Re: OT: Junk

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.