Introduction

台山話英文字典 Hoisanva English Dictionary is a dictionary of Chinese characters with American English Romanization or GPS (Gene's Phonetic system) in Hoisanva and Mandarin Pinyin.

  1. The Radical Index on the left side of the page
    1. Radicals are the traditional 214 Kangxi radicals.
    2. The number on the left side of the Radical Index added to the number on the top or bottom of the index will produce the radical number for the intersection of the row and column. For example, take the radical 山: On the left is "40+" and on the top is "6". Adding these two numbers gives you 46, which is the radical number for 山.
    3. The numbers on the right side of the Radical Index indicate the number of strokes that begins in that row.
    4. For variant radicals follow the link to Variant Radicals.
  2. Dictionary Pages
    1. Characters are arranged in the Radical Index order.
    2. Within each Radical, characters are arranged by the total stroke count of each character.
    3. Column 1 shows the radical, which is also on the top of the page together with the radical number.
    4. Column 2 shows the total stroke count.
    5. Column 3 shows the character in Traditional Form.
    6. Column 4 shows the character in Simplified Form. If a simplified form does not exist, it is shown in the Traditional Form column..
    7. Column 5 shows the American English Romanization in Hoisanva. (see Pronunciation Guide below).
    8. Column 6 shows the Romanization in Mandarin Pinyin.
    9. Column 7 shows the English meaning and sometimes Chinese word samples.
  3. FAQs
    4. Some of the characters came out as rectangles. What am I doing wrong?
    The particular character that came out as a rectangle is not in the Unicode CJK Unified Ideographs (Han) set. They may be in CJK Extension-A or CJK Extension-B. You need to install a Chinese character font that would render these characters. You may download the "UNICODE Han Nom Font Set" for free from http://vietunicode.sourceforge.net/fonts/fonts_hannom.html. There are two sets: one for CJK Extension-A and another one for CJK Extension-B. The components of these characters are explained in the "Meaning and Examples" column.
    Is this site copyrighted?
    All Hoisanva information is copyrighted by Gene M. Chin.

Pronunciation Guide

All Hoisanva sounds for Chinese characters have: an initial part and a final part. In addition to the two parts, all characters have a tone, without which would render the character meaningless. Listen to some sample tones.

Initials

All initials are essentially as indicated by the American English equivalents. The only exception is the initial "x" which sounds like "thl" with tip of tongue touching the inside of upper front teeth with air coming out of both corners of the mouth. The IPA equivalent is the belted l (ɬ). Many scholars may disagree with me on the initial "v" initial since transliterations usually use a "w" for this initial. However, if you listen carefully to native speakers, you will hear a "v" more than you hear a "w".

Initial Example Initial Example
b boy m mommy
ch child n nice
d daddy ng thing
f fish p puppy
g good s sew
h hat t toy
j joy v voice
k kite x ɬ
l love y yes

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Finals

The letters k, p, or t at the end of a character/word is not exploded as in American English. They are very soft, as spoken in a whisper. The iu sound is a long e + the "uo" in buoy (bōō'ē not boi) or "ee"+" ōō". Both haunt (hônt) and gone (gôn) are the preferred pronunciation in the American Heritage Dictionary, not the secondary pronunciation (hänt and gŏn). The ui sound is similar to buoy (bōō'ē not boi).

A E I O U
a f[a]ther eh h[ea]r i mach[i]ne o [o]range u t[u]ne
ai h[ai]ku, [I] eik [ache] im [im]port oi [oi]l ui b[uoy]
ak b[ack] eim [aim] in [in] ok b[alk] uk [oak]
am l[am]a ein l[ane] ip b[eep] on h[aun]t, g[on]e un t[un]e
an G[an]di, H[an] ek [ech]o it b[eet] ong H[ong] Kong ung [own]
angP[ang]>o Pango el [el]ement iu ee+ōō ot [ought] ut g[ood]
ao c[ow] em [em]inent            
ap k[ap]ut en [en]code            
at b[at] mitzvah eng [Eng]les            
    eo long a + long o            
    ep ad[ep]t            
    et p[et]            

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Tones

Hoisanva consists not only the initials and finals that make up the character/word, but also a tone, which is an integral part of the word. There are five distinct tones in Hoisanva. Pitch or tone contour can be divided into a starting pitch and an ending pitch. By using the numbers 1 through 5 to represent the five tones (see table below) in a pentatonic scale (where 1 is low and 5 is high), we could approximate the pitch of words in Hoisanva.

Diacritic marks (see table below) are used to represent the five tones. A macron (ˉ) is used for the first tone. A diaeresis (¨) is used for the second tone. A tilde (˜) is used for the third tone. A grave accent (ˋ) is used for the fourth tone. A circumflex (ˆ) is used for the fifth tone. Diacritic marks are placed over a vowel if there is only one vowel in the word. In the case of diphthongs, diacritic marks are placed over the first vowel, except for "ui" and "iu", in which case, it is placed over the second vowel. The consonant "M" or "m" as a single character/word may have a diacritical mark placed above it. See chart below.

Tone Number Diacritic Symbol Diacritic Samples Tone Name Pitch Sample Tones
1 macron ˉ ĀĒĪŌŪ āēīōū M̄ m̄ high even tone 55 hēo (mouth)
2 diaeresis ¨ ÄËÏÖÜ äëïöü M̈ m̈ middle even tone 33 hëo (steal)
3 tilde ˜ ÃẼĨÕŨ ãẽĩõũ M̃ m̃ low even tone 22 hẽo (head)
4 grave accent ˋ ÀÈÌÒÙ àèìòù M̀ m̀ middle falling tone 32 hèo (after)
5 circumflex ˆ ÂÊÎÔÛ âêîôû M̂ m̂ low falling tone 21 hêo (thick)

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