Taiwanese slang translations help-please help me out. :D

Language Taiwanese and Hakka Corner
1

Hello. I’m interestred in and am doing research on Taiwanese youth, street and college slang terms, for a project I’m working on.

I’d like to know, what are Taiwanese (Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese (minnan), Taiwanese Mandarin and Teochew) slangs for:

tough guy
tough female
tomboy
guy prone to fighting
girl prone to fighting
hoodlum
thug
ruffian
delinquent girl
delinquent boy

Please list as many Taiwanese (Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese (minnan), Taiwanese Mandarin and Teochew) slangs for each term as possible, and please post each term using romanized Chinese. Thank you. :smiley:

2

You need to be sure of your terms first. “Hokkien” and “Minnan” and are two ways of saying pretty much the same thing - they both refer to the Southern Min language, of which one form is spoken in Taiwan - commonly referred to as Taiwanese (or, by PRC linguists as “the Xiamen dialect”). Teochew is the Chaozhou form of Southern Min, and is not spoken in Taiwan.

Therefore you really only have two distinctions in Taiwan - Mandarin as spoken in Taiwan and Minnan as spoken in Taiwan. Most people here will simply call those two options “Mandarin” and “Taiwanese”.

Wikipedia has good introductions to both Southern Min in general and the Taiwanese idiom of that speech in particular.

3

Thank you Taffy for responding and clearing that up.

I’d like to know, what are Taiwanese, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Taiwanese Hakka slangs for:

tough guy
tough female
tomboy
guy prone to fighting
girl prone to fighting
hoodlum
thug
ruffian
delinquent girl
delinquent boy

Please list as many Taiwanese, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Taiwanese Hakka slangs for each term as possible, and please post each term using romanized Chinese. Thank you.

4

Taffy are you still there?

5

Hey, if you want a response on the clock I’ll send you my rate card.

The three distinctions you have there (Taiwanese, Mandarin and Hakka) are accurate for Taiwan. I doubt there is anyone on this forum who could translate those terms in to Hakka (and few young people in Taiwan speak it), but I’m willing to be proven wrong on that.

Some of the terms you have there are very similar in English - there will be no definitive answer for each one. For example, what’s the difference between a hoodlum and a ruffian? I’d use liúmáng (流氓) for both of those in Mandarin.

Anyhow, the answers to your questions will have to wait for someone more au fait with the languages than me - I am a mere beginner. Hopefully someone on the forum will be able to help you out.

6

:laughing: Mavericker, please give others at least a day or two to respond. Bulletin boards like this aren’t real-time exchanges. :wink:

7

I am Hakka and I can speak fluent Hakka.
But I don’t know how to write them down.

8

[quote=“wisher”]I am Hakka and I can speak fluent Hakka.
But I don’t know how to write them down.[/quote]

Hello wisher. Thank you for responding.

Do you know how to use Roman transliteration?

9

What exactly are you hoping to say about these terms when you are given them? It doesn’t sound as though you have any background at all in these languages…do you just want to know that such terms exist? Or what?

10

Hello. I am writing a comic book, and I want to use these terms in my comic book for my characters. :smiley:

I have some knowledge of the language spoken in Taiwan-I was a little confused about how the languages are referred to.

There’s Taiwanese Mandarin, which I know about.

I’ve heard people use the term “Taiwanese dialect”,and I was confuesd about it being a seperate term from Taiwanese Hokkien, which I also know about. From what I understand now, Taiwanese is the same as the Hokkien spoken in Taiwan, and as the Minnan spoken in Taiwan.

I just learned there’s also Taiwanese Hakka.

I’ve been elsewhere asking for translations and help with slang, and these are the terms I know:

Mandarin:
liu mang (gangster)
tai mei (delinquent gal)
hoon hoon (small time hooligan/punk)
tai ke (just general for undesirable taiwanese)

Hokkien:
pai kia (“bad kid”/gangster)

Tai Mei, I was told, applies to both gangster girl and tough girl.

Tough boy can also be Tai Bao.

Cool guy = Zho Paa (Very Fashionable)
Boss Girl = Fen Li Cheung (the Mandarin name of the DNS)

Ho Ba Mu = Old Tiger Woman (not bad for Boss Girl)

Strong guy is Goo but they would also call a girl the same thing. It means Ox.

