Re: USAGE: Dinos and dragons

From: "H. S. Teoh"

> In my flavor of Hokkien, si3ka1zua5 refers to the category of lizards with
> rougher scales and darker color, and more fearsome looks in general.
> Lizards with smooth skin are called "sin1tang5". It *might* be a term
> specific to the local version of Hokkien.
AaaaHA! Ooo, and I got it on the first try too, goody, goody, goody.

With that information in hand, I was planning to look to words for smaller
lizards -- newts, salamanders and the like, but started with the ubiquitous
"bi4hu3" (gecko). Voilà! Mandarin "bi4hu3" (wall-tiger) is Hokkien
"sen7tang5(a2)" (eel-insect). If your dialect expands that to other little
slimy critters, so be it.

> > and "do7ding7" (looks like characters arbitrarily selected for sound)
> > as the equivalents.
>
> Hmm. I never heard of this one before.
Could be some dialect variant used in some remote mountain village in Taiwan
(though the mainland dictionary had it, too), I wouldn't sweat it.

> > all the possibilities one by one, but I found nothing under "new".
"Worm" in
> > Mandarin is "qiu1yin3", the Hokkien equivalent given is 'to5wun2"
> > (earth-worm) (also "gao5wun2" [monkey-worm]).
>
> Hmm. My version of Hokkien simply uses "tang5" for "worm". I guess some of
> the terminology has changed, perhaps under the influence of local Malay
> dialects -- I don't think I *ever* heard of "to5wun2" or "gao5wun2"
> before.
I never had the occasion to discuss worms in Taiwanese, so this ain't my
forté. To me, a non-native, "tang5" definitely sounds like "insect" (I
suppose "worm" fits under that rubric). "To5wun2" sounds reasonable to my
ear; "gao5wun2" sounds a little folksy and dialecty.

Kou