Writing Hokkien
How to Write Hokkien in the Roman Alphabet – An-choaⁿ iong Ang-mo∙-ji sia Hok-kian-oa
You can often hear people say that there is no standard romanization system for Hokkien, but actually that isn’t true. There is a system to romanize Hokkien that is almost one hundred years older than Mandarin Pinyin. It’s called P eh-oe-ji 白話字, which means “characters for ordinary language”.
In Penang it would be pronounced Pe·h-oa-ji or even Pe·k-oa-ji (I’ll explain the difference between e with a dot and normal e later) but usually it’s just abbreviated to POJ.
The whole Bible was translated into Hokkien using this system, and many dictionaries and conversation manuals also use the system. Now the ROC (Taiwanese) Ministry of Education uses it too, but in a slightly modified form. Also Luc de Gijzel’s English – Penang Hokkien Pocket Dictionary (2009) – the only Penang Hokkien dictionary ever published – uses this system.
Why learn POJ?
The problem with not being able to write what Hokkien words accurately is that it is hard to learn how to say unfamiliar words unless you actually hear them. If you live in Penang and speak Hokkien every day, or you are chatting on Skype it isn’t a problem, but what about if you want to write a Hokkien word in a text, or teach someone a new word in an e-mail, or look up how to pronounce a Chinese character in Hokkien, or know how to say an old Hokkien word in a dictionary that you haven’t heard before?
Even though it was invented for writing Hokkien in China, it can still be used for writing all the sounds of Penang Hokkien. You can write anything in Hokkien with just the following combinations of letters:
a b ch chh e e· g h i j k kh l m n ⁿ ng o o· p ph s t th u
Notice that ch, chh, kh, etc. represent single sounds, and in many Hokkien dictionaries they are classed as different letters.
Before I forget here are two links to digitized dictionaries of Amoy Hokkien that use POJ
(This one won’t appear as full view in google book search outside the US, so you’ll need t0 use a proxy server or circumventing tool like freegate to show your computer’s IP address as originating inside the US)
Both of these are a bit old, but they are very useful.
Before the introduction to the system, here’s a link to a short history of POJ.
I’ll start by introducing the initial sounds of POJ, then I’ll explain the different vowel sounds and endings (such as final k and h), nasalized vowels (written with the little n) and I’ll leave tones until last, because these are the most difficult part of POJ.
Part One: Initial Sounds
There are sixteen different initial consonant sounds in Penang Hokkien. Some of them exist in Mandarin and English, but others don’t.
Often the problem is that Mandarin only has two sounds where Hokkien has three. Mandarin has a distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Aspirated means with a little puff of air – if you put your hand in front of your mouth when you say “puff” you can feel it on the “p” – if you say “sport” there is no puff of air on the p – it is unaspirated, but definitely still a “p”. So Mandarin has pairs of these two sounds.
p and b pang 胖 (fat) bang 幫 (to help)
Hokkien has three distinctions, aspirated, unaspirated and voiced, so what would be p and b in Pinyin become ph and p in POJ, and “b” is reserved for the voiced sound that doesn’t exist in Mandarin and sounds more like the “b” in English. Sometimes the “b” sound might sound a bit like an “m”.
In POJ the difference between the sounds is shown by putting an “h” after the aspirated consonant. Here are the three sets of initials (two in the case of th and t) in the order: aspirated, unaspirated, voiced. I’ll explain each set in order and give examples.
ph, p, b
kh, k, g
th, t
chh, ch, j
The other initial sounds are s, h, m, l, and n, but I don’t think anyone has any trouble with writing these, so I haven’t arranged them into a set.
Set One: ph, p, b
phang – smells nice pang – to let go of something bang – a net.
So here are some more examples for ph:
phui 屁 – fart phah 撲 – to hit
phoa 破 – broken phe 批 – a letter
phau 炮 – firecracker phoe 皮 – skin
for p:
pui 肥 – fat pek – to climb
pan-gi 便宜 – cheap pun – also
peng 反 – to turn around pang 放 – to release, let go
and for b:
bo 無 – not, doesn’t have bong 墓 – a grave, to touch
bin 面 – face bat – to know or have done something
be 馬 – horse beng 明 – clear
Practice sentences for these sounds:
Bi-kok-lang pang e phui u kha phang bo? (Do the farts Americans do smell nicer?)
A-beng e peng-iu khi ban-san be pah liap bah-chang. (A-beng’s friend went to the market to buy 100 bah-chang.)
Set Two: kh, k, g
Hokkien also has three sounds kh, k, g where Mandarin only has k and g (= kh and k)
khong 空 – zero kong 講 – to speak gong – stupid
more examples for kh:
khang 空 – empty khui 開 – to open
kham – to close khi 去 – to go
khin 輕 – light khia – to stand
for k:
kang 江 – river kio 叫 – to call
keng – to choose koan – tall
kin-ni 今年 – this year ka 共 – and
and for g:
gia – to take or bring giam 嚴 – strict
leng-geng 龍眼 – longans go· 五 – five
gin – to hate gian – to be addicted to doing something
A-kong gia ka-liau e leng-geng kau kam-pong. (Grandpa took all the longans to the village.)
