I like ICRT’s Hakka campaign. I want to study Hakka now.
Does Maryknoll have classes?
TLI?
Anybody know any good books?
Hello, Forumosa!
Well, I got a book and 4 CDs about Hakka language.
6 different dialects in Taiwan! With totally different tones!
The Hsinchu dialect has 7 tones, the rest have 6.
And then there’s this thing called “tone contour”. 5 is highest tone, 1 is lowest. If there’re 2 digits, then tone rises or falls from left to right, or it’s long and stays level if they are the same digits. If it’s a short tone, then it’s one digit. Here are the 7 tones of Hsinchu Hakka (called the “海陸腔”: ocean-land accent? coastal accent?)
1st tone - 53 (high falling)
2nd tone - 44 (high level)
3rd tone - 24 (mid rising)
4th tone - 21 (the deep bitch)
5th tone - 33 (mid level)
6th tone - 5 (a high-pitched short little utterance)
7th tone - 2 (a low-pitched short short little utterance)
OK… now I’m going to try to figure out if the tones change and how they do so…
Unless someone out there can fill us in…
Stay tuned, kiddies!
海陸 Hailu might refer to Haifeng and Lufeng counties of Guangdong Province, where Hakka is spoken in addition to other dialects.
Oh, yeah. I think that’s what my book says in the introduction, too.
Maryknoll in Taichung used to have a Hakka teacher a few years ago I think. If I am not mistaken I saw a Hakka textbook sitting on the shelf, but I will have to confirm this.
Does Maryknoll Taipeh still offer Hakka courses?
[quote=“Booger Digger”]4th tone - 21 (the deep bitch)
[/quote]
Wow! I definitely want to study Hakka now!
Anybody want to take Hakka lessons at Maryknoll Taipei weeknights from 7-9? I can’t do Mondays or Tuesdays.
How many days a week?
What dialect are they teaching there? I’d like to study the one spoken in Hsinchu…
I don’t know yet.
But, I’m clearer on the tones now. The two big dialects in Taiwan are 四縣spoken in places like Miaoli, and 海陸 spoken in places like Xinzhu (Hsinchu) (Xinchoo-coo) (Shinjew)
So, I was wrong about the tones before, I’ll correct my post. So, anyway, I’m writing these according to the rules of tone contour.
So, 海陸 has these tones:
1st - 53 (like 4th tone in Mandarin)
知: “di”
2nd - 13 (like 2nd tone in Mandarin)
女: “ng”
3rd - 11 (the deep bitch - deep level tone)
愛: “oi”
4th - 5 (a high abrupt tone - it’ll end in k,p,t/g,b,d to silence the vowel)
肉: “ngiug”
5th - 55 (a high level tone)
人: “ngin”
6th - … doesn’t exist… in this dialect…
…
7th - 33 (mid-range level tone, like Mandarin 1st tone)
家: “ga”
8th - 2 (a low abrupt tone - it’ll also end in k,p,t/g,b,d to silence the vowel - it actually falls a little, so you can say it’s “32”, too)
學: “hog”
But wait! Where is the 6th tone??? It’s theoretical… I mean, this tone system is made to accomodate all dialects, and the 6th isn’t there in Hakka. It’s the same with Taiwanese: 6th tone is same as 2nd. Anyway…
the tone changes go like this:
a) The 2nd tone changes to 7th when it’s in front of ANY other tone.
b) The 4th tone changes to 8th in front of ANY other tone.
c) If you double a word, or triple it - I mean the same Chinese character/morpheme, like 早早 or 透透透, then the first word in the series will change to 2nd tone. This rule only works for 1st, 3rd, 7th and 8th tones. Plus, it’s only used when you’re emphasizing the words…??? I mean, you usually only double words with adjectives/adverbs, so if you really want to emphasize the adjective or adverb, then do this tone change. Otherwise, don’t.
Maryknoll only offers Miao-Li dialect. I think that’s “四縣” dialect.
There are only 6 tones and the tone change rules are simpler.
Anyway, it’ll be easier to learn Hsinchu Hakka if you already know Miao-Li Hakka.
Also, the MRT Hakka announcements are in 四縣 dialect, so you’ll be able to get some listening comprehension practice on the way to class.
Anyway, if you’re interested, I’ve already talked to Al Doyle at the center, and he’s going to try to get us hooked up with the books and a teacher.
But things are kind of slow at Maryknoll. I hope we can start in December, though.
PM me if you’re interested.
yeah,people in Miaoli speak 四縣dialect .(I think most hakka people speak 四縣dialect now).but theres not big difference between 四縣 and 海陸.I speak 四縣 dialect.
Are youinterested in 四縣 or 海陸dialect?
I dont know ICRT has a lesson about Hakka.
oh,btw,what are the Hakka textbook you have??
How about your Hakka speaking ability now?
Hakka language exchange? Even better. Lingq interested?
well,Im not looking for language exchange.
I dont know if I have much time for that.
But I’d like to offer some help sometime.
If you want,just PM me. 
Chow-Yun Fat speaking Hakka:
Traditional Hakka opera troupes in Taiwan are incorporating street dance and acrobatics into their performances in an effort to breathe new life into a disappearing art form.
