C and CH in Penang Hokkien

Many people who use Penang Hokkien as a spoken language have difficulty differentiating between c and ch. More than any other pairs of sounds, the c and ch sounds are the ones that confuse people the most often. When writing Penang Hokkien using Taiji Romanisation, just remember that the c is like the Malay c, in cari, cicak, comel, cuba and so on. Just as you don't add a h when writing these Malay words, remember to refrain from add the h when writing the same sound in Penang Hokkien.

Take note that the English c has no actual equivalent to that of Penang Hokkien. It can be a soft c, as in cycle, which sounds like s, or a hard c, as in cat, which sounds like k. But how about the English "ch"? Try saying "choose". Then say the Penang Hokkien word char4 (stir-fry). Notice that when you say "choose", your mouth is pointed out, but when you say "char4", you open your mouth wide. In other words, they aren't the same.

To help you familiarize yourself to when to use "c", and when to use "ch", I put together a few examples. I purposely pair the words so that you can see when to write the h and when not to write the h.

ca4 : early
char4 : stir-fry

cu2 : potato
cu4 : to cook
chu1 : to underlay
chu3 : house, to slip
chu4 : rodent

co3 : to do
cho3 : mistake
cor4 : grand-grandparent
chor1 : rough

cau3 : stove, to return change
chau1 : to copy
chao3 : smelly
chau4 : grass

ceng1 : to punch
cheng1 : diluted, clear

ceng3 : silent, to plant
cheng3 : gun, to wear

cam1 : to hover over, like flies
cam3 : to chop
cham1 : to mix together

cak1 : to block
chak3 : to drive a stick into the ground

cai1 : to know
chai1 : to guess

can3 : storey
chan1 : to moan

cek3 : uncle
chek3 : paddy

cni1 : to stuff, monster
chni1 : fresh

cnia3 : genuine, real
chnia3 : to hire

cnia4 : bland
chnia4 : to invite, to treat

From all these examples, have you gotten used to when to use "c" and when to use "ch"?

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.