Teochew in Hong Kong Movies

Sometimes when watching Hong Kong movies you can find a number of references to Teochew people and sometimes you can even hear some spoken Teochew in them. Off the top of my head here are some movies:

The God of Cookery: Stephen Chow says "pu nia bho" in it.
Love Undercover 2: After getting demoted Miriam Yeung says something like "ua si diojiu nang, ua bho ketki nia."
Eagle Shooting Heroes: Tony Leung speaks a combination of Cantonese and very bad diojiu. I posted a clip here.
Young and Dangerous III: The priest speaks a short line of diojiu in it.
Stowaway: One of the members speaks diojiu.
The Attractive One: Lau Ching Wan plays a diojiu nang who says that diojiu males are chauvanistic, but responsible.
Enter the Phoenix: Yuen Biao's triad family are diojiu nang that swam from Diojiu to Hong Kong. (Many Diojiu nang actually arrived in Hong Kong that way, so I hear).

Movies I have not seen but heard there are Diojiu references in there:

2Young
Moonchild

I'll try to add more later!

Cambodian/French Romanization System

While in Cambodia last year, I noticed that alot of businesses there were owned by Teochew people. You could tell because they had their own way of translating their business's name in Chinese characters to english. For the english name, they would commonly just spell out how they would say Chinese words using english.

I later found that this romanization scheme is actually based on the French way of pronouncing Teochew words. Here are some examples, with the pengim used on this site on the left, Chinese character in the middle, and Cambodian romanization on the right:

Modern | Character | Cambodian
Heng 興 Heng
Li 利 Ly
Li 李 Ly
Li 呂 Ly
Bung 文 Bun
Dang 陳 Taing
Chua 蔡 Chhor
Eung 黃 Ung
Dong 忠 Tong
Sio 謝 Chea
Lai 來 Lay
[ ] 辛 Sim

Random Teochew Notes

• Common romanized TC last names: Taing (Dang
陈), Ung (Eung 黄), Chhor (Chua 蔡), Chea (Chia 谢), Tea (Dio` 张). If you meet anybody with these last names, they are probably TC.
• If you go to the University of Washington, you can find a TC-Mandarin dictionary at Gowen East Asia Library. The dictionary uses official Guangdong pengim.
• "Teochew" in Japanese is
ちょうしゅう(Chou Shuu).
• Leu gai mama
汝个妈妈 is Teochew for "Yo mama."
• Hak Seng
学生 is how you say "student" in Teochew AND Korean.
• Q: What did the Korean camerman say when he arrived at the TC B-day party?
  A: Annyeon-hot-sia- ou! (Ohh the cheeze)
• 
  
周星驰 swears in TC in 食神. 楊千嬅 speaks TC in 新紮師妹 2.
• Li Ka-Shing, richest man in Asia, is TC. Woohoo TC power!
• "Diojiu nang jiat guchaigue (
韭菜粿), man they love their guchaigue." Because it's true!
• 77% of the Chinese in Cambodia are TC.
• 56% of the Chinese in Thailand are TC.

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Teochew Romanization Systems(Peng-Im)

At first glance Teochew romanization can be confusing. Commonly, you will see two main romanization systems for Teochew. The official one is the Guangdong romanization system, and the other one is the Gaginang system, which is essentially a modified version of the Guangdong system.

The Guangdong system can be quite difficult to figure out. If you know Mandarin pinyin, the readings will make a little more sense to you. As it is the official romanization system, it is used in dictionaries and learning materials in Chaozhou. For more info on this system, please go here.

The Gaginang system takes the Guangdong system but simplifies it to make a little more sense to English users. Take 潮州 Teochew for example. In the Gaginang system, 潮州 Teochew actually sounds like how it is written (with an English "J" sound for "Jiu"). In the Guangdong system, you would read the "Ziu" in Dio Ziu like a Mandarin "Z." This site uses the Gaginang system, but if there is enough demand, I'm willing to create a Guangdong romanization version of the lessons.

Here are some examples of the differences:

Gaginang system (Guangdong system)

潮州 Teochew = Dio Jiu (Dio Ziu)
青 green = Che (Cên)
走 to go = Keu (Ke)
六 six = Lak (Lag)
十 ten = Jap (Zab)
热 hot = Yuat (Ruah)
Nazalization = ` (n)

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