Ah-Hyea (vey nasal sounding) is Older Brother and Dwah Hyea is gangster big brother (Kingpin)

Ah-Chee is older sister. Dwah-chee for Lucy Liu in Kill Bill types.

“low mua bou” 流氓婆 (female low mua).

fighting girl- qia(4) zha(1)查 vou(4)某.

Tough Guy, according to the DNS is Goo(2). It simply means “Bull.”

Nan Ren Puo is the Mandarin of Tomboy

luo mua-tough guy

lor mua = gangster

dwa jie tao ah = female gangster of sorts (literal translation is: big sister head or head big sister)

dwa eh = biggie (can refer to a gangster boss or simply your oldest brother)

Brat:小搗蛋 (siao Hun dan) ;小傢伙(siao Jia huo)

One of the Taiwanese slang for tomboy is 查甫體.

ia xiao zi (假小子) is Tombot in Mandarin.

頑童 (wan tong) literately means urchin,

書呆子. (shu dai zi) is nerd/geek.

The leader of gangster girls is called “Dua Zi Tao” in Taiwanese.

“Lam yn po” is a Taiwanese slang for “tomboy”

Here are some Taiwanese Hokkien slangs I picked up elsewhere:

person prone to fighting
相扑雞
sio1-phah4-ke1 or sio1-phah4-kue1 (lit. fighting cock)

girl prone to fighting
赤諸某
tshiah4-tsa1-boo2

tomboy
諸夫生
tsa1-poo1-senn1 or tsa1-poo1-sinn1

tough (adj.)
儼硬
giam2-nge7 or giam2-ngi7

Qia4 bai3 bai2- tough female

光棍-tough guy

Does anyone know any other Taiwanese Hokkien slangs for the terms I listed?

11

Hello Ironlady, are you there?

12

Um…point one, you’re posting to a public bbs, and responses are optional, not required. Point two, I can’t swear in Hokkien, so I’m not your source for this one. Point three, I don’t see where you asked me a question anyway…

If this project is for fun only, I think you’ve probably gotten what you’re going to get from this source, at least for now. If it’s official or for school or something, you need to either go elsewhere or think about changing your topic, because it sounds like you’re venturing into too-deep linguistic water on this one.

13

Point two, I can’t swear in Hokkien, so I’m not your source for this one.

Hello Ironlady. No, I wasn’t asking for swear words In Hokkien. I was responding to your question.

I was asking:

Does anyone know any other Taiwanese Hokkien slangs for the terms I listed:

tough guy
tough female
tomboy
guy prone to fighting
girl prone to fighting
hoodlum
thug
ruffian
delinquent girl
delinquent boy?

The only Taiwaneses Hokkien terms I have so far are:

person prone to fighting
相扑雞
sio1-phah4-ke1 or sio1-phah4-kue1 (lit. fighting cock)

girl prone to fighting
赤諸某
tshiah4-tsa1-boo2

tomboy
諸夫生
tsa1-poo1-senn1 or tsa1-poo1-sinn1

tough (adj.)
儼硬
giam2-nge7 or giam2-ngi7

14

Hope this can help you.
taiwanesehakka.com/
chinalanguage.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=3

15

[quote=“wisher”]Hope this can help you.
taiwanesehakka.com/
chinalanguage.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=3[/quote]

Hello, wisher. Thank you.

How do I use the first site to search for vocabulary terms?

I’ve been to the second site-I’m still waiting to hear from other posters.

16

chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/hakka/
Well,sorry,it has to enter Chinese .

17

[quote=“wisher”]http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/hakka/
Well,sorry,it has to enter Chinese .[/quote]

Hello wisher, thank you for your response. If I post something in Mandarin or Cantonese it will give me a Hakka synonym?

18

Hello. I hope I didn’t do anything that offended anyone-I apologize if I did. I’m sorry if I came across as being abrupt when I posted.

Are there any members here who speak Hokkien?

19

[quote=“Mavericker”][quote=“wisher”]http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/hakka/
Well,sorry,it has to enter Chinese .[/quote]

Hello wisher, thank you for your response. If I post something in Mandarin or Cantonese it will give me a Hakka synonym?[/quote]
Sorry,I didn’t check this out.
I think you post Mandarin it can gives you a Hakka synonym.But I don’t know if you post Cantonese it works or not.

20

Do you search for the uni website?
nuu.edu.tw/L.htm
They have College of Hakka studies and Department of Chinese language and literature .
You can try or I can help .