Teochew (潮汕話/潮汕话Diê5 suan3 uê7 or 潮州話/潮州话Diê5 ziu1 uê7), also Romanized asChiuchow, is the main language of theChaoshan region in EasternGuangdong, around the cities ofShantou,Chaozhou andJieyang. It is also fairly common inHong Kong and among overseas Chinese, especially inSoutheast Asia, withBangkok,Phnom Penh,Pontianak andJohor Bahru being examples of Southeast Asian cities where Teochew speakers form the majority among the ethnic Chinese community.
Each of the three main Teochew-speaking cities in China, as well as each overseas region where it is spoken, has its own slightly different variant, though they are similar enough not to hinder mutual comprehension; the prestige dialect is that of Chaozhou, though the Shantou dialect is more commonly heard due to the city's economic dominance. The overseas variants are influenced by other local languages; the Teochew spoken in Singapore and Malaysia has loan words from Malay and Hokkien, while the Teochew spoken in Thailand has loan words from Thai.
All Chinese languages, in general, use the same set of characters in reading and writing in formal settings, based on standard Mandarin. This means that a Teochew speaker and a Mandarin speaker cannot talk to each other, but either can generally read what the other writes. However, when Teochew is written in a more colloquial form, there are significant differences with standard Mandarin, thus necessitating the use of some extra characters not commonly used in Mandarin, and meaning that a Mandarin speaker will not be able to understand everything. Use theChinese phrasebook for reading most writing in Teochew-speaking areas.
Teochew is closely related toMinnan Hua andHainanese, but only partly mutually intelligible with Minnan Hua and mutually unintelligible with Hainanese. Teochew is not mutually intelligible withMandarin orCantonese, but it is common for Teochew speakers to also know one or both of those. Foreigners in the region usually choose to learn Mandarin rather than Teochew because it is much more widely used.
Like other dialects of Chinese, Teochew is written using Chinese characters but employs its own unique pronunciation. Traditional Chinese characters are used in some overseas Teochew communities, while simplified characters are used in mainland China. Where differences exist, in this guide, we write the traditional Chinese characters before the slash and simplified Chinese character after it.
Peng'im, which was developed by the Guangdong provincial government in 1960, is generally the most common system for Romanizing Teochew, and will be used in this guide. See Wikipedia for details if needed. However, as most native speakers do not know how to read Romanized Teochew, stick to Chinese characters for written communication.
While Mandarin only distinguishes between aspirated and unaspirated (unvoiced) consonants, and English only distinguishes between voiced and unvoiced consonants meaning-wise, Teochew makes a distinction in both cases. This means that aspirated unvoiced (p, t, k, c), unaspirated unvoiced (b, d, g, z), and unaspirated voiced (bh, gh, r) are all separate phonemic consonants in Teochew. Pronouncing everything accurately is therefore going to be a challenge for native English or Mandarin speakers. However, unlike in Mandarin, there is no "tongue rolling" (pinyinzh,ch,sh,r) initial consonant.
Initial consonanats of Peng'im
Letter
IPA
English example
Notes
bh
b
ban
English 'b'
b
p
span
pinyin 'b'
p
pʰ
pan
pinyin 'p'
r
dz/ʑ
jam
English 'j'
z
ts/tɕ
-
pinyin 'z' or 'j'
c
tsʰ/tɕʰ
cats
pinyin 'c' or 'q'
s
s/ɕ
sun
pinyin 's' or 'x'
gh
g
get
English hard 'g'
g
k
skin
pinyin 'g'
k
kʰ
kin
pinyin 'k'
d
t
Stan
pinyin 'd'
t
tʰ
tan
pinyin 't'
h
h
hat
English 'h'
m
m
map
English 'm'
n
n
net
English 'n'
l
l
line
English 'l'
ng
ŋ
sing
English 'ng'
Teochew retains some final consonants of Middle Chinese that Mandarin has lost, such asb,g, andm. On the other hand, Teochew has lost then final consonant that Mandarin has retained, and you will often hear native Teochew speakers mispronouncing the n final as ng when speaking Mandarin. The finalm andng are pronounced as in English, butb andg are different. They are similar to English p and k but unreleased. This means that the mouth moves into the position of making the consonant, but no burst of air is released.
Final consonanats of Peng'im
Letter
IPA
English example
Notes
b
p
span
pinyin 'b'
g
k
skin
pinyin 'g'
m
m
map
English 'm'
ng
ŋ
sing
English 'ng'
Furthermore, anh at the end of a syllable in Peng'im represents a glottal stop (ʔ); this is the sound in the middle of the English word 'uh-oh'.
