Wednesday, May 16, 2007

555 in Hakka

Language Hat's post about Hakka reminded me of the only Hakka words I know. I heard a Hakka-speaking friend say "Mm!" I asked him what that means and he said "Five."
"So how do you say 55?"
"Mm sip mm."
"How about 555?"
"Mm bak mm sip mm."
Needless to say, this phrase doesn't come in handy very often.

A lot of famous people are Hakka, including former ROC president Lee Teng-hui, PRC leaders Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng, shoe designer Jimmy Choo, and Hong Kong stars Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung. According to Wikipedia, former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is part Hakka, too. Though Hakka are often called a separate ethnic group, they are actually ethnically Ham people.

1 comment:

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