESE g. Another untranslatable is found in Sentence 15—‘ngaw sik-dik hé baau’--literally ‘I eat get full’. Although im. polite in English it is good manners in Chinese. 10. The verb ‘ning’ needs either ‘lai’ (come) or ‘héei” after the object which is being brought—or taken. ‘Ning’ is only used with objects which can be carried in the hands. 11, In Sentence 17 we mect the very useful word ‘jong’ meaning ‘still’ used along with ‘dy’ to render ‘want more’. ‘I still want some tea’ is a logical way of putting it. It is closcr to the English in the phrase ‘kéei jéong hai shdie’—‘he is still here’. Drill I. Various uses of ‘hé’—‘good’, ‘very’. (a) very. 1, Kéei hé léng. 2. Née-gaan hék- 3. Née-dée fa hd héong. 4. Née-bd she hé gwai. 5. Gaw-jék gai hé péng. au hé daai. (6) good, well, all right. 1. Née-gaw hdk-sang hé, gaw-gaw thé. 2. Née-gaan tsdu-ga th-hai gay hd. 3, Béen-gaw tsbei hd? A Ying tsdei ho. 4. Ngaw lai-baai say Iai, ho rh-hd? Ho. 5. Néc-ga ché haang-dik hé hé. () with verbs. 1. Née-dée chaau fan hé sik. 2. Née-dée cha hé yam. 3. Ying-min hé yau yBong.woes Soo 2 3d Gerona . Lay séen-sdang hé sik gong Gwéng-doong w: LUNCH . Ngaw joong-yée tang kéei gong, hé hé téng. Nay w léng th-léng? _Léng, hé he tai. Née-dée jiic-yBok rh-ho si Kéei sik gong Gwok-ytic dlan-hai kéei-gé yam th-hé téng. Kei hé wéoi ja ché. . Ngaw hé joong-yée stk Joong-gwok chaan. in the negative meaning ‘don’t’. M-hé sik née-dée jire-ySok yan-wi rh-hé s M-hé gong Joong-s gwok wa*, ngaw th-hiu téng. . M-hé téng kéei, kéei m-hé yan. M-hé miai née-dée gai. . .hé gwai. M-hé chaw shtten héei May-gwok, chaw fay-gay hé-dée. . M-hé hdang giim faai. M-hé faan dok-kay sik fan; née-shiie dée déem-sim hé ho sik. . Yée-ga mh-hé géng Ying-miin; nay yiu sée-séc géng Gwéng-déong wa*. . M-hé héei gaw-gaan pé-tau*; dée yé hé gwai. . M-hé haak-hay. IL. Is it the case that. . .? 1. Nay hai rh-hi lai Héong Gong ts shang-yée? M-hii, ngaw 14i d8ok-shue. . Kéei-day hai th-hdi hdk géng Gwok-ytie? M-hai. . Nay hai rh-hi miai saang-gwaw? M-hai, ngaw mai fa. . Nay hai m-hai jdong-yée sik déem-stm? Hai, ngaw joong-yée. 83. K Weng CANTONESE . Nay hai rh-hai jtiejaw Héong Géng hé ndy? Mé gay nay. . Nay hai m-hai 1ai-baai l6ok bay chéen*? Hai, ai lok bay. ngaw lai ai th-hdi tsd fiw-gdy? Hai, kéei ts6 faw-gay. . Kéei hai mh-hai sik géng Ying-min? Hai, kéci sik. . Nay-day hai rh-hi li née-d3 géen Haw séen- stang? Ha . Nay hai mh-hai 14i née-gaan hodk-haau déok- shue? Hai, ngaw 14i ddok-shue. III. Uses of ‘sée’—when, sometimes, always. 1 OyEeE wv ou Nay gay-sée lai Sing-ga-baw? Ngdw chiim-yat I . Kei yau sée héei Héong Géng, yau sée héci Géu-ldong. Ngaw yau sée sik jure-ySok, yu sée sik gai. . Kéei sée-sée lai née-shie tai shite. . Ngaw sée-séc lai née-ghan tsdu-ga sik an-jau. . Kéei gay-sée miai fa? Yau sée lai-baai yat, yau sée lai-baai sam. . Lay séen-saang gay-sée I4i?_ Koei sée-sée do lai. . Haw taai-taai* sée-sée do hdei tsau déem yam cha. |. Née-d3 stk fan yau ste gwai yau sée péng. . Jéong taai-taai* sée-séc do hdei géen paang-yau. (In Sentences 8 and 10 ‘dd’ is added to ‘sée-ste’ to intensify it. See Lesson 2.)LUNCH 85, IV. ‘dée’, the plural classifier, used for ‘the’ and ‘some’. (a) the . Dée déem-stim néc-shiie hé hé sik. 2. Dée fa gim-yt hd gwai. 3. Dée hdk-sdang hé sik géng Joong-gwok wa*. 4. Dée ha rh-hai sip-fin ho. 5. Dée cha hé héong. 6. Déc hdk-saang hiim-ba-laang dé hai S 7. Dée sai-mi-tsai hé joong-yée tai hay. 8. Dée chau fan sfip-fin hé sik. g. Dee tsdu-déem hai Héong Gong hé léng. 10. Dée fiw-gay m-sik gong Ying-gwok wA*. (6) some 1, Sik dée chdau fan 1a. 2, Yau dée hdk-sdang rh-sik gong Ying-min. 3. Yau dée hai Joong-gwok yan, yau dée hai Sai- yan. 4. Chéng stk dée mécn. 5. Ning déc bitt téong jéc 14i. 6. Nay dy rh-dy maai dée fa? Yiu. 7. Ngaw joong-yée sik dée stang-gwaw. 8. Née-gaw hdk-saang yau dée chéen*, gaw-gaw mé. 9. Yau dée Joong-gwok ts€e hé nian, yéu dée ho yéong-yée. . Yau dée hay-ché hai née-tiu 16. V. ‘ning’—to bring or take. GREn a . Ning booi cha Iai. . Ning saam jée bitt lai, . Ning née-bd she héei gaw-shiie. . Ning née-dée fa bay kéei. . Faw-gay, ning dée déem-sirm lai.86 CANTONESE VI. ‘j5ong’ meaning ‘still’ or ‘more’, i.e. additional, not comparative. 1. 12. 13. 14. 15. . Lay séen-saang jdong hai ts4u-déem j . Wong taai. jGong dy dée ch’. (Sentence 17.) aang jBong hai shi, (‘The students are still here.) ai* faan-jaw dok-kay may? May, jong hai shite. . Nay jSong yiu maai mat-yé? (What else do you want to buy?) . Ngaw jSong yiu maai dée jurc-yBok. . Joong yau hé daw fan. | (There is still plenty of rice.) . Joong yau mé chécn*? (Have you any money left?) Joong yau. Joong yau mé cha? Jéong yau hé daw. ._Née-gaw hik-siang jong yiu ddok-shie. (This student wants fo go on studying.) Jéong yiu rh-yiu chA? Jéong yiu. Joong yau mé fong*? Jong yau yat gaan. JSong yau md séen-saang giau Gwok-yiie? Joong yau léong gav JSong yau hé daw sai-min-tsdi m6 hdk-hau. Kéei héei-jaw Joong-gwok may? May, kéci jBong hai Héong Gong. More Practice Read aloud, answer questions, and make up two or three additional examples of the patterns in each sentence. PRON . Ngaw jdong yiu yim cha. . Dée hék-sdang hai rmh-hai S: . Yau sée déc hék-saang rh-l . Wang tai . Nay hai rh-hai yat-yat sik déem-sim ? i-yan? Déem-gaai? taai* sée seé héei Waan-tsdi maai fa.LUNCH ay |. M-ho sik néc-dée gai. Déem-gaai? . Nay si dik baau may? Déc cha héong rh-héong? Nay jdong yau mé chéen*? . Kéei-gé hay-ché jong hdi-shie. . Faw-gay, joong yiu m6 tong? . Dée hdk-shang hé rh-hd? . Nay wéoi rh-w6oi ySong faai-tsée? . Kéei hai ri Ai sée-sée chaw fay-gay héei Ying-gwok? stk gay-daw wéon fan? ay yat-y’ . Nay joong-yée blak faan ding chdau Zan? . M-hé gong Ying-min. Décm-gdai? . Faw-gay! Maai daan! Gay-daw chéen*? . Dée sdong hé rh-hé sik? . H8k gong Joong-gwok w&* yu mé ySong?> In, 12. 13. 14. 15. 16, 17. Lesson 9 INTERVIEW . Nay sing mée-yé? . Ngaw sing Chin. . Nay giu-tsS mée-yé méng*? gaw giu-ts6 H6k- Ming. . Nay gay-daw soci? . Ngaw ya-chat soci. . Nay hai béen-d3 chéot- sai? . Ngaw hai Gwéng-jau choot . Nay gay-sée IAi Héong Géng? . Ngaw yat gau fig baat néen lai. Nay géet-jaw fin may? Géet-jdw fun say néen. Nay yau mé tsdi-ndci? Yat gaw tsai, yat gaw néci. Nay yée-ga ts mée-yé ? Ngaw hai gadu-yiien. Hai béen-shite gaau- shire? What is your surname? My surname is Chun. What are your ‘given’ names? My ‘given’ names are Hok- Ming. How old are you? 1 am twenty-seven. Where were you born? I was born in Canton. When did you come to Hong Kong? In 1958. Are you married? Yes, I got married four years ago. Have you any children? Yes, a boy and a girl. What arc you doing now? I am a teacher. Where are you teaching?22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. INTERVIEW 9 . Hai yat ghan jdong- k, . Nay gdau mit-yé? . Ngaw gaau Ying-min. . Yéen-tsdy séong tsé mit- yé ne? Ngaiw séong ts3 bay- shite. Nay yiu gay-daw sin- séei? Yat chéen min. Taai daw. Dang yat tsin, ngaw yiu téng déen-wi*, Wai? Béen- wai* gong Ngiw h-dik-haan, déei th- je. ... Chin séen- sdang, th-hé yée-sée. Nay w& yiu yat chéen min? Ngaw bay chat baak fig. Yie-gwaw nay ts6-dik hd, waak-tsé ngaw bay daw-dée. Hé th-ho? Ho. Ngaw rh-gay-dik min nay. . . nay sik da-tsée ma? Yat ding sik. Ngaw gay néen chéen hék da-tsée. Chéng tdi _née-foong sihn...hai —-Ying- miin-gé. Nay ming m- k? In a middle school. What do you teach? I teach English. What do you want to do now? I want to become a secre- tary. What salary do you want? One thousand dollars. Too much. Wait a moment. I must answer the telephone. Hullo, who’s speaking? I’m sorry, I’m busy. I’m sorry, Mr. Chun. You said you wanted a thousand dollars? T'll give you seven hundred and fifty. If you do well perhaps I'll give you more. Is that all right? Yes. I forgot to ask you. . .can you type? Yes, of course. I learned to type a few years ago. Please read this letter. . . it’s in English. Do you understand ?90 CANTONESE 30. Ming-baak. Yes, Ido. 31. H6 1A. Chéng nay stam Good. Come to work on ylict yat hé 14i ts6. March first. Vocabulary 1. Chin a surname. (Pronunciation: rhymes exactly with ‘gun’.) 2. giu_ to call, summon. giu-tsé to be called, named. 3. méng* the ‘given’ name. 4. sdei years (of age). 5. ya twenty; alternative to ‘y&e-siip’. 