According to a 2010 statistical report done by Singapore Department of Statistics (2011), only 7% of the Singapore residents interviewed then spoke Hokkien primarily at home. If you are the 93% of Singapore residents who don’t speak Hokkien primarily or one of many individuals with an interest in learning this Chinese dialect that originated from the Minnan region located in the Fujian province of China, A Practical English-Hokkien Dictionary may be of interest to you.

Published in 1950, the book can be a useful read as it features the Hokkien equivalent of English words in traditional Chinese characters accompanied by pinyin. Unlike Mandarin however, this dictionary highlights in its introduction that Hokkien has 8 tones – which is twice the number of tones we have in Mandarin – and has 6 symbols to mark out 8 of these tones.

Listed alphabetically, one can browse through this English-Hokkien dictionary and have an amusing time spotting Hokkien words that sound similar to Mandarin (e.g. 同意, meaning agree, is pronounced as tóngyì in Mandarin and tông-ì in Hokkien) as well as Hokkien words that are pronounced entirely differently from their Mandarin equivalents (e.g. 玉, which refers to jade, is pronounced as yù in Mandarin and ge̍k in Hokkien). Readers should however note that as this is a 1950 publication, the Hokkien terms listed in this dictionary are not exhaustive due to the gap of 70 years between then and now. For example, you will not find the Hokkien translation for terms we use frequently in our digital era such as computer, internet and mobile phone. However, beyond this limitation that all dictionaries are likely to face with time, A Practical English-Hokkien Dictionary is indeed an eye-opener for both Mandarin and non-Mandarin speakers alike.

The writer, Chiang Ker Chiu (蒋克秋), was born in 1909 in Foochow, China. At 18, he came to Singapore with his brother to become a Mandarin educator at the Singapore Chinese Language School. Chiang was well versed in many languages including English, Chinese, Cantonese, Hokkien and Hakka. During his time, he was considered a pioneer in teaching Chinese in a localised context and had written numerous books on Chinese and its dialects. Lee Kuan Yew recounted that when he started learning Chinese in 1942, one of the set of materials he used was Mandarin Made Easy by Chiang¹.

¹ Keeping My Mandarin Alive: Lee Kuan Yew’s Language Learning Experience, Pg 17

Reference

Chiang, K. C. (1950). A practical English-Hokkien dictionary. Singapore, Chin Fen Book Store.