Woon is probably "wen1", not "wen2"

[Lau Chunfat <96981339r@polyu.edu.hk>]

Dear SL, dear hakka friends,

Giung1 hi3 fad5 coi2!

Everything's ok, except that I think the surname for Mr. Woon should be a
"wen1" (·Å, vun1) meaning warm, not "wen2" (vun2) as suggested by SL. None
of my friends in Hong Kong with the surname wen2 (Cantonese "Man") is
Hakka, but more than half of my friends with surname wen1 (Cantonese "Wan")
are Hakka or Hakka by descent.

There are villages of "Man" near Yuen Long, claiming themselves to be the
descendents of brother of "Wen Tianxiang", but they claim themselves
"Bendi" and hate Hakka speakers very much. They speak a kind of Cantonese
accent they name as "Waitauwaa (Weitouhua)" (village tongue), which is
mutually intelligible with standard Cantonese (say, the language of
instruction of Hong Kong Chinese schools). According to my study, they are
not "Hakka" because they are "local" here since a millenium, and more
importantly, they refuse the label Hakka and speak no Hakka. 

One of my colleage here, Miss Man, stem from Dongguan and speak
Dongguanhua. Her ancestor also trace to Wen Tianxiang's brother, but they
also claim themsselves Local, no Hakka. So far I met no "Man" speaking
hakka, nor claiming themselves of Hakka descent.

On the other hand, "wan" (wen1, vun1) in Hong Kong are overwhelming Hakka.
In villages of surname "wan" in Hong Kong, it is almost 100% sure that
Hakka is spoken among the old people. 'Wan" is a major surname in the
Eastern part of Guangdong where hakka is spoken. There are also some people
with surname "wan" from non-Hakka speakers from the other parts of
Guangdong, but the number is much less than Hakka speakers.

If Mr. Woon knows his place of origin it will help more to know of his
ancestry.

Liu Zinfad