6. chdot-sai_ to be born (lit. ‘come out world’). 7. Gwong-jau Canton. 8. géet-fiin to get married. g. chéen before. 10. tsai-néei children, sons and daughters. 11. tsdi a son; diminutive suffix. 12. nédei_ daughter, woman. 13. sée affairs, business. 14. gaau-yiien a teacher. 15. gaau-shie to teach (lif. ‘teach books’). 5. joong-h6k middle school. 17. yéen-tsBy now, alternative to ‘yée-ga’. 18. bay-shie a secretary. 1g. sin-sdei_a salary. 20. taai too; great. 21. dang to wait. 22. tsiin a moment. 23. d&en-wa* telephone (lit. ‘electric speak’). 24. bécn-wai*? who? Polite alternative to ‘béen-gaw?’. I'm very sorry. 27. thehé yée-sée I’m sorry.INTERVIEW or 28. yiie-gwaw if, 29. gay to remember. go. da-ts&e to type (lit. ‘strike characters’). 31. yat-ding certainly. 32. shn a letter, classifier ‘foong’. 33. ming-baak to understand (lit. ‘bright-white’). 34. ha number, date. Notes 1. Chinese Names. See Lesson 7, Note 1. Although we say: ‘Ngaw sing Wong, kéei sing Chiin’, we cannot use ‘méng*” in the same way and must always use the verb to ‘be called’: ‘Ngaw giu-tsd May-ying, kéei giu-tsd Léen-wa’. ‘Giu-ts6’ is a compound of ‘giu’, to call, and ‘tsd’, to do. 2. Note that there are two words for ‘year’ in Chinese; ‘néen’ is the calendar year; ‘sdei’ is years of age. 3. To say 1967, 1973, etc., the Chinese, rather clumsily, give each digit (Sentence 10) or they may say ‘one thousand nine hundred etc.’. 4. In asking a person if he or she is married (Sentence 11) the Chinese say ‘Are you married yet’, a presumption we would not make in English. 5. The word for ‘ago’—‘chéen’—comes in the same place in the sentence as its English counterpart. Thus: say néen chéen four years ago. hé daw néen chéen _ many years ago. We will come to other uses of this word to render ‘before’ in a later Lesson.oe CANTONESE, 6. We have already learned the word for children in Lesson 3——‘sai-min-tsai”. That is the gencral term. When referring to children of someone, i.e. sons and daughters, the expression in Cantonese is ‘tsai-néei’. ‘Ts4i’ is the word for a son but is also used frequently as a diminutive after a noun, c.g. ‘Héong Géng tsai’—little Hong Kong, the Chinese name for the fishing town of Aberdeen on the island of Hong Kong. ‘Néei’ by itself is the word for woman. To render ‘girl’ we say ‘néci-tsai’. ‘Boy’ as opposed to ‘son’ is ‘ndam-tsai’, ‘ndam’ meaning ‘male’. 7. In Sentence 17 the employer asks ‘nay ts} mée-yé sBe?”. This is more polite than the alternative ‘nay tsd mée-yé goong?’. ‘Se’ mcans affairs and ‘gbong’, meaning work, has the connotation of manual labour. 8. The verb ‘gaau’—to teach—prefers having an object as ‘d6ok’ in ‘d5ok-shite’. It thus means literally ‘teach books’. To render ‘What do you teach, Sentence 19, the Chinese say ‘teach what books?’. The same is done in ‘What are you studying ?’—‘Nay d&ok mée-yé shie?” g. Sentence 25. There are two ways of rendering ‘too’ in Cantonese: 1. thai plus adjective. 2. adjective plus ‘gwaw t4u’ (lit. ‘across head’). ‘tai’ is the Mandarin usage which has influenced Cantonese in recent ycars and is now as common as the native form. 10, There are two ways to say ‘sorry’ in Cantonese, both illustrated in Sentence 25. 1. déei rh-jie This is stronger than the other and has the sense ‘I can’t face you’.INTERVIEW 93 2, th-hé yée-sée This suggests some embarrassment on the part of the speaker (lit. ‘not good meaning’). 11. Sentence 27. Cantonese prefer to say ‘I can’t remember’ —‘Ngaw rh-gay-dik’ rather than ‘I forget’ though this is also said. 12. The pronunciation of ‘sihn’ in Sentence 29 is something between ‘oo’ and ‘uw’, It has no equivalent in English. Drill I. Names. : Nay gwai sing? Sfu sing Wéng (polite form). sing mit-yé? Kéei sing Chin. na ne? Ngaw sing Lay. . Gaw-gaw néei-tsai giu-ts6 mée-yé? Kéei giu- tsé A Ying. . Née-gaw n&am-tsdi giu-tsé mée-yé méng*? Kéei giu-tsé A Ming. . Nay giu-ts6 mée-yéméng*? Ngawgiu-tsé Miin- saan. Il. Age, years. 1 » . A Ying gay-daw sdei? Yée-stip soci . Koei yat gdu say baat néen chédot-sai. . Lay-séen-stang gay-daw soci? Kéei ya-gdu Nay gay-sée chéot-sai? Ngaw yat gu say yat néen chéot-sai. soei. . Ngaw yat gdu jig ling néen chdot-sai; ngaw cha-rh-daw yée-siip sdei.98 Ill. CANTONESE, ‘chéen’—ago. 1, Saam néen chéen ngaw hai Joong-gwok d3ok- shite. 2. Kéei hdei-jaw May-gwok lok néen chéen. 3. Hé daw néen chéen kéei hai Heong Gong ts6 sée. . Say gaw yliet chéen kéei hai née-shiie jiic. . Kéei sam gaw lai-baai chéen géet-jaw fim. op IV. Teaching and studying. V. Too. ‘taai’, . .and. . . Kéei hai gaau-yiien. . Kéei gaau shiie. Gaau mée-yé shite? . Kéei gaau Joong-min. Ngaw gaau Ying-min. . Kéei d3ok-shie. Dok mée-yé shire? . Kei ddok Ying-miin, ngaw déok Joong-miin. Bren ‘gwaw-tau’. . Née-dée gai taai gwa . Gaw-dée jie-ySok gwai gwaw-tiu. . Joong-gwok ts&e yau taai daw. . Koei sée-sée sik daw gwaw-tau. Neée-ga ché haang-duk taai maan. gaan hdk-haau dée aang taai daw. Neiw gaan fong* dai gwaw-tau. Koei-gé sai-min-tsdi taai daw, chéen* taai siu. Hoci Ying-gwok yiien gwaw-tdu. Kéci-gé siin-séei tdai sfu. SE SY SMEY PDINTERVIEW 95 VI. If. 1. Yéie-gwaw yat-yit téng Joong-gwok w&* hd yéong-yée hak. 2. Yiie-gwaw nay héu Héong Gong chéng héei ngaw dok-kay. 3. Yite-gwaw Lay séen-saang m-lai ngiw md hdk-sdang. . Ytie-gwaw déc fa taai gwai m-hé maai. . Ytie-gwaw nay rh-gay-dak maai soong ngaw-day mé yé sik, ge More Practice Read aloud and answer the following: 1 2. 3. oR, Nay giu-tsd mée-yé méng*?. . . Nay-gé pdang-yau né? Nay géet-jaw fin may? . . . Lay séen-sdang née? Nay gay-daw sei? Nay tdai-taai* toong-miai tsai- néei né? . Béen-wai* hdi Joong-gwok chdot-sai? Nay né? . Wang séen-siang gaau mée-yé shiie? Lay séen-saang né? . Nay gay-dik rh-gay-dik née-wAi* séen-stang? Kéei sing mée-yé? . Nay gay-dik ngaw?. . . Ngaw giu-tsd mit-yé méng* ? . Ylie-gwaw ngaw géng Gwéng-doong w3* nay ming th-ming-baak né? . Wong taai-taai* w4 mh-hé maai dée fa; déem-gdai? Io. 11. 12. 13. 14. Nay gay-sée géct-fiin? Hi rh-h8i stip néen chéen? Nay-gé bay-shite w6oi th-wooi da-tsée? Chéng héei téng déen-wa*; béen-gaw géng? Nay hii rh-hii sée-sée sé sihn? Néc-foong sihn hai Ying-mtin-gé; nay sik rh-sik tai?96 15. CANTONESE . Joong-gwk shie ndan m-ndan ming-baak? 6. Nay tsd mée-yé ste? . . . Lay séen-saang né? 17. 18. 19. 20. Nay dik haan rh-dik haan géen ngaw-gé paang-yau? Wong séen-saang wa kéei mh-dk haan; déem-gaai? Dée fa hai h-hAi gwai gwaw-tau? Kéci-gé stin-séei hai mh-hii taai daw?Lesson 10 WEATHER . Gim-yat jin hai hé yéet. Hai, chim-yat léong- séng-dée yan-wai lok tie. . Chiim-yat 16k hé daai ye. Heong Gong-gé téen-hay hai gdm yéong*. Say fig gaw yet hd yéet, léong saam gaw ylict hé lang, sham say gaw yet niten- niien-day. . Chiim-maan —yan-wai giim yéet, ngiw gok- dk hé rh-shue-fook. Hé nan fan-gau. . Nay mé Idang-hay? . Md, ngaw séong mai yat ga liang-hay gay. Nay gim-yat yiu md hoci di-baw? . Ngaw mé héei, yan-wai yéet gwaw-tau. It’s very hot today. Yes, it was cooler yesterday because it rained. There was very heavy rain yesterday. Hong Kong’s weather is like that; four or five months very hot, two or three months very cold and three or four months fairly warm. Last night I felt very un- comfortable because of the heat. It was difficult to sleep. You have no air-condition ing? No, I would like to buy an air-conditioner. Did you play (foot) ball today? No, I didn’t; it was too hot.98 CANTONESE, 8. Hai jin-gé. Yéen-tsby hé d&ai foong. Nay nim wéoi th-wéoi dé- foong né? g. Ngaw nim rh-wooi. Dée foong rh-h&i_ stip-fin diai. 10. Nay yau mé héei-gwaw Ying-gwok? 11. Ngaw may héei-gwaw. Nay né? 12, Ngaw héei-gwaw yat chée. Ying-gwok-gé téen-hay déong gwaw Héong Géng hé daw. 13. Hai mé? Yiu mé 13k suet? 14. Yau. Hai Bak-ging, Séong-héy dd yau sée ldk-sitet. 15. Gaw-shie yat ding yiu jéok hé daw yée-fEok, hai rh-hai? 16. Hii, yiu jéok hé daw sadam. 