Re: E SONG

[Clem Lee <clem2@idt.net>]

Hakka friends,

According to E SONG:

"By the way, I believe they also use "yao" for one in Moi Yan and being
a Xingning Hak, we use "leong" when denoting two - that is "leong Kok
chen" twenty cents, "leong chiam" 2 cents or "leong tiow ng" 2 fish.
"Ngii" is used in counting or like  second floor "ngii liu" or second
place "ti ngii vie"."

I'm not aware that the Moi Yan Hak use "yao" as one. Is this a typo
error, do you mean two? If "yao" is also two in some parts of Moi Yan,
then I'm glad to know it. Thanks.

As for the use of "ngii" and "leong", I think Cantonese, Mandarin and
other dialect speakers also use both, not just the "Hakkas".  

When you say you are a "Xingning Hak", do you mean a "Shin Nen Hak" (Moi
Yan pronunciation)?   

As we can see there are many Hakka dialects, not even counting the ones
influenced by foreign languages when Hakkas migrated to all over the
World. As long as we are proud to be Hakkas, it's not important which
Hakka dialect we speak or not speak at all.   

Dr. S. L. Lee is right when he wrote:

"The purpose of this website is to remind us of the history of China and
preserve some of the customs and beauty of our language in poetry. Many
Tang poems don't rhyme in Mandarin, but in Hakka, Minan, and Cantonese
which were the central China dialects before the migrations.

While we should by all means honor our heritage, I think we need to be
careful in over-emphasizing Hakka's contributions and certainly refrain
from chauvinism.  We need to also respect all  56 ethnic groups in
China."

Clem