Canonical Spelling of Penang Hokkien

The term Canonical Spelling refers to the main form of spelling words in Penang Hokkien that I use in writing the language. As Penang Hokkien has existed largely as a spoken language, and passed down at home from one generation to the next, distortions that were introduced through informal learning result in some of the common words having evolved a number of pronunciations which are understood by speakers. This is particularly common with words pronounced with the initial "u" (closed back rounded vowel) and "w" (voiced labial-velar approximant), and also between the initial "i" (close front unrounded vowel) and "y" (palatal approximant).

It should be observed that although the words are often pronounced with variations, the tones remain the same. It can therefore be observed that comprehension is governed to a great extend by listening to tones.

Although a number of phonetical spelling of some words are accepted, one of these is taken as the canonical spelling, that is to say, the accepted written form. Words with canonical spelling also include alternative spelling forms. The follow are some of them:

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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.

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