17. Chiim-maan 16k d&ai ye; ngaw-gé sam hd sup. Gim-tsiu dd may gon. 18. Ting-tsiu ytie-gwdw hé téen, ngiw séong hoei da-baw. 19. Ngdw nim ting-yat yat ding hé téen. Indeed it was. It’s very windy now. Do you think there will be a typhoon? I don’t think so. The wind isn’t terribly strong. Have you ever been to England. No, have you? T’ve been once. The weather in England is much colder than in Hong Kong. Really? Does it snow? Yes, It also snows in Peking and Shanghai sometimes. I suppose you need to wear a lot of clothes there? Yes, you do. It rained heavily last night; my clothes were very wet. They weren’t dry this morn- ing. Tf it’s fine tomorrow morn- ing, I’d like to play football. I think it’s sure to be fine tomorrow.WEATHER 99 Vocabulary 1, jin really, honest, real. 2. yéet hot. 3. long-séng cool. 4. 16k yie to rain (lit. ‘fall rain’). 5. téen-hay weather. 6. giim-yéong* like this, in this way. 7. Viang cold. 8. nien warm. g. gdk-dik to feel, consider. 10. shue-f6ok comfortable. 11. fan-gau to sleep. 12, Kiang-hay air-conditioning (lit. ‘cold air’). laang-hay gay an air-conditioner (lit. ‘cold air machine’). 13. dd-baw to play a ball game (lit. ‘strike ball’) (loan word). 14. wdoi verb prefix to make future tense. 15. foong wind. 16. da foong a typhoon (it. ‘strike wind’). 17. chée time, occasion. 18. ddong cold. 19. ict to snow (lit. ‘fall snow’). 20. Bak-ging Peking. 21. S€ong-héy Shanghai. 22, jéok to wear. 23. yée-fSok clothes. 24. stam upper garment, clothes. 25. sip wet. 26. tsiu morning. gim-tsiu this morning. 27. gon dry. 28. hé téen fine, fine weather.100 CANTONESE Notes 1. Sentence 1. The expression ‘jun hai’ is very useful and idiomatic. By itself it equals ‘it’s truc’, ‘honestly’. Followed, as in this case, by an adjective we have ‘it really is very. . In Sentence 8 there is another example, this time with the suffix ‘-gé’ and the verb ‘hai’ before, also meaning ‘it’s true’. 2, Sentences 2 and 3. ‘To rain’ in Cantonese is literally ‘come down rain’, The same form is used for snow (Sentence 13). For ‘heavy’ rain the Chinese say ‘big’ rain. In Malaysia the Cantonese say ‘I6k sée’’, literally ‘come down water’. 3. Sentence 3. To indicate ‘fairly’ or ‘moderately’ Cantonese sometimes doubles the adjective and adds the suffix ‘-day’. A good parallel is the English ‘red-ish’ which in Cantonese is ‘hoong-héong-day’. 4. Sentence 6. To render the question ‘did you. . .?” the two verbs ‘y4u mé’ are placed before the main verb. The answer ‘I did’ or ‘I didn’t’ is made by ‘yau’ or ‘md’ with the main verb repeated as in Sentence 7. 5. To play ball games is rendered simply by ‘d4-baw’, ‘baw’ being the loan word from ‘ball’. There are, of course, particular words for the various games but this is enough for the present. 6, ‘Wéoi’ Sentence 8. The future tense is usually indicated by a word of time such as ‘tomorrow’ without adding a prefix or suffix to the verb. Here, however, we have ‘wdoi’ to render likelihood and in cases where there is no time word in the sentence.WEATHER aor 7. In Sentence 8 we have one of the few examples of English borrowing from Chinese. ‘Typhoon’ is closer to ‘daai foong’—big wind—than the actual phrase for a typhoon— ‘da-foong’, meaning literally ‘strike wind’ but the two are so close that either could have been the origin. 8. Note the very important usage in Sentence 10 rendering the English ‘have you ever. . .?”. An alternative form could be ‘nay héei-gwaw Ying-gwok mAy?’ but with the added connotation of ‘yet’. This form of past tense is distinct from that made by the suffix ‘jaw’. ‘Hoci-jaw’ would mean ‘gone and not returned’, ‘Hici-gwaw’, on the other hand, indicates that the person has gone and has come back again; he has had the experience of going, a sense which is inherent in the English ‘have you ever. . .?”. g. Sentence 12. There are two words for ‘cold’. ‘Liang’ is a little more ‘literary’ and is the word used in Mandarin and ‘déong’ is more purely a Cantonese word. 10. Note in the same Sentence how the comparative is intensified: ‘doong gwaw Héong Gong hé daw’—‘colder than Hong Kong very much’, not the English word order ‘very much colder than. . .’. 11, The expression ‘is that so?’ is rendered very neatly by ‘hai mé?’—Sentence 13. Drill I. ‘jun’—truly, really, it’s true. 1. Jun hai ho 1 2. Jin hai hé gwai. ; 3. Jan hai hé léng. Hai rh-hAi jun-gé? Hai, hai jun-gé.roa CANTONESE 4. Lay séen-stang hé sik gong Joong-gwok wa*. Hai jun-gé. 5. Née-béon shite yée-sip min; jim hai gwai gwaw-tiu, : 6. Kéei wa Lay taai-taai* stp-fin léng. Hai mh-hai jun-gé? Hai jim-gé. 7. Jan hai hé dai yue. 8, Dée fa juin hii hé léng. g. Née-gaw yaet jim hai hé yéet. 10. Kéei jim hi hé hé yan. Il. § duik’—to feel, consider. 1. Ngaw gim-y&t gok-dik hé yéet. 2. Nay gok-dik shie-f8ok m-shue-f80k né? H6 shie-fSok. 3. Ngdw gok-dik Ying-gwok-gé téen-hay m-hd. 4. Nay gok-dik déem-yéong*? Ngiw gok-dik hé déong. 5. Lay séen-stang gok-dak h8k Joong-miin hé naan. IIL. ‘yau mé’ plus verb, 1. Nay chiim-yat yéu m6 héei tdi hay? Ngaw mé héei. 2, Dée hdk-stang yau md Idi? M6, kéei-dy mo lai. . Ngaw mé héei yan-wai yéet gwaw-tau. . Kéei yu mé mBai ga che? Yau, kéei m&ai- jaw ga che. . Law sten-stang yau md Isi? Mé, kéei mé lai. . Kéei mé bay chéen* ngaw. 7. A Ying yau mé maai dée f&? Yau, kéei miai-jéw hé daw. Ou POWEATHER 103 8. Jéong tdai-taai* yu mé yim cha? Yau, kéei yum-jaw yat booi. g. Koei déem-gaai md Iai? Yan-w4i mé chécn*. 10. Kéei-day m6 héei hék-han yan-wai lang gwaw-tau. IV. Use of ‘-gwaw’ with verbs meaning ‘have you ever. . .?. 1. Nay héci-gwaw Gwéng-jau may? May, ngiw may héci-gwaw. 2. Kéei yau md Idi-gwaw née-shie? Lai-gwaw Iéong chée. 3. Nay yiu mé chaw-gwaw née-ga che? May. 4. Nay yau mé sik-gwaw déem-sim? Stk-gwaw hé daw chée. . Nay yau mé tsd-gwaw née-dée gdong? May, ngaw may ts6-gwaw. 6. Gaw hdk-saang tai-gwaw née-gaw tste may? Tai-gwaw. 7. Nay yau mé chaw-gwaw fay-gay? Chaw-gwaw ho daw chée. 8. Kéei yiu md dok-gwaw shie? Mé. g. Wéng-séen-stang héci-gwaw Bak-ging may? May. 10. Nay gim-tsiu yau m6 tdi-gwaw bé-jée? Tai- gwaw. go V. ‘Much’ plus comparative adjective. 1. Kéei diai gwaw ngaw hé daw. 2. Joong-gwok dai gwaw Ying-gwok ho daw. 3. Kéei léng gwaw ngaw hé daw. 4. Chaw dik-sée gwai gwaw chaw ba-séc hé daw. 5. Née-ga hay-che faai-gwaw gaw-ga ho daw.104 CANTONESE VI. ‘Yat ding’—certainly, ‘yat ding yiw’—must. 1. Kéei yat ding hé yau chéen*. . Ngaw yat ding yiu faan dok-kay. Yéen-tsby yat déem jdong. . Koei yat ding 14i déok-shue. . Ngaw-day yat ding yiu ts6 goong. YAn-wai giim yéet kéei-day yat ding hé rh-she- fdok. ._Kéei yat ding sik gong Gwok-yiie. . Ngaw-day yat ding yiu faan-hdei Ying-gwok. . Nay yat ding yiu fiin-gau. . Ngaw yat ding yiu hdk Joong-min. . Ting-yat yat ding hé téen. © SORUR GARY More Practice Read aloud, answer questions and complete unfinished sentences. . Ying-gwok Hang rh-laang? . Nay gok-duk shue-fSok rh-shie f80k? . . . Déem-gaai? . Ying-gwok dai gwaw Héong Géng. Joong-gwok . . . Nay ydu md héei-gwaw May-gwok? Yite-gwaw ting-yat hd téen nay yiu ts méc-yé? Nay nim wooi th-wooi di-foong?. . . Gay-sée? Nay yau mé laang-hay-gay?. . . Déem-gaai? . Yau ste Héong Gong hé yéet. Sing-ga-baw. ; . . Nay yiu mh-yiu fan dok-kay? Yat ding. . . Déem- gaai? 10. H8k-sdang yat ding yiu ddok-shie. Séen-saang. . . 11, Chiim-maan yau mé Idk ytie? 12. Ying-gwok sée-sée hd Iéong-song. Héong Géng. . . 13. Nay gok-dik déem-yéong* ? 14. Hai Ying-gwok téen-hay hé mh-hd? © SY AAYW DmWEATHER . Chiim-maan hé naan fin-gau. Yan-wai. . . . Joong-gwok diai gwaw. . . . Jun hai hé yéet. Ngaw yiu jéok. . . . Gim-yat lok diai ye. Téen-hay sup m-siip? . Kéei héei-gwaw May-gwok yat chée. Nay née? . Gum-tsiu hé lang; nay gok-dik déem yéong*? 105. Jan hai hé nby rh- . Léong gaw do hé mi . Féo-chin hé dian- up-yat faw Lesson 11 FRIENDS AND RELATIONS Nay hai béen-shde gam ndy? . Hai Naam-ging. Ngaw giu-néen faan-lai Héong Gong. . Nay hi Naam-ging ts mitt-yé? . Ngaw hdei géen ngaw fo-mé. mé-chin yau béng. Kéei yéen-tsdy hé faan-dée. Nay f60-mé né? . Ngdw ma-ma say-jaw, bi-ba jdong hdi-shiie. hé 13, baat-sip lai-baai ngaw géen-gwaw nay- Kaci w4 gum- néen wooi géet-fin. . Hai, tdong yat wai* Chin siu-jé; ngiw rh- gay-dik kéei-gé méng*. Kéei-day ha-gaw yiet géet-fin. What a long time since we met. Where have you been so long? In Nanking. I came back to Hong Kong last ycar. What were you doing in Nanking? I went to see my parents. Are they both well? My father is well but my mother was ill. She is a little better now. How are your parents? My mother is dead; my father is still alive. He’s very old now, over eighty. I saw your younger brother last weck. He said he is getting married this year. Yes, to a Miss Chun; I forget her other names. They're getting married next month.17. 