I chin-nia gau kong Hok-kian, I kong kha khoai koe lu. (He’s good at speaking Hokkien, he speaks faster than you.)
Set Three: Th and t
Hokkien only has a set of two here, but to fit with the other sets of three, the sounds are written th and t:
thang 蟲 – a bug tang 冬 – winter
thak 讀 – to read tek-piat 特別 – special
thng 糖 – sugar tng 唐 – Chinese (as in Tng-lang)
thit-tho – to play (also chhit-tho) tu 豬 – pig
Make sure not to get confused with the “th” sound in English
Example sentence:
Tak-tak lang thak kau thau thiaⁿ (Everyone studied until they got a headache)
Set Four: chh, ch, j
Hokkien has three sounds chh, ch, and j. These cause the most trouble if you try to spell them out with Pinyin.
Pinyin writes q and j in front of i and c and z in front of most other vowels. In POJ only chh and ch are used, no matter which vowel comes next. So Pinyin zang, cang, jiang, qiang would be chang, chhang, chiang, chhiang in POJ.
Examples:
chhit 七 – seven chit 一 – one jit 日 – a day (these would be either chit, cit jit or tshit, tsit, jit)
chhio 笑 – to laugh chio 借 – to lend jio 尿 – pee
More examples for chh
chho 錯– mistake chham 參 – to associate with
chhiu 手– hand or tree chhoe – to look for
chhap 插 – to care chhut 出 – to come out
for ch:
cho 做 – to do chap 十– ten
che 坐– to sit, many choa 紙– paper
chiu 酒– alcohol
and for j:
jip 入- to enter
joah 熱- hot
Example sentence:
Ji-chap-chhit jit cheng jit-si chin-chiaⁿ chin-chiaⁿ joah. (Twenty-seven days ago it was hot in the daytime.)
Note: Some people like to write these as ch and c, because they think there are too many h’s in chh. Some old dictionaries write tsh and ts for some words, chh and ch for others. The Taiwanese Ministry of Education uses tsh and ts only.
Part Two: final Sounds
Simple vowels -a, -e, -e·, -i, -o, -o·, u
a, i, and u are easy,
ka 教 – to teach cha 早 – early chha 柴 – wood ta – dry
si 四,死– four, to die khi 去,起 – to go, or get up hi 戲 – a movie or TV programme
tu 豬 – a pig lu 汝 – you hu 魚 – fish u 有 – to have, is
e and e·
The difference between e and e· is a little tricky. Here are some examples of the difference:
ke 雞 – chicken se 細 – small che 侈,儕 – many
ke· 家,加 – house, to add he· 下 – to put
This difference only exists in Chiang-chiu and Penang Hokkien (people who say “puiⁿ” for rice will usually make the distinction between “chicken” and “add”, but people who say “png” will not). Sometimes people write the e· as ε (in the Douglas dictionary they do this) but I prefer to write it with a dot because it is easier to write the tone on top of an e than on an ε symbol. When you want to input something quickly on the internet, you can also write it as a capital E.
o and o·
The difference between o and o· exists in all types of Hokkien. Examples:
ho 好 – good o-lo 呵咾 – to praise bo 無 – not cho 做 – to do
ho· 虎 – tiger lo· 路 – a road go· 五 – five
Again there are different ways of writing this, Douglas uses ɵ but later POJ dictionarie add the dot. The Taiwanese Ministry of education uses oo, but I think O is a good idea if you are typing in a hurry on the internet.
If you have Microsoft Word it is easy to input the dot. Just go to “insert” then “symbol” and then when you find them on the table of characters. The small dot is called “middle dot” and the code number is (unicode 00B7). You can choose a shortcut key as well, and save it so you don’t have to keep on going in and out of “insert symbol” – I use control+alt+’ for my middle dot.
Vowel Combinations
ai, au, ia, io, ui, oa, iau, iu, oe, oai
These are written in a different manner from Pinyin – first of all, they don’t change at all. Pinyin yao changes to iao after a consonant, but POJ iau remains the same wherever it is. Also the way Pinyin writes wa/ua and ao is reversed in POJ
ai 愛 – love lai 來 – come mai – don’t want
au 甌,後 – a cup, after hau 哭 – to cry lau 老 – old
chhia 車 – a car sia 寫 – to write khia – to stand
io 搖 – to shake kio 叫 – to call chhio 笑 – to laugh
ui 位 – a place khui 開 – to open pui 肥 – fat
oa 話,我 – language, I hoa 花 – a flower choa 蛇 – a snake, paper goa 外 – outside
iau-kin 要緊 – important chiau 鳥 – a bird phiau 標 – a brand siau - crazy
iu 油 – oil chhiu 手 – hand siu 收 – to keep iu-siu 幼秀 refined
hoe 火 – fire koe 過 – to pass hoe 歲 – year of age
khoai 快 – fast
Nasalised Vowel Endings
e·ⁿ, iⁿ, o·ⁿ, iaⁿ, iauⁿ, uiⁿ, oaⁿ, aiⁿ
These ones can’t be written in Pinyin or English, or even Malay!
