Talk:仙草

Singaporean pronunciation

@Justinrleung I added the pronunciation in Singaporean Hokkien. Do you mind checking if these are indeed the right characters? Thanks. The dog2 (talk) 02:24, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

@The dog2: Umm, I'm not sure. I can't find it in my dictionaries. What does it refer to? — justin(r)leung _{{ (t...) | c=› }} 02:55, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

@Justinrleung: Grass jelly. That's how we say it in Singapore, and in fact, you'll often see it written as "chin chow" in English. The dog2 (talk) 03:01, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

@The dog2: I see. According to A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, it should be 清草. This dictionary cites A Baba Malay Dictionary. I think that's a better choice. — justin(r)leung _{{ (t...) | c=› }} 03:09, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

@Justinrleung: OK. I don't mind moving it to that then. But this should be an alternative form too, because signs in Singapore will say 仙草. The dog2 (talk) 03:16, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

@The dog2: How do we know it's Hokkien rather than Mandarin when it's written? — justin(r)leung _{{ (t...) | c=› }} 03:20, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

@Justinrleung: The writing is of course based on the Mandarin word, but Hokkien speakers will just pronounce it as if it's a Hokkien word. In the same way, the "bah" pronunciation of 肉 is not etymologically related to the Mandarin "ròu", but people still write it that way. The dog2 (talk) 03:23, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

@The dog2: If it's used in running text in Hokkien or in a Hokkien dictionary, that'd be better evidence. 肉 bah is definitely attested in running text. Of course, Hokkien is rarely written in Singapore in characters, so it's really difficult to find evidence. The problem is like showing 太陽 to a Hokkien speaker and getting 日頭 as a response - we don't usually want to have ji̍t-thâu at 太陽 unless there's good evidence for such usage. — justin(r)leung _{{ (t...) | c=› }} 03:31, 7 June 2020 (UTC)