18, FRIENDS AND RELATIONS 107 . Ngaw daailé ngaam- . M-h&i kéei-gé méoi*, hai kéei 4-j@. Hing- ming hai ng&w 1d paang- yau. Kéei chdot-néen héei Ying-gwok ts shang-yée. . Ngaw hai Naam-ging- gé sée-hiu géen-gwaw Lau Wa-chéong. Nay ay-duk mh-gay-duk .. Gay-ditk, kéei yée-chéen hai Héong Géng tsb yée-sang. . Hai, hé daw néen chéen. . Nay déem-yéong* héci Naam-ging ga? . Ngaw chiw faw-ché héei. H&i hé shte-f8ok. Faan-lai-gé sée-hau né? Ngaw chaw fay-gay faan-lai, Vocabulary Naam-ging Nanking (lit. southern capital). 1 2. glu-néen last year (lit. ‘old year’). 3. £80-md parents. + 5 . mé-chin mother. f8o-chin father. My clder brother’s just married. His wife is Law Hing-ming’s younger sister. Not his younger sister, his elder sister. Hing-ming is an old friend of mine. He’s going to England next year on business. When I was in Nanking I saw Lau Wa-cheong. Do you remember him? Yes, he used to be a doctor in Hong Kong. Yes, many years ago. How did you go to Nanking? I went by train. It was very comfortable. And when you came back? I came back by plane.6. béng ill. yau béng to be ill. 7. hé-faan to get better, recover (lit. ‘good return’). 8. m§-ma_ mother, colloquial Hong Kong term. g. say to die. 10. bi father, colloquial Hong Kong term. 11. 16 old. 12. stong-gaw lai-baai last week. ng-gaw yliet last month. 13. sai-l6 younger brother. 14. gum-néen this year cf. gum-yat today. 15. siu-jé Miss. 16. ha-gaw yiet next month. v lai-baai next week. 17. diai-lé elder brother. 18. ngaam-ngaam just (of time). ngaam right, correct. 19. mboi* younger sister. 20. 4-jé elder sister. 21. chdot-néen next year (lit. ‘go-out year’). 22. -gé sée-hdu when, at the time when. 23. yée-chéen formerly. 24. yée-saang a doctor. 25. faw-ché a train (lit. ‘fire vehicle’). Ke Notes 1. In Sentence 1 the phrase ‘hé n8y th-géen’ would be more grammatically correct as ‘hé ndy mé géen’ to render ‘it’s a long time we have not met’ but the form given is a correct idiomatic usage. 2, In Sentence 4 ‘ngaw f60-mé’ could have included the possessive suffix thus—‘ngaw-gé [0-mo’. The compound “fSo-md'——‘father-mother’—is a neat one for ‘parents’.FRIENDS AND RELATIONS 109 The full forms for ‘father’ and ‘mother’ are given in Sentence 6. These are the polite, somewhat literary, but very com- mon forms. In Sentence 7 we have the very colloquial ‘m4-ma’ and ‘ba-ba’, borrowed from English and in common use in Hong Kong. The word ‘m&’ is, of course, Chinese but in its duplicated form and juxtaposed with the loan from English ‘papa’ it can be taken as a loan word. Compare also the word ‘amah’, a female servant, which is from the Chinese ‘m4’ but is only used by foreigners. The two other words for ‘father’ —‘l-dau’—and ‘mother’ —‘lé-m6’—are rather rough and had better be avoided. ‘L6-dau’ means ‘old bean’ and ‘lé-mé’ ‘old mother’. 3. In Sentence 6 ‘to recover’, ‘get better’ is. neatly and simply rendered by ‘hé faan’—literally ‘good return’ or ‘well return’. By adding ‘dée’ the idea that the recovery is only partial or slight is conveyed. Other examples of this idiom: gim-yat yéet faan-dée it’s become slightly warmer again today. gum-ySt déong faan-dée it's a bit colder again today. 4. In Sentence 7 we have the word ‘to die’. In fact the speaker in a case like this might have used the euphemism ‘gwaw-jaw sin’, literally ‘has crossed the body’ but it is better to introduce the simple word before the more advanced idiom. 5. Also in Sentence 7 we have the expression ‘to be still alive’ rendered by the odd and simple phrase ‘still here’ or ‘still with us’.n10 CANTONESE 6. To say last week or last month (but not last year) Chincse say ‘above week’ and ‘above month’ (Sentence 8). Similarly next week and next month are ‘below week’ and ‘below month’. In English we say ‘down through the ages’ and ‘down to the present day’ but we do not usc the notion of ‘up’ in time past and ncither up nor down for the time recently past or about to come. However, in Chinese the terms ‘sfong-gaw’ and ‘hA-gaw’ are only used for months and weeks, never for days or years. 7. In Sentence 10 we have the expression ‘ngiam-ngaam’ for just. The single word ‘ngaam’ means right or correct. 8. ‘When’ or ‘at the time when’ is here (Sentence 12) rendered in an odd manner, from an English point of view. The word(s) for ‘time’ is attached by the possessive ‘-g@ to the preceding clause, giving literally ‘I in Nanking’s time’. Another rendering could be ‘ngiw hai Naam-ging gaw-jfin-sée—literally ‘I in Nanking that time’. Drill I. Last week and month and next. aw lai-baai lok ng’ hai rh-hdi song-gaw ; kéei hi-gaw lai saam géet-fiin. . Nay gay-sée lai? Séong-gw yict. . Chiin siu-jé ha-gaw yiict héci Ying-gwok d8ok- shite. . Ngaw ha-gaw lai-baai yat chaw faw-ché héci Gwéng-jau. . SEong-gaw yGet hé ldang, ha-gaw yet rh-wooi o gbepe ~ gam 8, Séong-gaw yilet déc fa hé gwai.FRIENDS AND RELATIONS w lai-baai fig géen ngaw ma-ma. 10. Ngaw-day ha-gaw lai-baai stam chaw fay-gay héei Sing-ga-baw. Il. Adjective plus ‘fan’. 1. Séong-gaw 1ai- faan hé daw. 2, Ngaw fSo-chin yau b&ng; yée-ga dd may hé faan. 3. Gim-yat déong faan-dée. 4. Séong-gaw lai-baai ntien faan hé daw. Yée-ga ho yéet. 5. Dée jiie-y3ok md giim gwai; péng faan-dée. 6, Yan-wAi giim laang dee fa gwai faan hé daw. 7 8 ai ngaw yéu béng; yéc-ga hé . Nay taai-taai* hé faan may? M-goy, kéei hé faan-dee. . Kéei yée-chéen yu béng; yéen-tsdy hé faan. III. Time when. 1, Ngaw hai Sing-ga-baw-gé sée-hu md géen Lau séen-sdang. 2. Téen-hay yéet-gé sée-hau ngaw gok-dik rh-shie- fSok. 3. Ngaw sik f¥an-gé sée-hdu Wong siu-jé lai ngaw odk-kay. 4. Ngaw hai Joong-gwok-gé sée-hau ngaw dok- jaw Joong-min. 5. Kéei ngaam-ngaam lai Héong Géng-gé sée-hau fSo-chin say-jaw. 6, Lay séen-sdang yu béng-gé sée-hAu gok-dik hé naan d6ok-shie. 7. Ngaw hai hdk-saang-gé sée-hau my géen-gwaw Haw siu-jé.a CANTONESE. 8, Ngiw hai Ying-gwok ts6 saang-yée-gé sée-hiu th-sik kéci. 9. Ngiw hai Ma Joong-gwok w*. 10. Kéei hai joong-hdk déok-shue-gé sée-hau, kéei fSo-mé yée-ging say-jaw. -gwok-gé sée-hiu hdk gong IV. ‘Formerly’, ‘used to’, ‘before’. 1. Kéei yée-chéen hai Héong Ging ts6 sdang-yéc. 2, Ngaw yée-chéen hai Gwéng-jau sik koci. 3. Ngaw yée-chéen he sik gong Gwok-yiie; yée-ga tegay dik. 4. Saam gaw yiict yée-chéen (or ‘chéen’) ngaw yau béng. 5. Hé néy yée-chéen kéei hdi Joong-gwok déok- shite. 6. Gay-daw nen chécn? Sip gay néen chéen. 7. Wong séen-sdang yée-chécn yau hé daw chéen* ; yée-ga md. 8, Saam gaw yiiet chéen kéei lai née-shite tsd yée-saang. 9. Yée-chéen yau mé hdk-saang d6ok Joong-miin? H6 siu. 10. Hé ndy yée-chéen kéei lai Héong Gong ts6 shang-yée. V. Family words. 1, Ngaw f8o-chin yée-ging hé 13, chat-slip-ig séei. 2, Ngaw fSo-mé da hé 16. “3. Nay-gé b&-ba yée-chéen ts6 shang-yée, hai m-hai?1 12. 13. 14. 15. FRIENDS AND RELATIONS M3 Hii, hé ndy yée-chéen. Nay diai-lé géet-jaw fin gay-ndy? . Géet-jaw fin, stip néen, Yau saam gaw sai- miun-ts: . Gay-daw gaw tdi, gay-daw gaw ndei? . Léong gaw tsdi, yat gaw néci. Nay m&-ma hé ma? . Stong-gaw lai-baai yu béng. Yée-ga hé fan, thegoy. . Nay-gé mBoi* gay-daw sdei? 10. Stip-chat sdci; kéei jéong hai joong-hdk déok- shite. Nay 4,jé né? Géct-jdw fin may? Ngaw a-jé géet-jaw fiin hé ndy. Nay-gé taai-taai* gay hé ma? Gay ho, yau sim. Wong taai-taai* ne? Ngaw tiai-taai* do ho, rh-goy. More Practice Read aloud and answer in at least four different ways the following ‘when?’ questions, as in the examples given. 