Re: Chinese pronunciation

["Henrietta Akit" <henriettaakit@hotmail.com>]

Dear Chunfat,
Thank you for your reply. All of us here too are busy, with planning the 
Toronto Hakka conference. It's on schedule for Dec 28-30, 2000.
Best wishes.
Henrietta.

>From: "Fat" <96981339r@polyu.edu.hk>
>To: "Henrietta Akit" <henriettaakit@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Chinese pronunciation
>Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 08:38:37 +0800
>
>Dear Henrietta,
>
> > I know you must be busy with work, as the new school year is about to
>start.
> > I know that you have knowledge of the history of Hakkas in the various
>areas
> > in China and that you teach linguistics in Hong Kong. In the late 19th
> > century, would the pronunciation of a Hakka village then, change to a
> > different pronunciation today? My mom speaks Hakka, of a dialect of 
>early
> > 1900s, since she learnt it from my great-grandfather, but she says most 
>of
> > the words are still pronunced the same today.


>Yes , I am quite busy at the meantime and therefore having less time for
>E-mails, etc. But I am ready to answer your questions.


> > I'm copying Trev's question here for you to read, please reply and let 
>us
> > know if you can provide any useful information.Trev wrote at the 
>asiawind
> > forum:
> >
> > "Between 1853 and 1879 there were 13,541 Chinese taken to work as
>indentured
> > labourers on the plantations of British Guiana. In archival records in
> > Guyana some of the Chinese are shown to have originated from Kwai Sin
>(also
> > written as Kwee Sin, Kwee San, Kwee Sun, Kwai Sen for different
>immigrants).



>Kwai Sin is the Cantonese pronunciation for the county which later called
>"Huiyang" (Mandarin), "Waiyeung" (Cantonese) or Fuiyong (Hakka). Kwee Sin,
>Kwee San, Kwee Sun, Kwai Sen are pronunciations from different varieties of
>Hakka and Cantonese. My father was also born in this county and came to 
>Hong
>Kong in the 1930's. By the time of his birth (1914) it was changed to
>Huiyang.
>Kwai Sin, in Mandarin Guishan or in my variety of Hakka Guisen (Meixian
>Hakka: Guisan), gui=return, shan=perfect, means returning to perfect.
>
>By the way, I found a very old unpublished Hakka-English  dictionary 
>written
>by Hamberg (??- 1854), who complied it during 1830-1850. I was told that he
>died quite young and his hand-written work was kept in the Basler mission
>for nearly one and a half centuries. His collection was detailed and useful
>but I do not have the time to analyse it. I wonder if you have the time and
>patience to study it because the handwriting, also very artistic and
>beautiful, is not readily legible. If you have the interest I can mail you 
>a
>copy and I am sure you can learn many expressions of Hakka in between. Just
>tell me your postal address if you think you can try.
>
>Regards,
>
>Chunfat
>
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.