The lessons in this website uses the
International Phonetic Alphabet or
IPA to represent the sounds of words in Penang Hokkien. Only a small number of IPA symbols are used, as these are sufficient to represent most of the sounds you will encounter in the language. You will see the IPA symbols in the dictionary as well as other pages of
this website. They appear in square brackets immediately after the word. To show the exact expected sound to be pronounced, the IPA symbol is written between two slashes, like this: /o/
For example: ae1kau4 [ɛ-kau]

Each syllable is separate from the other with a hyphen (-). As the purpose here is to show the pronunciation, no tone marks or stress mark is added to the IPA symbols. Where entire sentences are rendered in IPA, space is often used in place of hyphen to separate words.
IPA Vowels and Semivowels
/a/

The
open front unrounded vowel. It sounds like the "a" in the English word f
ather.
ka1 [ka]

: (verb) to cut
/e/

The
close-mid front unrounded vowel. It sounds like the "e" in the English word h
ey. This sound can be spelled in many other ways in Penang Hokkien, and often I have to retain spellings that are commonly accepted. The digraphs "-ay", "-ey" and "ei" may be used to represent this sound too.
se3 [se]

: (adjective) small
koay3 [koe]

: (verb) to pass
boey4 [boe]

: (noun) tail
/ɛ/

The
open-mid front unrounded vowel. It sounds like the "e" in Esso. It is usually spelled with "ae" in Penang Hokkien, however some syllables ending in "m", "n" or "t", spell this sound with just "e" rather than "ae". Some words that have been commonly spelled using "e" retain their spelling.
kae1 [kɛ]

: (verb) to add
en1 [ɛn]

: (noun) smoke
Ah3
Pek1 [a-pɛʔ]

: (noun) uncle
/ə/

The
mid central vowel or
schwa. It sounds like the "e" in the English word
early. It is spelled with the letter "e" and is most common in Malay loanwords.
be3
la3
can1 [bə-la-tsan]

: (noun) shrimp paste solids
/i/

The
close front unrounded vowel. This is "i" in the English word
it.
ki2 [ki]

: (noun) flag
/j/

The
palatal approximant. It sounds like the "y" in the English word
yes.
yau1 [jau]

: (adjective) hungry
Reminder: The IPA symbol [j] is not the same as the letter "j" in English, which is represented by the IPA symbol [dz].
/o/

The
close-mid back rounded vowel. It sounds like the "o" in the English word
old.
go2 [go]

: (noun) goose
/ɔ/

This is the
open-mid back rounded vowel. It sounds like the "o" in t
oy. It is usually spelled with "or" in Penang Hokkien.
kor1 [kɔ]

: (noun) mushroom
When followed by "ng", this sound is spelled with "o" rather than "or".
kong1 [kɔŋ]

: (noun) grandfather
/u/

The
closed back rounded vowel. It sounds like the "u" in the English word s
ue.
ku1 [ku]

: (noun) tortoise
/w/

The
voiced labial-velar approximant. It sounds like the "w" in the English word
woe.
wah4 [wa]

: (pronoun) I
wa33 [wa]

: (noun) language
IPA Consonant Symbols similar to English letters
These are phonetic symbols representing consonant sounds that correspond to letters in English. I pronounce these IPA symbols as the initial consonant followed by the vowel /ə/

.
/b/

The
voiced bilabial plosive
bang33 [baŋ]

: (noun) dream, net
bi3 [bi]

: (noun) smell
/d/

The voiced
alveolar or
voiced dental plosive
dan3
-dan1 [dan-dan]

: (adverb) immediately
/f/

The
voiceless labiodental fricative. This sound appears only in loanwords from other languages.
foo1
kui1
hua1 [fu-kui-hua]

: (noun) adenium
/g/

The
voiced velar plosive
gau2 [gau]

: (noun) clever
/h/

The
voiceless glottal fricative
hua1 [hua]

: (noun) flower
/k/

The
unaspirated voiceless velar plosive
kau3 [kau]

: (adjective) thick
bark1 [bak]

: (noun) ink
/l/

The
alveolar lateral approximant
lam2 [lam]

: (adjective) blue
/m/

The
bilabial nasal
mua1 [mua]

: (noun) sarong
kam1 [kam]

: (noun) orange
/n/

The
dental nasal or
alveolar nasal
nau4 [nau]

: (noun) brain
ban33 [ban]

: (adjective) slow
/p/

The
unaspirated voiceless bilabial plosive
pan1 [pan]

: (noun) classroom
kap3 [kap]

: (noun) pigeon
/r/

The
alveolar trill. This sound appears only in loanwords
ro3
ti1 [ro-ti]

: (noun) bread
Note: Penang Hokkien speakers often slur the "r" so that it often comes out sounding like "l", hence ro3ti1 is often pronounced [lo-ti]
/s/

The
voiceless alveolar or
voiceless dental sibilant
sua1 [sua]

: (noun) sand
/t/

The
unaspirated voiceless alveolar plosive
tan2 [tan]