1. Nay gay-sée géen kéei? WATERED (a) Ngaw hai Ying-gwok-gé sée-hdu géen kéei. (b) Ngaw song gaw yiiet géen kéci (c) Ngaw séong gaw lai-baai géen kéci. (d) Ngaw hé nay yée-chéen géen kéci (e) Ngaw stam néen chéen gécn kéci. . Nay gay-sée géet-fin? . Lay séen-saang gay-sée li Heong Géng? Wong taai-taai* gay-sée hoci May-gwok? Nay -chimn gay-sée sdy-jaw? . Haw séen-sdang gay-sée maai gaw-ga che? . Nay gay-sée h6k gong Gwéng-ddong wA*?ns CANTONESE, 8. Nay gay-sée hOk ja ché 9. Koei gay-sée ts6 shang-yée? 10. Nay gay-sée hai Ying-gwok d6ok-shue, Complete the following sentences. Example: Ngaw géet-jaw fin. . . (hé daw néen chéen). Ngaw. . . géet-j4w flzn (insert ‘s4am néen chéen’) (insert ‘hé ndy yée-chéen’) (insert ‘song gaw yiet’). . Ngaw hai Héong Géng. . . m&ai-jaw née-ga ché. . Ngaw ma-ma sdy-jaw. .. . Lay séen-saang. . . Idi Sing-ga-baw. . Wong taai-taai* . . . lai-baai héei Naam-ging. Ngaw hai Héong Géng. . . h3k Joong-miin. Kéei. . . chéen hoei Buk-ging. Ngaw fSo-chin . . . néen chéen say-jaw. . Wong siu-jé. . . ldi-baai say géet-fun. . Ngaw. . . riegéen. . Kéei ha-. . . hdei Gwong-jaw. SO MY AE BY DwDai stip-yée faw HONG 1. Hai Héong Géng yau ho daw saan. 2. Mé chaw. Hai Héong Gong gaw héy-dé dée sian ho go. Hai Gau- long dée saan mé gam gd. 3. Héong Géng yau hé siu dy-fong hay ok, saw-yée hdy-jAw gam daw gd lau, Saan-déng do yau go lau. 4. Hai, day-fong sai, yin daw. 5. Méchaw. Nay hai béen- shiie jfie? 6. Hai Waan-tsdi, yat gaan hé gd-gé lau. Yau yée- sip ching. Ngaw-day hai sfip-chat lau. 7. Hai Héong Gong ndam- béen yau yat daat day- fong giu-tsd Héong Géng-tsai, hai rh-hai? 8. Hai, gaw-shiie yu hd daw shiten-ts4i, Yau hé daw ldw-yite-yan, Lesson 12 KONG There are lots of hills in Hong Kong. Yes, indeed. On the island of Hong Kong the hills are very high. They aren’t such high hills in Kowloon. There’s very little room in Hong Kong to build houses and so they’ve built so many high buildings. There are even high buildings on the Peak. Yes, small space and lots of people. It’s quite true. Where do you live? In Wanchai in a very tall building. There are twenty storeys. We’re on the seven- teenth floor. On the south side of Hong Kong there’s a place called Aberdeen, isn’t there? Yes, there are many small boats there, and there are many fishermen.16 10. CANTONESE . Héong Géng naam-b@en dd yau Sim-sdei-waan téong-maai Chéen-sdei- waan, Gaw séng-sée hai buk-b&en. Ddong-béen, sai-b&en yiu hé daw hoy-dé. Géw-gaan hai mée-yé? . Gdw-gaan hai diai- wooi-tong. H&u-ben yau gay gaan ngn-héng tdong-maai_ tsau-déem. Diai-w3oi-téng chéen- béen yaéu hdy. Gwaw héy h&i Gau-Léong. . Yum daw yat booi cha. Wai. Faw-gay! Daw léong béoi cha. . Wong séen-saang géng bay ngiw téng kéei yée-ga hai Sa-téen jfie. . H6 ytien. Kéei yiu y&t- yat gwaw hy lai ts3- gdong. . Kéei hai béen-d3 tsd- ong? . Hai Stong-héy ngan- hong. . Nay ts€e-gdy hai béen- dé jie? . Hai Buk-gok. . Nay chaw mée-yé ché faan dok-kay? . Ngaw chaw déen-ché. Deep Water Bay and Re. pulse Bay are also on the south side. The city is on the north side. On the east and west there are many islands. What building is that? That's the City Hall. Behind there are several banks and hotels. The sea is in front of the City Hall. And across the water is Kowloon. Have another cup of tea. Waiter! Two more cups of tea. Mr. Wong told me he is staying at Shatin now. That’s very far. He’ll have to cross the harbour every day to work. Where does he work? In the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. Where do you live yourself? At North Point. How do you get home? By tram-car.HONG KONG " a1. Nay chaw déen-ché iu- Do you go upstairs or stong ding-hai liu-ha? below? 22, Ngdw sée-sée chiw liu- I always go upstairs. stong. 23. Héong Géng yéu hé There's a lot of traffic in daw che. Hong Kong. 24. Jun hai. Taai daw. Yes, too much. Vocabulary 1. saan hill, mountain. . md chaw that’s right, correct (lit. ‘not have wrong’). . héy-dé island (it. ‘sea island’). . gd tall, high. hay to raise, lift up, build. lu a building, classifier ‘gaan’. . sdan-déng summit of hill. In Hong Kong—The Peak. . chang storey, floor. . ndam south ndam-béen southern part, place or direction. 10, Héong-Géng-tsdi_ Aberdeen, a town on Hong Kong island (lit. ‘little Hong Kong’). 11, ldw-yiie-yan fisherman (lit. ‘get-fish-man’). 12. law to get, bring, take. 13. ye a fish, classifier ‘tiu’. 14. Sim-séei-waan Deep Water Bay. 15. sum deep, profound. 16. chéen shallow, simple. 17. séng-sée city (lit. ‘wall market’). 18. buk north bik-béen northern direction. 1g. doong east. 20, sai west. 21. daai-w5oi-tong assembly hall. In Hong Kong—the City Hall. 22. wooi* a society, meeting. © OY AE hYD8 CANTONESE 23. tong a hall, classifier ‘gaan’. 24. hau-béen behind. 25. chéen-béen in front. 26. gong bay. . . téng to tell, inform. téng (lit. ‘say give. . . hear’). 27. Sa-téen Shatin, a place in the New Territories of Hong Kong (lit. ‘sandy fields)’. 28. Bik-gdk North Point, a place in Hong Kong. 2g. déen-ché tram-car (lit. ‘electric car’). go. ldu-séong upstairs, 31. lauch& downstairs. Notes 1. Sentence 2 ‘mé chaw’. . . This negative way of saying ‘quite right’—(lit. ‘not have wrong’)—is very common. Another way of replying would simply have been ‘h&i’ or, with more emphasis, ‘jiin hai’ as in Sentence 24. 2. In Sentence 2 there are two examples of the classifier used to mean ‘the’—‘gaw héy-dé’ (the island) and ‘dée saan’ (the mountains), 3. The simplicity of Chinese grammar is illustrated in Sentence 3. There are few prepositions. Here there is no need for an equivalent of ‘to’ in ‘to build houses’. Similarly there is no need for an impersonal ‘they’ in ‘they've built somany. . .’in the same Sentence. Economy and efficiency as well as simplicity is found in Sentence 4 in the four words ‘day-fong sai, yan daw’, neater than the English equivalent. 4. Two examples of the diminutive suffix ‘tsi’, introduced in Lesson 9, are found in Sentences 7 and 8—‘Héong- Géng-tsdi’ and ‘shiten-tsdi’. ‘Ts4i’, meaning originally ‘a son’ or ‘child’, conveys a human and familiar sense toHONG KONG 11g the object which it qualifies, a connotation quite absent from the English adjective ‘small’ or ‘little’ used in transla- ting the suffix. 5. The words for north—‘bik’—south—‘ndam’—east— ‘doong’—and west—‘sai’ are never used by themselves but always combined with others, In the examples in Sentences 7 and g they are used as adjectives describing the word ‘béen’ meaning direction or place. To render ‘the North’, ‘the South’, etc., indicating a broad expanse of country or region, not merely ‘north side’ or ‘south side’, Chinese uses the direction words with ‘fong’, the second half of ‘day-fong’ (Sentence 4) the word for ‘place’. Thus: * bik-fong the North —ddong-fong the East naam-fong the South _sai-fong the West. ‘He is a Northerner’ (meaning a Northern Chinese) is therefore: Kéei hai bik-fong yan Here are the names of Provinces in China which usc these direction words, in each case coming after the noun. Saan-doong (Shantung) meaning ‘cast of the mountains’. Saan-sai (Shansi) meaning ‘west of the mountains’. Séem-sai (Shensi) meaning ‘west of the Shen Plain’. Haw-bik (Hopei) meaning ‘north of the (Yellow) river’. Haw-naam (Honan) meaning ‘south of the (Yellow) river’. Woo-bik (Hupei) meaning ‘north of the lake’. Wéo-ndam (Hunan) meaning ‘south of the lake’. Wian-ndam (Yunnan) meaning ‘south of the clouds’. Gwéng-ddong (Kwangtung) meaning ‘broad cast’. Gwéng-sai (Kwangsi) meaning ‘broad west’.120 CANTONESE, Yunnan, ‘south of the clouds’, is so named because it lies south of the large province of Szechuan (Four Rivers— Say-chiien) where clouds frequently gather over the mountains. Here are two other examples, both rivers which run through Kwangtung Province: sai-gong, the West River (Si Kiang) which flows from Yunnan through Kwangsi and Kwangtung to Canton where it is called the Pearl River. doong-ging, the East River which flows into the West River. 6. ‘In front of’, ‘chéen-béen’, and ‘behind’ ‘hau-béen’, are placed behind the objects to which they relate. (Sentence 11.) This is true of all other directional words as in Sentence 7 above. 7. In Sentence 12 the word ‘daw’ (much, many) is used twice in a comparative meaning. This is only possible when some indication of how much more is required. ‘Drink more tea’ could be rendered ‘yam daw-dée cha’ but in the dialogue the amount is indicated. 8. The simple English verb ‘to tell’, ‘to inform’ has a clumsy equivalent in Cantonese. (Sentence 13.) Three words are required instead of the one in English: ‘gong bay. . . téng’ ‘say give (so-and-so) hear’. Alternative and slightly less clumsy forms are: “wa... jee’ ‘say (so-and-so) know’. gong. . . jee ‘say (so-and-so) know’. 