Hakka pinyin dictionary

[teoh@cs.utk.edu]

>From ctcflau@polyu.edu.hk Mon Dec 16 19:41:25 1996
From: ctcflau@polyu.edu.hk (cflau)
Subject: Hakka pinyin dictionary

Thank you very much for your invitation. I would like to make you of this
chance to announce the publication of my "Pin1yim1 Hag5ga1 si4fui4" (The
Pinyin Hakka dictionary) which will apear in eary year, 1997, by the Chinese
University Press (Hong Kong). The dictionary is essentially a collection of
common Hakka syllables and their explanation in Chinese (Mandarin). It
contains the pronunciations of about 5500 Chinese Characters, plus the
meanings of about 1400 Hakka-specific terms, e.g. gim1bu1ngid5(today),
tian1giung1(rainbow), mag5gai6 (what), sid6zu4 (lunch), etc. The dictionary
use only 24 English alphabets (no r and w) and the number 1-6, which is easy
for computer input. It also accommodates almost all Hakka accents spoken in
Taiwan, Mexian, Hong Kong and Overseas. Therefore, it is a dictionary for
all Hakka-speaking people.

The dictionary will be available for sale beginning from April or May, but
since the CUHK press doubt its marketabilty, only 1000 copies will be
printed. I will like to imform all our member, in case if you want to get
one, please E-Mail me as soon as possible. If the demand is enormous, I will
be able to ask for more printings. The price will be aroung HK $120(about US
$16).

Because of the user-friendliness of my input system, I have now develop it
into a Chinese input system using Hakka pronunciations. But remember, it is
the inputting of Mandarin Chinese, NOT HAKKA. Therefore, we are not
inputting Hakka sentences but CHINESE sentences. Some people have raised
questions on it and challanged my HAKKA standard. Unfortunately, all HAKKA
are still writing CHINESE since centuries. Although I try to resolve the
problem of Hakka writing in my Dictionary, I would like to promote the input
of CHINESE using Hakka pronunciations for the first instance.

The input system will be available from me soon (atarting from 1.1.97) at a
very low price (just to cover the price of the diskette and postage) of
around HK$ 20 (US$ 3). This may be sent together with my dictionary, too. I
will be writing a  paper on the diffences of different accents in Hakka and
tell you how to use my pinyin system.

Sincerely yours, 

Liu2 Zin3fad5.