Monday, October 17, 2005

Xinhui Dialect (新會 粤方言)

My grandparents (both maternal and paternal side) are from Xinhui, a city in Guangdong (广东) province in Southern China. They migrated to Sarawak almost a century ago and settle down there in a small town called Sarikei(泗里街). The dialect we use in our daily conversation is the Cantonese dialect Xinhui group (新會 粤方言). There's quite a number of Xinhui dialect Cantonese speaking people in Sarikei. So far, I have not yet encountered anyone speaking this dialect over here in Peninsular Malaysia. I did a research in internet few days ago and this is what I found :)

Dialects of Cantonese
There are at least four major dialect groups of Cantonese:
  • Siyi or sei yap 四邑, (the dialects of Taishan, Enping, Kaiping, and Xinhui 新會 ; however exemplified by Taishan 台山 dialect);
  • Gaoyang, as spoken in Yangjiang ; and
  • Guinan (Nanning dialect) spoken widely in Guangxi.
However, Cantonese generally refers to the Yuehai(Yueyu) 粵語/粤语 dialect.

Just wonder... anyone of you speaking xinhui or sei yap cantonese dialect out there?

23 comments:

JoeC said...

wow, i'm afraid my canto dialect when to the ways of McD...dun really know which type, guess it is my lost there. Cheers!

Babe_KL said...

i heard of sei yap. our ex-neighbour is dat dialect one

Cynthia said...

is Xin Hui same as Heng Hua? i know mandarin, hokkien and teochew, canton only. =) Im hakka, speak no hakka, shy shy man!

izchan said...

they suppose to sound almost the same, but I don't believe I speak it.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't 粵語 be "yuet wah"? Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

By the way, Darryl here! :)

Chen said...

JoeC,
hah?? But, as long as u know u are Cantonese, consider okie liao loh :P

BabeKL,
Cool.. At least I know there are some sei yap people around :)

Cynthia,
From what I know, Heng Hua is categorized under Fujian or Hokkien dialect..
I can speak Cantonese, Hokkien, Foochow & Mandarin :)

Izchan,
The common cantonese speaking people (like what we called HK cantonese dialect) don't understand my dialect :) So it's pretty safe to utter secret in my dialect cos most people don't understand :P

Darryl,
From few pages that I browsed through regarding dialects, mostly they called it as Yuehai or YueYu. If translate from Chinese to English, the correct word should be YueYu. But which one is the actual correct word, I have no idea :)

Sam I Am said...

I have heard of it . But I don"t
speak it . It would take me a long time to learn .

Chen said...

Humble Warrior,
I can speak English, Malay, Chinese/Mandarin and dialects such as Cantonese (both the HK Cantonese & XinHui Cantonese), Hokkien & Foochow.

Sam I Am,
Oh.. u heard of it as well? Good to know that :)

Cynthia said...

Malaysian memang boleh! In australia, all my aussie mang moo friends only know 2 languages -- Australian and English! hahahaahhaa

Jellyfish said...

hmmm.... there should be a slight different of canto between sarikei and KL as evident from WAC forum, kekekeke....

waaaa... u can speak so many dialects one ar, wanna learn hakka as well? '5 jang joi' lor, kekekeke...

Chen said...

Cynthia,
Kekeke... Malaysian Boleh !!! :P

Jellyfish,
U want to teach me Hakka ah? I don't mind learning.. It's always good to know extra language/dialect :P

Darren,
Another "ka ki lang" there...

Anonymous said...

Cynthia: Australian and English??? :) Are you in Perth or "Kampung Pertani"?

Anonymous said...

I speak Taishan dialect (Hoi San Wah ->local dialect or Toi San Wah -> in Canto). I heard that Xinhui dialect is similar to Taishan dialect. I live in Canada and there is alot of Sze Yap people (mostly people from Taishan and Kaiping). US also has alot alot of Taishan people. If you want to see if Xinhui dialect is similar to Taishan dialect...here are some examples of Taishan vocabulary: the numbers (1 to 10) -> Yit Ngee Thlam Thlee Ng Lok Tit Bat Giu Sip, drink tea = Yim Cha, Xinwui= Thlen Wui, chinese(Tang) person= Hong Ngin.

Chen said...

andrew lau,
thanks for the examples..
XinHui dialect has some similarity with Taishan dialects :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Chen, how do u say the numbers in ur dialect (Xinhui hua) from 1 to 10? from my curiosity...and do u guys say Hong Ngin for Chinese (Tang) person ?

Chen said...

Andrew,

numbers in XinHui dialect from 1 to 10
yek, ngee, sam, sei, mg, lok, chek, pak, geu, sep

for chinese (Tang) person
Hong Ngen

drink tea
Ngem Cha

eat rice
hiak fan

Chen said...

andy,
sure..It's nice to meet someone speaking the similar dialect.

Chen said...

andy,
I have replied u in email :)

Anonymous said...

I came across this posting by chance while doing an online search for "Xinhui Dialect". Can't speak it. Can only remember some words and phrases from my late grandmother. Not sure if I remember correctly so please correct me if necessary.

"jerng gwok" = jung gwok = China
"gwong derng saang" = gwong dung saang = Guangdong
"son woei" = san wui = Xinhui
"noei" = nei = you (singular)
"ngor" = ngo = I/me
"nguk" = ngo dei = we/us
"niak" = nei dei = you (plural), you all
"kiak" = keui dei = they/them
"koei" = keui = he/she/him/her/it
"hiau" = yiu = need something, to want something
"mot soei" = bin go / mat seui = who
"mat ha ne" = mat ye / what
"gi si" = gei si = when
"hiak" = sik = eat
"ngiem" = yam = drink
"for che" = fo che = train
"biang kun" = beng gun = biscuit tin
"yi serk" = yi suk = 2nd uncle from father's side
"sarm serk" = saam suk = 3rd uncle from father's side
"yot yi sarm soei ng lerk chot bat geau sep" = yat yi saam sei ng luk chat bat gau sap = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
"fui moon" = hoi mun = open door
"saan moon" = san mun = close door
"fui" = toi = table
"dong" = dang = chair
"ah kerng" = ah gung = grandpa
"ah ho" = ah por = grandma
"yot mon" = yat man = one dollar
"yot saeu" = yat siu = 10,000 yik
"heang" = heung = village
"gwai gerng" = gwai gung = male tortoise\
"maeu" = maau = cat
"gaeu" = gau = dog

Anonymous said...

Carlson Here.

Hi Chen. Taishan people in malaysia is consider as Cantonese people. mostly Taishan people are located at north penisular malaysia. I am Sei Yap. Only my grandparent can speak. But they no longer here. Actually, I'm interested to learn the language.

How to contact you? PM me at carlson_khong@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad that I came across this. There isn't much online about the Sin hui/Xin hui dialect. My late grandparents spoke it and at some point in the past I was able to as well, so this was great for trying to relearn it again.

S said...

My maternal side family is Xinhui
i
Peninsular Malaysia