9. The word for tram-car in Hong Kong, ‘déen-che’, meaning ‘electric vehicle’ is used for a motor car in Singapore and Malaysia.Drill HONG KONG rat I. Directions. er Som WoO oF . Joong-gwok ddong-béen yau héy, sai-béen yu saan. . Kéci hai ddong-fong jfie-jaw hé ndy. . Gwéng-diong buk-ben yu Wéo-naam, sai- béen yau Gwong-sai. . Buk-fong yan gong Gwok-yie. . Haw-bik hai béen-shiie? Hai Wéng-haw buk- béen. Buk-t fong hé lang, naam fong ho yéet. . Ying-gwok hai héy-d6; buk-b&en, ndam-béen, doong-béen, sai-b&cn do yau héy. . Buk-fong liang, ndam-fong yéet. . Saan-doong, Sian-sai dd hai bi . Gwéng-ddong, Gwéng-sai dé hai naam-fong. -fong. IL. In front of, behind, above, below. . Tsdu-déem hau-béen yau hé daw pé-tiu*, . Ngiin-héng chéen-béen yau hé daw ché. . Ngaw chaw chéen-béen, chéng nay chiw hau- béen. . Ngaw-diy éok-kay chéen-béen ydu yat gaan hay-yGien*. . Hay-ylien* hau-béen yau yat gaan go lau. Kéci hai Ngaw hai Zen dang nay. tau* s€ong-béen jtic. . Ngiw-day-gé sé-ts€e-lu sfong-béen ydu yat gaan tsdu-ga. . Décn-ché lau-ha yau yan taai daw. . San sfong-bécn yu yat ga fay-gay.a2 CANTONESE III. To tell, inform. 1. Ngaw gong bay nay téng. . Géng bay Wang séen-saang téng ngaw ting-yat ma-lai. . Kaci gong bay ngaw téng kéci f60-chinn sA . Chéng géng bay ngaw téng décm-gaai mé 13 . Séen-shang gong bay h6k-sdang téng yiu y’ dok-shue. Kéei wa ngaw jée. . Ngaw géng nay jée; kéei lai-baai stam lai. . Ngaw ting-yat gong bay nay téng. . Kéei chiim-yat w4 ngaw jéc. . Kéci gong bay ngaw téng h’-gaw lai-baai_héei May-gwok. » SeRY MD RY More Practice Read aloud and answer in as many ways as possible: . Joong-gwok ddong-béen yau mée-yé? . Joong-gwok bik-fong Liang th-léang? . Hai bik-fong kéei-day gong méc-yé wa*? . Héong Géng-tsai hai béen-shiie? . Gwéng-ddong hai Joong-gwok béen-shiie? Hai bik- fong? . Héy hai daai-w3oi-tong hdu-bécn, hai m-hai? . Diai-wdoi-tong chéen-béen yau mé ngin-héng? . Chaw déen-ché liu-s€ong shite-fook m-shie-f6ok? . Saan h3-béen yau mé go lau? Saan-déng ne? . San s€ong-béen yau mo day-fong hay dok? . Déem-gdai hay giim daw go lau? . Béen-gaw géng bay nay téng? . Nay géng béen-gaw téng? . Ying-gwok dée sian gd m-go? . Gaw-gaw saan hiu-béen yau mée-yé day-fong? . Sing-ga-baw diai rh-daai day-fong? SGEGHASO MYDD wron a17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22, 23. 24. 25. HONG KONG 13 Nay gaan ook yau gay-daw chang lau? Chaw ba-sée chéen-béen hé ma? Nay hai doong-fong jfie-jaw gay-ndy? Yum daw yat booi cha, ho ma? Heong Géng-tsai shiien-tsai daw th-daw? Héong-Géng-tsdi dée yan ts6 mée-yé gong? Héong-Géng niam-béen yau mée-yé day-fong? Gwaw héy yau mee-yé day-fong? Géu-ldong hau-béen yiu mé saan?Dii-stp-saam faw 2 STUDENTS . Nay hai béen-shiie déok-shiie? . Ngiw hai Héong Géng Joo Diai- Stn A Shie-yiien*. 5k, . Ngaw dook yée-hdk. Nay ddok mée-yé? . Ngaw déok Jéong-min téong-maai Joong-gwok lik-sée, Ngiw-day ha- gw ldi-baai hdau-sée. . Ngaw-day ha-gaw ydet dd hdau-sée. Ngaw hé pa héau rh-dé, M-gau sée-hiu h8k gim daw yé. . Nay rh-sai pa, nay gam chdong-ming. Nay yat ding haau-do. . Hay-ming haau-dé d&an-hai wa rh-ding. . Nay gaan daai-hék dée hdk-saang daw-sd hii ndam-tsdi, hai rh-hai? Lesson 13 TALKING Where are you studying? Hong Kong University. And * you? At the Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Asia College. I am studying Medicine. What are you doing? Chinese and Chinese His- tory. We have exams next week. We have exams next month. I’m afraid I won't pass. Thcre’s not enough time to learn so much. You needn’t be afraid; you're clever. I’m sure you'll pass. Thope so but it’s not certain. Most of the students at your University are men, aren’t they?20. STUDENTS TALKING 135 . Daw-s6 h’i, bit-gwaw dd yaéu hd daw néei- tsdi. Kéei-d&y daw-sd Bok min-h3k. . Stk yéen? . M-gay, ngaw r-stk. Nay gau th-gau sée-h4u yam bdoi ga-fé. . M-gau sée-hau. Ngiw yiu héei yée-yfen*. Nay né? . Ngaw yiu héei td-shue- don. . Nay daap ba-sée héei ma? Neée-gaw sée-h3u hé n&an daap ba-sée; yan daw. Yée-ga rh-hé hoei. . Ngaw jée. Ngaw chiim- yt daap rh-dé che. But-gwaw mé faat-tsée. Ngaw yat ding yiu héei. . Nay gay-sée bit-yéep? . Ngaw hay-m&ng chéot- néen. . Ngaw j6ong yu éong néen. Ngiw bit-y&ep jee-hau hay-m&ng héei ngdy-gwok ddok-shite. Hei ngdy-gwok dée hBk-stang daw-s6 héei Ying-gwok tdong-maai May-gwok. Ngaw yée-ga tsdu la. Yes, but there are a lot of girls. Most of them study Arts. Have a cigarette? No, thanks, I don’t smoke. Have you enough time for a cup of coffee? No. I must go to the hospital. What about you? I must go to the library. Are you going by bus? At this time it’s very difficult to get on a bus; so many people. Don’t go now. I know. I couldn’t get on board yesterday. But it can’t be helped. I must go. When do you graduate? Next year, I hope. I have two more years. After graduating I hope to study abroad. Most of the students who go abroad go to England and America. I’m off now.106 CANTONESE a1. Wai! Siu sim! Yau che Be careful! There’s a car Iai 1a. coming. 22. Daw-ts8. Jun h&i hé Thanks. It’s very dangerous, ngai-héem. 23. Yiu hé sfu sum haang You've got to be careful gwaw ma-l6. crossing the road. Vocabulary 1. A contraction for ‘A-jau’ Asia. 2. shie-yfen* college, school ({it. ‘book institution’). 3. yée-h&k or yée-faw the study of Medicine, cf. Lesson 11. 4. Itk-sée history. 5. hdau-sée examination, to have an examination. 6. pa to fear. 7. -d6_ verb suffix to indicate accomplishment. 8. rh-sdi_ there is no need. g. chdong-ming clever. 10. hay-m8ng_ to hope, hope (noun). 11. w& rh-ding can’t be sure, can’t say for certain. 12. daw-sé the majority, most. 1g. mtn-h&k or min-faw humanities, Arts. 14. yéen smoke, ‘stk yéen’ to smoke (lit. ‘eat smoke’). 15. gau enough. 16. ga-fé coffee. 17. yée-yBen* hospital, classifier ‘gaan’ (lit. heal institu- tion). 18. td-shue-gwéon library (lit. ‘collection-books-place’). classifier ‘gaan’. 1g. daap to travel by, to board, cf. ‘chaw’ Lesson 4. 20. mh-hé don’t. 21. but-gwaw but, only (lit. ‘not beyond’). 22, mé-faat-tsée it can’t be helped (iit. ‘there is no plan, way’).STUDENTS TALKING 197 23. bit-yéep to graduate, complete a course of study, successfully. 24. -jée-hdu after, cf. Lesson 12. 25. ng8y-gwok abroad, a foreign country (lit. ‘outside country’). 26, tsAu to go away, run. 27. stu sim! be careful! (lit. ‘small heart’). 28, ngai-héem dangerous. 2g. ma-I3 a main road (lit. ‘horse road’). Classifier ‘tiu’. Notes 1. Sentence 3. The usual way to render the adjective ‘Chinese’ is ‘Joong-gwok’ which is, of course, the noun for China (‘Middle Country’). In this instance the term ‘Joong- gwok’ would give the sense of ‘China University’; moreover the term ‘Joong-min’ is appropriate as it carries the sense of Chinese literature or culture. In Malaysia ‘China’ is often rendered by ‘Téng-saan’, literally ‘T’ang’ (Dynasty) Mountain (or Land), now obsolete in China and Hong Kong. Similarly, in Malaysia, a Chinese person is ‘Téng- yan’ and Chinese language is ‘Téng-w&*’, expressions still used by less educated people in Hong Kong. 2. Sentence 3. The words for the five continents are derived from the first syllables of the English names plus the word ‘jau’ which has the same sound as the ‘jau’ in ‘Gwéng-jau’ (Canton) but is written differently in Chinese. Here are the five Continents in Cantonese: Ajau Asia Fay-jau Africa Au-jau Europe O-jau Australia May-jau America18 CANTONESE 3. In Sentences 6, 7 and 16 there are examples of the verb suffix ‘-dé’ which indicates accomplishment of the action. This neat and useful device has no equivalent in English. Here are some examples: téng-dé to hear, i.e. to listen and hear téng mh-dé to listen but fail to hear daap-dé ché _to get on board a vehicle diap th-dé ché to fail to catch a bus (or other vehicle) hdau-dé to pass an examination haau mh-dé to fail an examination miaai-dé to buy—and get—something miaai rh-dé to try to buy something but fail win-d6é to look for and find wun rh-dé to look for and fail to find 4. In Sentence 6 we have another example of the economy of words in Chinese. Here the word ‘gau’, meaning ‘enough’, requires no verb like ‘is’ or ‘has’ which is necessary in English. Other examples: Ngaw rh-gau chéen* I haven’t enough money. Née-gaan dok gau rh-gau d&ai? Is this house big enough? Gau th-gau d8y-fong? Is there enough room? Gau Enough. 