日本郵船——遲早完

Chinese

		Japan	mailboat; packet boat		sooner or later; in time	to finish; to be over; whole to finish; to be over; whole; complete; entire
trad. (日本郵船——遲早完)		日本	郵船	——	遲早	完
simp. (日本邮船——迟早完)		日本	邮船	——	迟早	完
Literally: “Japanese cruise - will end sooner or later”.

Etymology

The second part of this xiehouyu is a fictional Japanese ship named 池早丸 (ci⁴ zou² jyun², “Ikehaya Maru”), which is a near-honophonic pun on 遲早完 / 迟早完 (ci⁴ zou² jyun⁴), due to the tendency of Japanese ships to be named with the kanji 丸(まる) (maru).

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jat⁶ bun² jau⁴ syun⁴, ci⁴ zou² jyun⁴

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: jat⁶ bun² jau⁴ syun⁴, ci⁴ zou² jyun⁴
    • Yale: yaht bún yàuh syùhn, chìh jóu yùhn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jat⁹ bun² jau⁴ syn⁴, tsi⁴ dzou² jyn⁴
    • Guangdong Romanization: yed⁶ bun² yeo⁴ xun⁴, qi⁴ zou² yun⁴
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jɐt̚² puːn³⁵ jɐu̯²¹ syːn²¹ t͡sʰiː²¹ t͡sou̯³⁵ jyːn²¹/

Idiom

日本郵船——遲早完

1. (Cantonese) will be done for very soon; will meet someone's end sooner or later