Teochew phrasebook

Southern Min language

Teochew (潮汕話/潮汕话 Diê suan uê or 潮州話/潮州话 Diê ziu uê), also Romanized as Chiuchow, is the main language of the Chaoshan region in Eastern Guangdong, around the cities of Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang. It is also fairly common in Hong Kong and among overseas Chinese, especially in Southeast Asia, with Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Pontianak and Johor 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 the Chinese phrasebook for reading most writing in Teochew-speaking areas.

Teochew is closely related to Minnan Hua and Hainanese, but only partly mutually intelligible with Minnan Hua and mutually unintelligible with Hainanese. Teochew is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin or Cantonese, 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.

Pronunciation guide

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.

Phrase list

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Letter	IPA	English example
a	a	father
e	ɯ	no equivalent in English, like Estonian õ or Korean eu
ê	ɛ	hen
i	i	see
o	ɔ	law
u	u	goose

Letter	IPA	English example	Notes
ai	ai	my	pinyin 'ai'
ao	au	cow	pinyin 'ao'
ia	ia	-
iê	iɛ	-
io	iɔ	but hoil
iu	iu	-
oi	ɔi	-
ou	ou	-	pinyin 'ou'
ua	ua	-	pinyin 'wa'
uê	uɛ	way	pinyin 'wei'
ui	ui	-
iou	iou	-
uai	uai	why	pinyin 'wai'

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'

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'

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

Teochew phrasebook

Pronunciation guide

Vowels

Vowel combinations

Consonants

Tones

Phrase list

Basics

Problems

Numbers

Time

Clock time

Duration

Days

Months

Writing time and date

Colors

Transportation

Bus and train

Directions

Taxi

Lodging

Money

Eating

Bars

Shopping

Driving

Authority