5. Note the very useful phrase in Sentence 7, ‘rh-sdi’ meaning ‘there’s no need’. But to render ‘need’ in the affirmative we do not usually use ‘sai’ but ‘yiu’ (Lesson 2). 6. The expression ‘w4 rh-ding’ in Sentence 8 is very handy and useful to render meanings such as ‘I’m not sure’, ‘Can’t say for certain’, etc. ‘Ding’ means fixed or definite. We have met it in Lesson g in ‘yat ding’ meaning certainly.STUDENTS TALKING 129 7. The word for majority or most in Sentence g is ‘daw-s6’ which is literally ‘many (much) number’. It can also mean mostly or usually. The word for minority is ‘s(u-so’, literally ‘small number’. 8. The negative command ‘don’t. . .’ is rendered very simply by ‘th-hé’, literally ‘not good’. (Sentence 15.) Another way is to use the word ‘mai’ (meaning ‘do not’) but ‘th-hé’ is the commoner form. g. The alternative to ‘d&an-h&i’, meaning ‘but’ (Lesson 7) in Sentence 16 is ‘biit-gwaw’ consisting of the literary word for the negative prefix ‘th’ plus ‘gwaw’ meaning ‘across’ or ‘beyond’. In the sense of ‘only’, ‘bit-gwaw’ is quite straight-forward, thus: ‘but-gwaw stam gaw yan’—only three people, literally not beyond three. 10. Note the very useful expression ‘mé faat-tsée’ in Sentence 16. We frequently need to say ‘it can’t be helped’ or some equivalent. ‘Faat’ means a way or method and can also mean Law. The suffix ‘-tsée’, originally having a diminutive sense, is merely added for euphony. An alternative to ‘mé faat-tsée’ is ‘md b&an-faat’, literally ‘not have manage- method’. 11. In Lesson 12 we learned ‘hau-béen’ meaning ‘behind’. In Sentence 19 the same word ‘hau’ is used to render ‘after’ and is attached to the verb it qualifies by the literary word ‘je’ which is the equivalent of the possessive suffix “.g@’ (Lesson 2). Here is another example: Kéei sik ffan-jée-hau After he eats his meal This is literally ‘He eats meal after’.130 CANTONESE 12, Also in Sentence 19 is the expression for ‘abroad’ or ‘foreign’—‘ngBy-gwok’, literally is ‘outside’ country’. ‘Ngdy- gwok-yan’ meaning ‘foreigner’ is almost always used in reference to Western people, not other Asians or people of other race. This is undoubtedly due to the paramount influence of Westerners in the 1gth century and the early part of the goth. 13. The expression ‘Be careful!’ is neatly rendered by ‘siu sim’, literally ‘small heart’. To make your heart—or mind—small in this instance is to concentrate your attention on one subject and thus to do what you are doing with great care. Drill I. Verb plus ‘dé’, . Nay yu mé téng kéei gong? Ngaw téng ri-d6. 2. Netw daap m-dé che. 3. Nay yéu m6 tdi hdk-sdang dé-baw? Ngiw tai th-do. 4. Ngiw chéng-dé Wong séen-sdang lai stk fan. 5. Yan-w4i haau-sée giim néan hdk-sdang héau th-dé. 6. Joong-gwok wa* hé' naan; ngaw hk rh-dé. 7 8. . Nay yéu m6 miai-dé gaw-ga che? Maai-d6. . Ting-y8t haau-sée; ngaw hay-m&ng héau-d6. II. Need, needn’t, must, no matter. 1. Yiu rh-yiu bay chéen*? M-sdi. 2, Gim-yit |4i-baai, th-s4i dSok-shie. 3. Ngaw yat ding yiu faan dok-kAy sfk f&an. 4. Ngaw daap rh-dé che. M-gan-yiu.SO ey aE . _Kéei yau hé daw chéen*, rh-sdi STUDENTS TALKING 131 . Ngaw gong bay kéei téng rh-sai lai. Yiu rh-yiu hdau-sée? Yat ding yi Déei-th-jfie, ngaw th-gay-duk Idi. goong. |. Nay th-sdi pa, hdau-sée ho ydong-yée. . Gim-yat rh-si Idi, ting-yat yat ding yiu lai. III. Enough, too much. COUT EHD = . Ngaw rh-gau chéen, ndy gau m-gau? Gau. . Née-gaan fong* gau rh-gau dai? M-gau daai. . Née-gaan lau mh-gau gd, bit-gwaw saam chang. Ngaw rh-gau sée-hdu déok-shte. Née-shiie rh-giu day-fong hay dok. . Née-gian lau yau yée-sfip chang, gd gwaw-tdu. . Kéei yau chéen* daw gwaw-tau. Heong Géng dée yn taai daw. Nay gau ri-gau day-fong? Gau la, daw gwaw-tau. . Yau yan rh-gau fan sik. IV. Don’t—‘th-ho’. SU OE REP a . M-ho héei gaw-shiie. . M-hé téng kéei gong. hé stk née-dee. hé bay chéen* kéei. hé th-gay-duk. hd gong bay kéei téng. hé faan-héei. M-hé géng Ying-min; yiu gong Gwéng-doong war, . M-ho ja née-ga ché; hé ngai-héem. . M-hé chaw dik-sée héei, gwai gwaw-tiu.132 CANTONESE V. But, only. i . Née-gaw hil Nga’w séong hoci Ying-gwok ddan-hZi md chéen*. . Ngaw joong-yée née-gian dok but-gwaw gwai gwaw-tau. . But-gwaw say gaw hk-siang hdau-dé. . Ngaw séong héei d4-baw ddan-hai yéet gwaw- tau. . Ngaw dang hé ndy daan-hai kéei md lai. . Née-bd shile hé péng, bit-gwaw say gaw ngan- chéen*. . Kéei ging bay ngiw téng but-gwaw ngaw th-ming-baak. Ngaw ming-bSak but-gwaw r-séong héei. -saang hé chdong-ming bit-gwaw au th-d6d. . Ngaw séong maai née-dée [4 bit-gwaw th-gau chéen*. VI. Before and after. - Kéei chéot-gaai jé . Ngaw si . Ngiw my héci Joong-gwak jée-chéen th-sik . Ngaw may sik kéei . Ngaw f gong Gwok-yite. . Kéei bat-yéep jée-hau héei Sing-ga-baw td yée-saang. chéen mé paang-yau. chin sy-jaw jée-hau ngaw faan-héei Ying-gwok. . Ngaw may chéot-sai jée-chéen kéei yée-ging hai-shie. . Sik fan jée-hdu ngaw-day chéot-gaai tdi-hay. . Géet-fin jée-hau kéei-day th-gau chéen*. . May lai jée-chéen ngaw th-sik kéei.STUDENTS TALKING 133 More Practice Read aloud, then correct or amend the following sentences: 1, Hai Héong Géng Diai-h3k mé néei hdk-saang. 2, Hai Heong Géng Joong-miin D&ai-hdk dée hdk-siang daw so h&i ndei-tsai 3. Ming-hing stp si 4. Née-wAi* dBok yi 5. H8k-shang wi kéei-day yu hé daw sée-hiu d3ok-shie. 6. Yée-ga hé sfu yn stk yéen. 7. Haang gwaw ma-I6 r-ngai-héem. 8. Dée hdk-saang rh-pa hdau-sée. g. Mai yt ga hay-ché rh-sAi hé daw chéen*. 10. u 12 13 14. 15 é sée-h4u d&ai-hdk bit-yéep. -h3k tsong-miai lik-sée. . Ngaw bit-y8ep jée-chéen yée-ging ts6 yée-sang. . Mcsdi siu sim hdang gwaw ma-l6. . Ng déem-joong daap ba-sée rh-hai gay nian. . Joong-miin D&ai-h3k mé Joong-miin shite. . Daw-s6 h3k-saang rh-joong-yée d8ok-shie, . Dée h8k-siang hé chdong-ming d&an-h8i hdai rh-dé. Answer the following as you please: . Nay gay-sée biteyZep? . Nay pa rh-pa héau-sée? . Héei ngdy-gwok d8ok-shie daw-so héei béen-shiie? . Lay séen-sdang stk mh-stk yéen? . Chaw fay-gay h&i rh-h&i hé ng&i-héem? Yiu hé sfu stim, h&i rh-h&i? Nay gau th-gau chéen* miai née-gaan dok? , Nay gau rh-gau sée-hu d&ok-shie? . Nay-d&y daw-so h&i rh-h&i Ying-gwok yin? . Nay-d&y h’-gaw lai-baai héau-sée, hai m-h&i? SO Ey age Dnip-say faw Lesson 14 ON THE TELEPHONE . Wai? Nay win béen- gaw? . Wong séen-saang hdi- shie ma? . Wong séen-stang? Née- shiie mé yn sing Wong. Nay daap chaw séen. . Nay gay-daw hd dé wa ? Hii m-hdi yée l5ok yée sham ling yat? . Yat tsfin, Née-shie hé hak. Ngaw tai th-géen. Yiu hoy dang. . . Née shite yée chat yée sham ling yat. . Doel Ngaw daap chaw séen. Wai! Wong séen-shang hai shie ma? . Nay hai béen-wAit* ? , Ngaw hai Lay Wa-dak. Wong séen-stang tAu- séen da déen-wi* giu ngaw da faan bay kéei. . Dang yat tsfin. Ngaw giu kéci Idi téng déen- war, Hullo. Who do you want? Is Mr. Wong in? Mr. Wong? There’s no- body called Wong here. You've got the wrong num- ber. What’s your number? Is it 262301? Wait a minute. It’s dark here. I can’t see. I must put on the light. . . No, this is 272301. I’m sorry. It’s the wrong number. Hullo, is Mr Wong in? Who’s speaking? This is Lee Wa-duk. Mr. Wong phoned me earlier and asked me to phone him. Wait a moment, I'll call him to the phone.22. . M-hai stip-fin ga . Mée-yé wa*? Ngaw ON THE TELEPHONE. 135 . Wai? Wa-dak, gay hé ma? Hé ndy th-géen. . Jun hai, Nay tdu-séen ‘da déen-w&* bay ngaw. . M6 chaw. Nay ting-tsiu dik-haan ma? . Ngaw dik-haan. Déem- gaai ne? . Ngaw yau dée s€e-gon séong tong nay gong. . Hai mée-yé ste? Hai m-hai hé gan-yi ge. ming-baak. Hai mee- ste? . Hi gim-yéong*, ngaw séong géet-fiin. . Wa! Téong béen-gaw? . Téong Haw siu-jé, tsik- hai Haw May-fong; i hai Téen On Géong-sée tsb da-tsée. . Ngaw sik kéci. Ngaw téng-w4 kéei fSo-chin hé yau chéen*. M-sdi dang do ting-tsiu géen nay. Nay gay déem jdong feng goong? Ng déem sau gdong; daan-hai ngaw th-duk haan, ngiw yiu faan dok-kay dé-lay ngaw- gé sdi-l6; kéei yu béng. Hullo, Wa-duk, how are you? Haven’t seen you for a long time. Yes. You phoned me a little while ago. That’s right. Are you free tomorrow morning? Yes, I’m free. Why? I want to talk to you about something. What is it? Is it important? It’s not terribly important. Whatare you saying? I don’t understand. What is it? It’s like this, I want to get married. I say! To whom? To Miss Haw, I mcan Haw May-fong; she’s a typist in the Teen On Company. I know her. I’ve heard her father is very rich. No need to wait till tomorrow morn- ing. When do you stop work? Five o’clock but I’m not free; I must go home to look after my younger brother; he’s ill.136 CANTONESE 23. Ngawtsiu-tsiegau déem Every morning I go to work faan gdong tsiu wéoi at nine and I'll phone you da déen-wa* bay nay. then. After eleven I'll be Stip-yat déem yée-h4u free to have coffee with you. ngaw duk-héan téong nay yum ga-fe. 24. Hé hé, siip-yat déem Good, I'll be free at about giim sfong-ha* ngaw eleven. As soon as I have dik-haan. Ngaw yat your phone call I'll come. téng-dé nay-gé déen- wa* ngaw tsiu lai, Vocabulary 1, wtin to look for, search. shiie to be in, at home. p chaw séen wrong number. -daw h6? what number? to be free, have leisure. 