Tones in Penang Hokkien – Penang Hok-kiàn ê Siaⁿ
Because no-one learns Hokkien or Cantonese in schools, a lot of people believe that these languages have no tones. If this were true, then no-one would be able to tell the difference between buying and selling in Hokkien – both of these are pronounced “be” – only the tones are different. So of course Hokkien has tones. In POJ the difference between “buy” and “sell” is written “bé” and “bē”.
Hokkien traditionally has seven different tones, and these are all written in POJ but Penang Hokkien only has six. I’ve simplified these even further into four tones:
The Mid-level tone – symbol M (33) – in two lengths, long and short
The Low Falling Tone – symbol L (21) – in two lengths, long and short
The High or High Falling Tone – symbol H (35 or 54)
The Rising Tone – symbol R (24)
The numbers in brackets after the symbols indicate the tone quality. 5 is the highest pitch and 1 is the lowest. There are usually two numbers to indicate the change in pitch. In Mandarin the first tone is a high pitched level tone – so it is pronounced as 55. The second tone rises from middle pitch to high pitch pronounce 35. the third tone is meant to dip low and come up high again as 214, but only northern Chinese say it like this, most southerners and Taiwanese say it as 21 only with no rise at the end. The fourth tone is a sharp drop from high to low pronounced as 51.
Several things make it hard to write Penang Hokkien tones in POJ. One reason is that tones change when you combine syllables to make words. Another reason is that if you are used to reading Mandarin Pinyin, the tone marks have completely different meanings. I’ll explain these as we go along – but first I’ll start by giving examples and explanations of the four basic tones I’ve written above.
M: The Mid Level Tone (33 pitch)
The first Hokkien tone I’ll introduce is the mid-level tone that I’ve given the symbol “M”. In POJ it has no tone mark at all. It is like the first tone in Mandarin but a bit lower, so it is 33 rather than the high-pitched 55 of the Mandarin first tone. The long form of this tone corresponds to 陰平聲 in traditional Chinese phonology, the short form to 陽入聲
Examples of M: The Mid-level Tone (33) – Long form = 陰平聲
thiⁿ = sky 天 soaⁿ = hill 山 tu = pig 豬
chhia = car 車 lim = to drink 啉
(Short version = 3) – this one is always pronounced high, never dipping and it’s often written with a ‘ above the vowel and , but unless you have a POJ font, you won’t be able to read it, so I just use an accent
Examples of M: The Mid-level Tone (33) – short form = 陽入聲
jít = sun 日 goéh = moon 月 óh = to learn 學 lát = strength 力
thák = to read or study 讀
L: The Low Falling Tone (21)
The second tone I want to introduce is the low falling tone. It’s like the third tone in Southern Mandarin and in Cantonese it is the tone in yan 人 “person” and tau 頭 “head” the tone begins low and dips even lower. In POJ it’s written in three different ways: with a straight line or a falling accent (like Mandarin fourth tone) over the vowel, or with no mark in any syllable that ends in a k, p, t, or h. These syllables are all short vowel sounds, so the tone is short and low and you can hardly hear the fall. Why is it written three different ways? The reason is because Class A and Class B were originally different tones, but they have merged in Penang. The only reason to try and write them separately is that they change to different tones when they are in the first syllable of a compound word. The long form of this tone corresponds to 陽去聲 (Class A) and 陰去聲 (class B) in traditional Chinese phonology, whereas the short form is the 陽入聲.
Examples of L: The Low Falling Tone (21)
(Class A) = 陽平聲
toā = big 大 ū = have 有 oā = language 話 hō· = rain 雨
(Class B) = 陰平聲
khoàⁿ = to look 看 pàng = to put 放 ài = to love, want 愛
khùn = to sleep 睏 hì = movie 戲
(Short version = 21) Written with no tone mark but final p, t, k, or h = 陽入聲
bah = meat 肉 khek = guest 客 chheh = book 册 chhut = to go out 出
Hint: if a word is a fourth tone in Mandarin, it’s often a class A or B low falling tone in Penang Hokkien.
H: The High Falling Tone (54)
Now naming this tone “high falling” is going to cause a lot of arguments. Some people prounce this almost like a Mandarin first tone (55) with no fall, others say it like a dipping tone, like the Mandarin third tone in north China (not the low dip used in Taiwan) and still others say it like a high falling tone. The funny thing is, no-one even notices so long as you use one of these. I hear different versions of it on the podcast all the time. If a syllable is a third tone in Mandarin, it’s often this tone in Hokkien (but not always!). This tone corresponds to 上聲 in traditional Chinese phonology.
Examples of H: The High Falling Tone (54) = 上聲
lú = you 汝 kóng = to say, speak 講 chúi = water 水 hó = good 好 hóe = fire 火
R: The Rising Tone (24)
This last tone is a low riser, a little bit like the Mandarin second tone. It’s very easy to recognise, I think. It’s written with a circumflex over the vowel. This tone corresponds to the 陽平聲 in traditional Chinese phonology
Examples of R: The Rising Tone = 陽平聲
thâu = head 頭 lâng = person 儂 âng = red 紅 bô = 無 not have
Second tones in Mandarin usually correspond to this tone in Penang Hokkien.
Keyboard Shortcuts
I’ve made shortcut keys (see part one of the spelling guide for inserting the little n to learn how to set your shortcuts) for all these tones so I can type them in word without having to insert them each time. My selection of keys is:
ctrl+`, a = à ctrl+’, a = ā ctrl+shift+6, a = â (because shift+6 = ^). I set them for all the vowels. I think word 2007 automatically chooses upper case or lower case for you, but older versions of word you have to make th shortcut keys yourself.
On a Mac it is much easier – you only need to switch to US Extended Keyboard input option. Using key combinations with the option key allows you to insert all the tone marks
Holding option and e, then the letter you want the tone mark on, gives you the following: áéíóú
option and 6, then the letter, gives you âêîôû
option and ` , then the letter, gives you àèìòù
option and a then the letter, gives you āēīōū
One Final Hint for Tones
When you think of these in your head, make sure to always think of them either on their own or as the LAST syllable in a word. If you think of a word that contains them as a first syllable, you won’t be able to tell the tone because almost all the tones (except for Low Falling Class B) change when they are in a syllable at the beginning of a word. This is because of Tone Sandhi – the hardest bit about learning Hokkien tones, and also the hardest thing to learn as a non-native speaker.
In the next segment about writing Hokkien, I’ll discuss how to write compound words and how tone sandhi works.
