Penang Hokkien Intonation

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Intonation is the pitch pattern used when speaking Penang Hokkien (or for that matter, any language). Say the word Mama (as in Mamma Mia). Note how the first "ma" has a different tone from the second?

In English, we often take intonation for granted. We speak without realising the different tones we offer to the words. Consider the following sentence:

I'm meeting him at the meeting.

In Penang Hokkien intonation, the first "meeting" is pronounced mee1ting4 while the second is pronounced mee3ting1 (at least, that's how we, the people of Penang, pronounce it).

Talking about tones, I was at the market this morning where I saw a not-so-young woman wearing a t-shirt. On her t-shirt, in all caps, is an unverified statement:

GIRLS LIKE GUYS LIKE ME

What caught my eyes was the word "like". You will notice that the first "like" has a different tone from the second. And their meaning are different too. The first like means "are fond of" while the second one means "similar to". In this example, the two likes are homographs - words that are spelled and pronounced the same way, but carry different meaning. In fact their tones are different, but we are so used to saying them that we don't pay much attention to the tone change.

If we were to write the statement and mark out the tones, the sentence would look like this:

GIRLS4 LIKE4 GUYS1 LIKE3 ME4

As with Penang Hokkien, most (not all) words in English carry with them a specific tone. We always say like4 to mean "to prefer" and like3 for "of the same form". If these words were to be written with their tones marked out, they would be called tonemes - words with same spelling but different tones.

The number I write following each syllable corresponds to the expected tone. In English, you pronounce "meeting" twice in the sentence without paying much attention that the word is pronounced with different tones at each instance. In Penang Hokkien, if you do not pay attention to the proper tones, people will not be able to understand you. That's because each syllable may represent several different words, depending on the tone you articulate.

Take the word "Kau" as an example.

Kau1 : to hang
Kau2 : monkey
Kau3 : enough, thick
Kau4 : nine

For this reason, you can write a sentence like this, "Kong-kong kong-kong kong kong-kong," and a person who speaks Penang Hokkien will understand that you're telling him "Grandpa hurriedly hit the tin can," as long as you got the intonation right. Otherwise, it's totally unintelligible.

Within this course, the first time I introduce a new Penang Hokkien word, I will number the tones. After that, I might just write per normal, without numbering the tones. You may have to derive the tone from context, for that's how a person in Penang will write Hokkien; he hasn't undergone my Penang Hokkien course, so those tone numbers don't mean anything to him. The reason is, while you'd see people often transcribe their speech, they will - like you would in English - have taken the tones for granted. Nonetheless, as a learner, you need the training wheels of the tone numbers to ensure you get the correct tone each time you learn a new Penang Hokkien word, but at this time you will observe that tone numbers are not used in the street.

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The 4 tones of Penang Hokkien

To help people pronounce Penang Hokkien properly, I have simplified the tones of the language down to four corresponding (but not exactly matching) the four tones in Mandarin. Learners should learn to article each syllable in four tones.

Get someone who speaks Penang Hokkien to pronounce the "kau" word in the above example. Observe the pitch of each tone, then practise it yourself, with "kau" and with any other syllables of your choice. Once you get used to each syllable coming in four different tones, you are on your way to pronouncing Penang Hokkien correctly. Here's another example:

Kong1 : grandfather
Kong2 : in a hurry
Kong3 : to knock, hit
Kong4 : to say, tin can

It is imperative to get the intonation right, otherwise the result will be comical if not disasterous. For example:

Wah1 beh1 chu3 : I buy houses.
Wah1 beh33 chu3 : I sell houses.

Beh1 : (verb) to buy (sandhi form)
Beh2 : (verb) to hypnotize
Beh33* : (verb) to sell
Beh4 : (verb) to buy (citation form)

(* Tone 33, similar to tone 3, is explained in the lesson on tone sandhi.)

Although each syllable can be pronounced with the four tones, for most syllables, not all four tones carry a meaning. Each time you learn a new word, memorize its tone.

In the next chapter, Tone Sandhi, we look at how the tone shifts, and how to modify the tone when you speak. This course offers you an easy-to-remember method to remember the tone shifts.

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