Learning Taishanese (Part 3)

In the third lesson, you'll be introduced in learning how to name basic colors in Taishanese. It is pronounced in the following manner: bak sik, wong sik, chang sik, hak sik, gem sik, cafe sik (hint: because brown looks like coffee), look sik, hung sik, lam sik.

Background on Taishanese: Taishanese is a Cantonese dialect spoken in the western part of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province of China in a region called SiYi or SzeYap in Standard Cantonese. SiYi consists of the cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Enping and Xinhui(which includes Jiangmen). Recently it has included the city of Heshan. The variant of Taishanese spoken in this clip is mainly spoken in Taishan and Kaiping. The Enping and Xinhui (includes Jiangmen) variant is slightly different, but can be understood fairly well by Taishan and Kaiping speakers.

History: Taishanese is the second most popular Cantonese dialect after the Guangzhou(廣州) variant, which is considered as the Standard or Putonghua of the Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan area and to a lesser extent Fujian and Taiwan. Many Taishanese speakers who have lived in Hong Kong (who make up about 30%-40% of the total population) in the early to mid 1900s have chosen to speak Standard Cantonese over Taishanese Cantonese a few decades later.

Taishanese was also the business language of many overseas chinatowns in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK since the mid 1800 through the 1980s. As a result there are many famous Hong Kongers, Canadians, Americans and Australians of Taishanese descent.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Taishan
• Guangdong
• China
• Toisan
• 台山
• 廣東
• 中國
• 粵語
• 台山話
• 開平話
• 四邑

[GuMdRoP135]

I don't know why but it is very difficult to speak Taishanese because I mostly speak Cantonese when it's basically the same thing ! My mom side is Toisan and my dad's side is Canto . I can only understand Toisan but not speak it . WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR MEEEE UGHH lol .

♥X.Stamped.X♥ -Lilyy Law .♥

[jaychow21]

@GuMdRoP135 what part is difficult? i know the most difficult is the ``thl`` sound at the begining of the word example thlam = 3

[GuMdRoP135]

@jaychow21 Likee EVERYTHING is hard whenever I try speaking it I end up speaking Cantonese lol

[jaychow21]

@GuMdRoP135 You just need to be around Taishanese speaking people for abit to get the accent OR keep practicing. Yeah Taishanese and Cantonese is so similar that they both end up sounding about the same lol

[VJtheDJ]

"geng sik." I have always known gold as "geem sik" (pronounced with a hard "g" as in "goat"). Depending on the tone, "geng" to me meant ginger, neck, or scared. There is a YouTube user by the name of YanStevenUT. His pronunciation of "hoy san wah" is dead on with what I grew up hearing and learning. Thanks again, Jay!

[jaychow21]

well the girl pronounced it "Gem Sik"... the Yanstevenguy would have pronounced it as "Gim Sik" because i am part Hoiping myself and my mother prounces the word Gold as "Gim" which sounds like Korean "Kim".

[henryalg]

Wfor me is like kaiping lol

[AAMLfan]

Wow, I speak Cantonese and I don't think I'd have any problems conversing with a Taishanese person! So similar! I always thought they sounded totally different until I saw your videos...

[AsiaMs]

The girl in this video speaks my kind of Hoisan Wah. I also say gem sik , but i have heard other hoisan people say gim sik for gold. My parents say that's how they say it in the next village.

[XxMayanaLiuxX]

I'm From Taishan But I Speak Mostly Cantonese And Taiwanese And A Little Taishanese, I Don't Know Why But To Me Taishanese Sounds Like Cantonese With An Accent :D

[TheManGuyDude]

isn't green cheng sik? and lok sit is.. purple?

[SHUTUPNOOB654]

@miaka91395 I say set o-o