Pronouncing People's Names in Penang Hokkien

If your name is Lim, you pronounce that, in Taiji Romanisation, as Lim2. If someone wants to call you Mr Lim, he would say "Lim2-Sin3snaeh2" . No change in the tone of Lim2 there. However, if you are Miss Lim, people should call you Lim3 Sio1cia4 . Note, not Lim2 Sio1cia4 . Only with "sin3snaeh2" does the surname retains its original form. Otherwise, any surname that is originally tones 1 or 2 will become tone 3, while surnames originally tone 3 or 4 becomes tone 1, and surnames originally tone 33 remains 33.

If your personal name is, say Hock Guan, composed of two words Hock3 and Guan2 , you pronounce it as Hock1 Guan2 . That means, Hock3 undergoes change. Guan2 doesn't.

Finally, if your full name is Lim Hock Guan, you pronounce it as Lim3 Hock1 Guan2 . Lim and Hock change tone, while Guan remains the same.

Language Learning Tools

Use the following language learning tools to learn Penang Hokkien!

Return to Penang Hokkien Resources

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While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware.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.

To get to know me better, do follow me on Facebook!