John has sometimes written this as a final capital N, or as an n in the syllable e.g. kiaN, or knia. I sometimes use the N when writing on the internet. The problem with n in the middle of the syllable is that you have to write “ni” for “glutinous rice balls” (圓) and “na” for the filling in a cake or bun (can’t find the character at the moment).You can test whether a word has this nasal sound by holding your nose when you say it. If it rattles when you say the word, then it is nasalised .
In the original POJ system the sound is written as ⁿ – called “superscript Latin small letter n” so;
kia 寄 = to send (a letter)
but:
kiaⁿ 行 = to walk or child 囝, or be afraid 驚 (depending on the tone)
POJ doesn’t usually write the little n in words that begin with m or n, so “door” and “egg” are mui 門 and nui 卵 rather than muiⁿ and nuiⁿ. – but they still write puiⁿ for 飯 “rice”.
Like the dot, to input the ⁿ. Just go to “insert” then “symbol” and then find it on the table of characters. It’s called superscript Latin small letter n (Unicode 207F). I saved the shortcut keys as Ctrl+’,n (two keys held, then released then n).
Examples of nasalised endings:
saⁿ 衫,三- clothes, three kaⁿ 敢- to dare
thiⁿ 天 – sky piⁿ 邊 – edge (mi 麵 – noodles and ni 年 – year are also nasalised)
se·ⁿ 生 – to give birth pe·ⁿ 病 – illness chhe·ⁿ 青 – green (me· 冥 – night is also nasalised)
mo· 毛 – hair no· 兩 – two (both are nasalised but POJ leaves out the ⁿ)
thiaⁿ 痛 – sore siaⁿ 聲 – voice piaⁿ 餅 – cake iaⁿ 影 – shadow
siauⁿ 想 – to think khiauⁿ 腔 – an accent hiauⁿ 香 – joss sticks – note this ending is a real “Made in Penang” sound. Other varieties of Hokkien have -io·ⁿ or -iuⁿ instead, so they pronounce “think” as sio·ⁿ or siuⁿ.
kuiⁿ 光 – light tuiⁿ 轉 – to go home huiⁿ 園,遠 – a garden, far – some other varieties use -ng in place of -uiⁿ, making kng, tng, hng, etc.
soaⁿ 山 – mountain oaⁿ 晏 – late poaⁿ 半 – half khoaⁿ 看 – to see
phaiⁿ 歹 – bad
Endings in -m, -n, and -ng
The ending that causes most trouble here is -ng. Mandarin has words spelt “eng” but pronounced without an “e” as “ng” like “deng” 等, but Hokkien has this sound “ng” as well as another “eng” with an e as in the word “eng” meaning “easy”. In POJ this first sound is written without a vowel as “ng”, and the second sound with an e as “eng”
tng 唐 – Chinese teng 頂 – on
phah-sng 撲損 – to waste sam-seng – ruffian
An ending that is sometimes spelt different from its sound in POJ is -ian. Although you’ll find it in dictionaries as -ian or -ien, in Penang sometimes it is pronounced “e·n”for example:
he·n-tioh 現著 “to see” chit khe·n cha-bo· “a woman”
in sian – bored and bian 變 – to change
Endings in p, t, k, and h
The p and t endings are easy to distinguish, but k and h are more difficult. The two different sounds can best be heard in the pairs:
ak – to water vs. ah 鴨 – a duck
ok 惡 – evil vs. oh 學 – to study
The first one sounds like a k ending, but the second one just makes the a sound shorter. The final -h in POJ is completely different from that of Malay, and also different from the English sounds eh and oh that are sometimes used to write e· and o·.
The problem is that sometimes in Penang Hokkien -h and -k have merged or swapped altogether:
khek 客 – guest, Hakka bak 肉 – meat
these are usually “kheh” and “bah” in most other varieties of Hokkien. so if you’re using a Hokkien dictionary make sure to check both the h and k endings.
Examples of k endings:
sek 熟 – familiar thak 讀 – to study, read kok 國 – country kak 角 – corner kek-sim 激心 – sad
Examples of h endings:
koh – again phah 撲 – to hit khah 較 – more (khah-ho 較好 – better) chiah 食 – to eat loh 落 – to fall (as of rain)
Examples of p endings:
chhap 插 – to care liap 粒 – measure for something round hip 翕 – to take (a photo)
Examples of t endings:
tit-tit 值值 – straight, continually chhat 賊 – a thief bat – to know someone
Well, those are the basics of POJ, but there is more to explain about tones and also about what happens when two syllables are put together and the sound changes slightly such as pak-to· 腹肚 “stomach” becoming pat-to·. I’ll add more about tones and how to input them in the next few weeks. Please fell free to write any questions about it to me as well.
soaⁿ 山 – mountain oaⁿ 晏 – late poaⁿ 半 – half khoaⁿ 看 – to see