7. s€e-gén affairs, business, matters. (Longer form of Lesson 9.) 8. tsik-hai that is to say, I mean. 9. mée-yé wa*? what did you say? 10. gdong-ste a company. 11. téng-w4 to hear it said. 12, dé until, up to. 13. feng gdong to stop work. 14. da-lay to look after. 15. sau gdong to stop work, alternative to ‘fong gdong’. 16. yée-hdu after. 17. giim-séong-ha* about, approximately. 18, yat plus verb, as soon as. . . 1g. hik dark, black.ON THE TELEPHONE 137 20. tai-géen to sce. ai. hoy to open. 22. dang a light, lamp. héy dang to switch on the light. 23. décn-dang electric light. 24. tsiu-tsiu every morning. Notes 1. The important expression ‘to be in’ is rendered simply (Sentence 2) by ‘hai-shie’, literally ‘at (or in) place’. An alternative form is ‘hai-d6’. Another word for ‘at’ or ‘in’ is ‘héong’ and so we have ‘héong-dé’ or ‘héong-shiie’. 2. Wrong numbers on the telephone are common and so the expression ‘daap chaw séen’ is a useful one. It means literally ‘on the wrong line’. 3. To ask ‘what number?’ (Sentence 4) not only of tele- phones but of houses, etc., we say ‘gay-daw hé”, literally ‘how many number??. In answering we mercly give the number in case of telephones but for house numbers we say ‘saam hd’ (number three), ‘yée-stip-fig hd’ (number twenty-five), etc. 4. In Sentence 5 the compound verb ‘tdi-géen’, here in the negative ‘tai rh-géen’, is an effective way of saying ‘to sec’, being literally ‘to see meet (or fecl)’, the second verb being used to indicate the success of the action stated by the first. The phrase ‘I can’t see (it)’ could also be rendered by ‘ngaw tai rh-do’. 5. To switch on a light (Sentence 5) the Chinese say ‘to open’, ‘hoy dang’. To switch off, similarly, is ‘shut’ saan dang, or ‘rest’ ‘abate’, namely ‘sik dang’.138 CANTONESE 6. Whilst in English we say ‘answer the telephone’ (Sentence g) in Chinese we say ‘hear (or listen to) the telephone’— “teng déen-wa*’, 7. In Sentence 12 in the expression ‘dik-hian’ meaning ‘to be free’ or ‘to have leisure to.do something’ we have an example of the verb ‘dik’ being used as a main verb meaning ‘to have’ or ‘to get’ or ‘to obtain’. This common and very useful phrase means literally, therefore, ‘have leisure’. It is, of course, equally common in the negative— “ta-duk-hdan’, meaning ‘I’m busy’ or ‘I have no time’. 8. Sentence 14. Compared to English, Chinese has few prepositions. A common and useful one is ‘tong’, meaning ‘with’, In this sense it can, of course, also mean ‘and’—often in the longer form ‘téong-maai’, Lesson 3. Here ‘tong’ is used for the preposition in ‘speak to’. In Sentence 19 it is also used for ‘to’ in ‘married to. . .’. ‘Téong’ can also mean ‘for’, on behalf of”. g. Sentence 16. The phrase ‘tsik-h&i’ is very useful. In conversation we are always saying ‘I mean’, ‘you see’, ‘that is to say’ and so on. 10. ‘I hear it said’ is rendered in Chinese (Sentence 21) in the same way as in English except more tersely, thus: ‘ngaw téng-wa’, literally ‘I hear say’. 11. ‘To stop work’ and ‘to start work’ are rendered simply by (Sentence 21) ‘fong gdong’, literally ‘release work’ and (Sentence 23) ‘faan goong’, literally ‘return work’, 12. To render ‘about’, ‘approximately’ we have already had ‘cha-rh-daw’ in Lesson 7. Now in Sentence 24 we haveON THE, TRLEPHONE 9 another expression with the same meaning—‘giim sCong- ha*’, literally ‘thus above-below’. However, the first one is always used before the matter it qualifies but ‘giim séong-h&*’ always comes after. 13. Sentence 24. The phrase ‘as soon as’ is very neatly rendered in Chinese by the numeral ‘yat’ (one) followed by the appropriate verb. The phrase is usually but not always completed by ‘tsiu’ meaning ‘then’. The logic is readily perceptible—‘one hear. . . then (tsu}. . .’, Drill I. To be in, at home, ‘hai-shie’, ‘hai-d3’, ‘héong-shiic’. 1. Lay séen-saang hai-shiic ma? _M-hai-shie. 2, Ming-hing hai-dé ma? Hai-dd. 3. Koei th-hdi-shiie, kdei may fong gdong. 4. Giu kéei Mi téng déen-wi*. Koei m-héong- shii . M-hdi-shiie? Kee yat faan giu kéei da décn- wa* bay ngaw. 6. Wong siu-jé hai mh-hdi-shie? Hai-shiic; béen- wai* win kéci? 7. Ngaw sing Law. Koei tau-séen th-hai-dd. 8. Yée-gahéong-d3. Kéei ngaam-ngaam faan-lai. wo II. What number? What date? ‘Gay-daw hd?’ 1, Nay gay-daw hd déen-wi*? Née-shiie sdam ~ yée baat ye yée stam. 2. Nay gaan fong* gay-daw hd? Ngaw-diy say hd fong*. 3. Gum-yat g4y-daw hd? Gum-yit sfip-siam hd. 4. Nay chiw gay-daw hd ba-sée? Gau-hd ba-sée.140 6. 2 CANTONESE 5. Nay-gaan dok gdy-daw h3? Ming Hing Do gau-slip-stam hd. Née-gaw yliet gay-daw hd héei Sing-ga-baw? Sip-fig hd. 7. Ngaw yiu da gdy-daw hS d&en-wi*? Sdam ling yat say ling say. 8. Nay ga ché gay-daw h3? AA yat chat stam baat. dy-daw h8 géet-fin? Stp-ig hd. ic gay-daw hé fong*? Sdam ling yat hé III. The telephone—‘déen-wa’*. Iv. SYR H . Nay yu mé déen-wi*? Yau. . Gay-daw h3? Saam saam say baat ling yat. . Chéng lai tng déen-wa*. . Kéei giu ngaw da déen-w&* bay kéci. . Chéng nay da déen-w&* bay ngaw. . Wai? Nay win béen-gaw a? Téen On Géong-sée. Daap chaw séen. . Née-gaw déen-wa* rh-hé. Hé naan téng. . Ngaw téng th-dé. Béen-wai* gong? 9. Wai? Wong sten-siang? Ngaw hai. Nay hAi béen-wAi*? ow 10, Chéng nay da déen-w4* bay Chiin séen-sdang. Time words: Just now—‘tdu-séen’. Just—ngaam- ngaam’. 1. Kéci tiu-séen hdi-shie; yée-ga rh-hai. 2. Kéei ngiam-ngaam fong goong. 3. Dang yat tsfin; ngaw giu koci lai ttng déen-wa*.ON THE TELEPHONE ut 4. Nay tu-séen wa mée-yé? Ngaw thu-séen wi Lay séen-saang héei-jaw. 5. Yat tsiin; kdei tiu-séen hdi-shite; kdei ngaam- ngaam tsdu-jaw. V. In what way? This way. ‘Déem-yéong*? Gam- yéong*’, 1. Nay déem-yéong* da-tse? Giim yéong*. Hé yéong-yée. 2. Nay déem-yéong* lai Héong Gong? Ngiw chaw fay-gay lai. 3. Nay déem-yéong* dong faai-tsée? Gum & M-hai gay naan. ng* ts? Gum y€ong*. . Hai gim-yéong*; kéei m-h’i ngiw piang-yau, ngaw rh-sik kéei. op VI. Put on the light. . . switch it off. . Hoy dang! Ngaw tdi m-géen. . Sik dang! Ngaw-day choot-gial. . Hay dang! Ngaw yiu tai bi Hy dang! Née-shiie hé hik, ngaw tai m-géen. . _M-sdi hoy dang; ngaw tdi-duk géen. . Chéng sik dang, ngAw th-séong tai bé-jée. . _Kéei sik-jaw dang; yée-ga hé huk. . A Ying! Hay dang! Hoy-jaw la. . Déen-dang hdi béen-d6? Ngw win rh-do*. . Déem-yéong* hay ding? Gum-yéong*. SO MY AEteE nm VII. Busy and free. ‘Dik-hdan, rh-dik-haan’. 1, Nay dik-hian ma? Ngaw th-duk-hdan, 2, Chéng yam baoi ga-fe. Ngdw rh-dik-hdan, th-goy.142 CANTONESE 3. Ngaw hé rh-dik-haan, ngaw yau hé daw goong. 4. Nay giim-mian duk-haan ma? Chéng héei téi hay. Ngaw dik-hdan. 5. Ngiw-day ting-yat haau-sée, ngaw hé rh-dik- haan. 6. Nay dik-haan m-dik-haan né? Ngiw dik- haan. 7. Ngaw gim-maan chat déem-joong diik-haan. 8, Ngaw yiu ts3 goong, ngaw m-dik-haan, VIII. ‘Very’ plus verb. 1, Kéei hé yau chéen*. 2, Kéei hé sik gong Joong-gwok wa*. 3. Kéei hé sik ja ché. 4. Ngaw hé jdong-yée Héong Géng. 5. Ngaw hé th-joong-yée kéei. 6. Ngaw hé séong héei Joong-gwok. IX. Uses of ‘téong’ and ‘tdong-maai’. 1. Ngaw tong nay héei, hé rh-hé? H6. 2. Kéci chiim-yat tong ngaw Iai. 3. Ngaw séong tdong nay gong. 4. Kéei téong béen-gaw géet-fin? Tdong Lay siu-jé. 5. Ngaw tdong nay giu dik-sée 14i, hé rh-hé? H6, rh-goy. 6. Ngaw téong-miai kéei hé paang-yau. X. That is to say, I mean. . . ‘tsik-h&i’, 1, Ngaw séong faan-héei Gwéng-doong, tsik-hai Gwéng-jau. 2. Lay séen-siang, tsik-h3i ngiw-gé hOk-sdang.