Penang Hokkien - A Dying Dialect?

With Penang being listed as one of the UNESCO's Heritage City listing, there have been some discussion with issues pertaining to the uniqueness of Penang cultures, Penang Hokkien dialect being one of them. I have always gotten interesting feedback from friends, coursemates and colleagues that the dialect is very soothing and sweet to the ears from my conversations with fellow Penangites. These came from Singaporeans and Taiwaneses who speak Hokkien too albeit to a different tune! I found that I am able to understand their types of dialect while they struggle with our Penang Hokkien.

Having the opportunities to be in overseas, I realised that Penang Hokkien is definitely unique in its very own way. Some of the differences come from the mixing and melting of terms/objects/words with languages like Malay, English and Portugese. Perhaps the greatest influence is the Peranakan and Nyonya cultures, known as Straits Chinese.

Again, being overseas it is certainly tough finding opportunities to speak Hokkien. In fact, I have met some fellow Penangites while overseas not willing to converse the dialect. I for one prefer to converse Penang Hokkien in the presence of all Penangites and other Hokkien-speaking comrades. There are friends and relatives who are not keen in passing on this uniqueness to their children.

I have to admit that my knowledge of Penang Hokkien may not be as good as previous generations but I can say I'm much better compare to some of my peers as well as the younger generations.

One thing for sure is I can converse in Hokkien in the presence of other nationals with the confidence that they will not be able to understand "secrets", cursings and/or complains. Mandarin, English, Japanese, Spanish and Malay/Indonesian are some of the popular languages that mat sallehs could master but I can see those still looked cheery when we were cursing the shit out of them in Hokkien in their faces!

So, let us all keep Penang Hokkien dialect alive and kicking. I'm proud to be able to speak Penang Hokkien and understand its variants.

KNNMPKCCB......

LoL.....

On another note, here are some wedding pics taken in July............