: (verb) to sound
at3 [at]

: (verb) to bend
IPA Consonant Symbols not similar to English letters
These are IPA symbols representing consonant sounds that
do not correspond to letters in English. I pronounce these IPA symbols as the initial consonant followed by the vowel /ə/.
/ts/

The
unaspirated voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate. It sound is similar to but not exactly the same as the "ch" in the English word chair. It is usually represented by the letter "c" in Penang Hokkien. Some words with this sound that were spelled with "ch" before the present writing convention came into being retain their spelling.
cau4 [tsau]

: (verb) to run
chooi4 [tsui]

: (noun) water
/dz/

The
voiced alveolar sibilant affricate. This sound is usually represented by the letter "j" in Penang Hokkien. It is the "j" in the English word joy.
jip1 [dzip]

: (verb) to go in
juak1 [dzuaʔ]

: (adjective) hot
Reminder: The IPA symbol "j" represents a different sound which is similar to the "y" in English.
/ʃ/

The
voiceless postalveolar fricative. This sound rarely occurs in Penang Hokkien, but when it does, it is spelled with the digraph "sh". It is the "sh" sound in the English word shout.
shiok1 [ʃiɔk]

: (adjective) pleasureable
/tsh/

The
aspirated voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate
This sound is usually represented by the digraph "ch" in Penang Hokkien. There is no English equivalent to this. It is similar to the choo choo of the train. Say the "ch" of chair accompanied by a release of air.
chau4 [ts
hau]

: (noun) grass
/kh/

The
aspirated voiceless velar plosive. This sound is represented by the digraph "kh" in Penang Hokkien.
khat3 [k
hat]

: (verb) to scoop
/ph/

The
aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive. This sound is represented by the digraph "ph" in Penang Hokkien.
phang1 [p
haŋ]

: (adjective) fragrant
/th/

The
aspirated voiceless alveolar plosive. This is represented by the digraph "th" in Penang Hokkien.
that3 [t
hat]

: (verb) to kick
/ŋ/

This is the
velar nasal. It may appear at the beginning or end of syllables, and is spelled with "ng" in Penang Hokkien.
ong2 [ɔŋ]

: (noun) king
ngam1 [ŋam]

: (adjective) suitable
Reminder: When the letter "o" appears in front of "ng", the "o" is always pronounced /ɔ/ and not /o/, as in the above example, ong2 [ɔŋ].
Other examples:
ko
ng1 [kɔŋ]

: (noun) grandfather
to
ng3 [tɔŋ]

: (verb) to touch
/ʔ/

This is the
glottal stop. This sound appears at the end of some syllables in Penang Hokkien. Such syllables always end with a "k". The sound is produced by stopping midway when pronouncing "ah". (In other forms of Hokkien romanisation such as Peh-oe-ji and Tai-lo, it is represented by a final "h").
bak3 [baʔ]

: (noun) meat
pek3 [peʔ]

: (number) eight
IPA Nasal Symbols
The vowel sounds /a/, /ɛ/ and /i/ have a corresponding set of nasalized versions, being /ã/, /ɛ̃/ and /ĩ/. To pronounce these nasal sounds, move your lower jaw forward as you pronounce the three regular vowels. Nasal sounds are usually spelled by inserting an "n" within the syllable, usually between the initial consonant and the following vowel.
/ã/

The
nasal open front unrounded vowel. Words with this sound has an "n" within the syllable, either immediately before an "a" or one letter removed from "a".
snar1 [sã]

: (number) three
pnua1 [puã]

: (verb) to shift
tnia4 [tiã]

: (noun) wok
/ɛ̃/

The
nasal open-mid front unrounded vowel. Words with this sound has an "n" within the syllable, either immediately before an "ae" or one letter removed from "ae".
pnae1 [pɛ̃]

: (verb) to pry open
snaeh1 [sɛ̃]

: (verb) to give birth
chnae1 [ts
hɛ̃]

: (adjective) green
/ĩ/

The
nasal close front unrounded vowel. Words with this sound as an "n" within the syllable, either immediately before an "i" or one letter removed from "i" or "ee". Where this sound occurs at the front of a syllable, it is spelled with "ny".
pni4 [pĩ]

: (adjective) flat
tnee1 [ĩ]

: (adjective) sweet
ny2 [ĩ]

: (adjective) round
nya2 [ĩa]

: (verb) to win
nyau2 [ĩ]

: (noun) goat
Silent Consonants
The letter "h" often appear at the end of syllables as a pseudo-fricative. Its purpose is often to disambiguate between different words, those spelled with and without the final "h".
The letter "r" often appear in syllables. Its purpose includes:
- To differentiate between the /o/ sound and the /ɔ/ sound. The /ɔ/ sound is usually spelled "or".
- To differentiate the glottal stop from the velar stop, for example bak3 [baʔ] and bark1 [bak]
Acknowledgement
I am so grateful to Tee Joo Tatt for helping me with the tag required to output audio on this page.
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