Penang Hokkien Intonation for Beginners (28 February, 2004)

Intonation presents perhaps the biggest challenge to every learner of Penang Hokkien. It is something which many Penang Hokkien-speakers take for granted, having learned to speak the language from small out of familiarity and intuition. It's one thing to be able to intone every syllable and word accurately, it's quite another to explain this to a learner.

Lacking the necessary faculties to explain Penang Hokkien intonation, many teachers of the language simply skip over the attempt, resigning it to being beyond their means to teach. Others take a more academic approach, using abstract grammatical terms that only manage to confuse their non-academic learners.

In my opinion, it is crucial for every one of my learners to learn intonation, and to do it right from the start. As my learner, I want to you possess the necessary foundation that will carry you towards speaking Penang Hokkien properly. The advantage of using the Internet to teach, as opposed to books, is that while books are silent, with the Internet, it is possible to provide audio recordings of each tone. In other words, what you can hear is worth a thousand words of description.

The Tones of Penang Hokkien

To speak Penang Hokkien fluently, you just need to learn four different tones. I number them 1, 2, 3 and 4, to correspond to the four tones of Mandarin as understood locally in Penang. There is a fifth tone: I call it tone 33. It sounds the same as tone 3, but behaves differently from tones 1, 2, 3 and 4.

We shall return to tone 33 later. For a start let's learn tones 1, 2, 3 and 4. To hear the tones, we put it to a syllable, for example, ma.

ma1 , ma2 , ma3 , ma4

Now listen to the set of four tones together.

ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4

Make it a habit to pronounce every syllable in a set of these four tones. If possible, say it to a native speaker of Penang Hokkien, so that he can check the accuracy of your pronunciation.

Now let's pronounce this syllable: lu.

lu1 , lu2 , lu3 , lu4

And now pronounce lu in the set of four tones.

lu1 lu2 lu3 lu4

Next, let's pronounce this syllable: kau.

kau1 , kau2 , kau3 , kau4

And now pronounce kau in the set of four tones.

kau1 kau2 kau3 kau4

Next, let's pronounce this syllable: mia.

mia1 , mia2 , mia3 , mia4

And pronounce mia in the set of four tones.

mia1 mia2 mia3 mia4

Next, let's pronounce this syllable: keong.

keong1 , keong2 , keong3 , keong4

And all four tones together:

keong1 keong2 keong3 keong4

Next, pronounce this syllable: cim.

cim1 , cim2 , cim3 , cim4

And all four tones together:

cim1 cim2 cim3 cim4

Practice

In order for you to become familiar with the four tones, you need to practise listening and identifying the right tone for every syllable that you hear.

Listen and Identify

Each of the syllables below is pronounced to a specific tone. Listen to it, repeat if necessary, try to identify whether it is tone 1, 2, 3 or 4, when point your cursor to the answer to see if you got it right.

1.

Is it ka1, ka2, ka3 or ka4?

ka1

2.

Is it ba1, ba2, ba3 or ba4?

ba2

3.

Is it sui1, sui2, sui3 or sui4?

sui4

4.

Is it gau1, gau2, gau3 or gau4?

gau2

5.

Is it thau1, thau2, thau3 or thau4?

thau3

6.

Is it snia1, snia2, snia3 or snia4?

snia1

7.

Is it gu1, gu2, gu3 or gu4?

gu4

8.

Is it long1, long2, long3 or long4?

long3

Read and Identify

Read the syllable with its tone number, then select from the four tones provided (not in sequence but shown as A, B, C and D), and choose that tone that matches the written syllable. Then point your cursor to see the correct answer.

1. so1

2. kua3

3. cnae4

4. snia2

5. soay3

6. park1

7. kni2

8. choay4

Exercices

Now that you have practised sufficiently, try the following exercises. After you are finish with them, submit your answer to me, either by contacting me here or by Private Message to me on Facebook, and remember to mention the title of this lesson, "Penang Hokkien Intonation for Beginners", and I will provide you the correct answers.

Listen and Identify Exercise