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Re: OT: Junk

From:Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>
Date:Thursday, September 11, 2003, 19:51
Monkey King writes:

> >Now, "junk": the Mandarin word is "fan1chuan2" (Cantoversion as Sun >>Wukong's latest incarnation, Mr. Czhang, gives us: "fan1sün4" (okay, >>I acquiesce, "faan1suen4")). > > :) Of course my limited Cantonese is thrice-removed from the "homeland" >- I learned what I know from my father and his pronunciation is a lil more the >South East Asian Cantonese that he learned growing up in Indonesia and >Malay(sia).
They're exactly the same thing. The former is my own little romanization thang; the latter, what's been used in Heung Kung for decades.
> > Literally, it's "sail""boat" (fan = sail; chuan = boat), but obviously >doesn't first >conjure up to Chinese minds the notion of the Western >recreational >vessel. > > *snarfle!* _bat siu wa_ (no joke).... Many of the more "tribal" Hakka >fishing people, who live in the Hong Kong Harbour, live on old-style >wooden junks >converted into houseboats. Think of it as a floating shantytown or >water-based ghetto.
M ho yi si la. Laughing at, or condescending to, abject poverty is totally uncool, but still, I cannot help but have a Romantic vision of the Chinese houseboat lifestyle. I so want to float around Guilin with an egret, wok in tow.