Teochew is a tonal language, meaning that the tone must be correct in order to convey the correct meaning. There are 8 different tones, denoted with a superscript number after the syllable in Peng'im. Tone sandhi is rather complex in Teochew, which makes it a little harder to learn than Mandarin. In general, tone sandhi occurs on all syllables of a word other than the final syllable.
Tones of Teochew
Number
Name
Pitch
Description
After tone sandhi
1
yin level (陰平/阴平)
33
high
1
2
yin rising (陰上/阴上)
52
falling
6
3
yin departing (陰去/阴去)
213
low falling
2 or 5
4
yin entering (陰入/阴入)
2
mid stopped
8
5
yang level (陽平/阳平)
5
rising
7
6
yang rising (陽上/阳上)
35
falling
9
7
yang departing (陽去/阳去)
1
mid
9
8
yang entering (陽入/阳入)
4
high stopped
4
Tone 9 as seen in the table occurs only after tone sandhi, and is described as a high falling tone.
Teochew pronouns are somewhat more complicated than in Mandarin. 我ua2 is the standard first person pronoun, 汝le2 is the standard second person pronoun, and 伊i1 is the standard third person pronoun. Unlike English, Teochew has only one third person pronoun, and does not distinguish between "he", "she" and "it". Unlike in English, Teochew makes a distinction between the inclusive and exclusive first person plurals, so the equivalent of "we" is 阮uang2 if you want to exclude the person(s) you are addressing, and 咱nang2 if you want to include the person(s) you are talking too. The other plurals are more straightforward; 恁ning2 is the equivalent of the plural "you", while 伊儂i1 nang5 is the equivalent of "they".
To be or not to be?
Teochew, as in Mandarin, does not have words for "yes" and "no" as such; instead, questions are typically answered by repeating the verb. Common ones include:
Numbers in Teochew follow the same system as other varieties of Chinese.
0
空kang3
1
一zêg8 /ig4
Note:ig4 is used in the ones and tens place (except for the number 1 itself) and in ordinal numbers, whereaszêg8 is used for multiples of numbers 100 and greater, as well as before counter words.
2
兩/两no6 / 二ri6
Note: 二ri6 is used in the ones and tens place (except for the number 2 itself) and in ordinal numbers, whereas 兩/两no6 is used for multiples of numbers 100 and greater, as well as before counter words.
3
三san1
4
四si3
5
五ngou6
6
六lag8
7
七cig4
8
八boih4
9
九gao2
10
十zab8
11
十一zab8 ig4
12
十二zab8 ri6
13
十三zab8 san1
14
十四zab8 si3
15
十五zab8 ngou6
16
十六zab8 lag8
17
十七zab8 cig4
18
十八zab8 boih4
19
十九zab8 gao2
20
二十ri6 zab8
21
二十一ri6 zab8 ig4
22
二十二ri6 zab8 ri6
23
二十三ri6 zab8 san1
30
三十san1 zab8
40
四十si3 zab8
50
五十ngou6 zab8
60
六十lag8 zab8
70
七十cig4 zab8
80
八十boih4 zab8
90
九十gao2 zab8
100
一百zêg8 bêh4
200
兩百/两百no6 bêh4
300
三百san1 bêh4
1,000
一千zêg8 coin1
2,000
兩千/两千no6 coin1
Like Mandarin, Teochew groups numbers starting from 10,000 into units of four digits starting with 萬/万bhuêng7. "One million" would therefore be "one hundred ten-thousands" (一百萬/一百万) and "one billion" would be "ten hundred-millions" (十億/十亿).
While the character 走 (zao2) means "to walk" in modernStandard Mandarin, Teochew retains the Classical Chinese meaning of the character, in which it means "to run" (a meaning that is also retained in other southern dialects andJapanese). Instead, the character 行 (gian5) is used to mean "to walk" in Teochew.
One peculiarity of Teochew is that it does not distinguish between eating and drinking. As such, the verb 食 (ziah8) is used to refer to both eating and drinking.
A table for one person/two people, please.
()
Can I look at the menu, please?
()
Can I look in the kitchen?
()
Is there a house specialty?
()
Is there a local specialty?
()
I'm a vegetarian.
()
I don't eat pork.
我無食豬肉。/我无食猪肉。ua2 bho5 ziah8 de1 nêg8.
I don't eat beef.
我無食牛肉。/我无食牛肉。ua2 bho5 ziah8 ghu5 nêg8.
I only eat kosher food.
()
Can you make it "lite", please? (less oil/butter/lard)
