https://nomenclature.ctang.art aboutCantoneserandomizerKung FuVietnameseCantonese Indexadd Index [ ] * Categories * Radicals3 words * Cooking words to come * Culture5 words * Dian Xin Dim Sum words to come * Zhuan Dishes words to come * Gong Fu Kung Fu4 words * Ma Que Mah jeuk "Mahjong"words to come * Hua Bing ? Sayings16 words * Words by Category * Radicals3 words * Mu Mu woodwood * Dao Dao knifeknife * Huang Huang yellowyellow * Cookingwords to come * Culture5 words * Jiang Men Jiang Men "river + door""river + door" * Chang Jiang Shui Chang Jiang Shui Yangtze RiverYangtze River * Guang Dong Hua Guang Dong Hua CantoneseCantonese * Du Du Cheng Du Du Cheng old Cantonese folk musicold Cantonese folk music * Hua Yuan Hua Yuan a place in Guangdonga place in Guangdong * Dian Xin Dim Sumwords to come * Zhuan Disheswords to come * Gong Fu Kung Fu4 words * Gong Fu Gong Fu skill / work / kung fuskill / work / kung fu * Wu Shu Wu Shu martial artsmartial arts * Tang Lang Quan Tang Lang Quan Praying Mantis Kung FuPraying Mantis Kung Fu * Yong Chun Quan Yong Chun Quan Wing Chun Kung FuWing Chun Kung Fu * Ma Que Mah jeuk "Mahjong"words to come * Sayings16 sayings * Ping Wen Cun Sheng Huo Ping Wen Cun Sheng Huo calm steady exist way of lifecalm steady exist way of life * Tian Shi Di Li Ren He Tian Shi Di Li Ren He Sky, Time, Earth, Come, Person, SoulSky, Time, Earth, Come, Person, Soul * Yong Yuan Mao Jue Dui Yong Yuan Mao Jue Dui forever is not absoluteforever is not absolute * She De She De willingness to let gowillingness to let go * Hong Yan Zhi Ji Hong Yan Zhi Ji close person or "soulmate"close person or "soulmate" * Yu Shi Wu Bu Yu Shi Wu Bu a time passed, cannot be cureda time passed, cannot be cured * Qian Jin Nan Mai Ji Hui Nan Qiu Qian Jin Nan Mai Ji Hui Nan Qiu a thousand gold cannot buy an opportunity that is difficult to come bya thousand gold cannot buy an opportunity that is difficult to come by * Ren Sheng De Yi Zhi Ji Si Er Wu Han Ren Sheng De Yi Zhi Ji Si Er Wu Han In one's life, to be able to find someone that understands you is to be able to die without regrets. In one's life, to be able to find someone that understands you is to be able to die without regrets. * Gu Mu Feng Chun You Zai Fa .Ren Mao Liang Du Zai Shao Nian Gu Mu Feng Chun You Zai Fa .Ren Mao Liang Du Zai Shao Nian an ancient tree, come spring rises again. a person does not have a second chance to be young again an ancient tree, come spring rises again. a person does not have a second chance to be young again * Ren Yi Shi Wu Yi Shi .De Yi Zhi Ji Zui Zhen Gui Ren Yi Shi Wu Yi Shi .De Yi Zhi Ji Zui Zhen Gui all the things in one's life does not compare to how rare and special it is to find someone that understands youall the things in one's life does not compare to how rare and special it is to find someone that understands you * Ai Qing Bu Ke Mian Qiang Ai Qing Bu Ke Mian Qiang Love cannot be forcedLove cannot be forced * Luo Yu Dan Zhe Xing Jie Luo Yu Dan Zhe Xing Jie raining, grab an umbrella and go out raining, grab an umbrella and go out * Ying Yi Ying Yi "tough ant""tough ant" * Yan Xiao Yun San Yan Xiao Yun San smoke burns, clouds dissipatesmoke burns, clouds dissipate * Yu Guo Tian Qing Yu Guo Tian Qing rain passes, sky clearsrain passes, sky clears * Xin Ling Xiang Tong Xin Ling Xiang Tong LikemindednessLikemindedness * Shui Water3 words * Bing Xiang Bing Xiang freezerfreezer * Chang Jiang Shui Chang Jiang Shui Yangtze RiverYangtze River * Yong Chun Quan Yong Chun Quan Wing Chun Kung FuWing Chun Kung Fu * Mu Wood10 words * Mu Mu woodwood * Lin Lin manymany * Sen Sen deepdeep * Sen Lin Sen Lin forestforest * Xiang Xiang picturepicture * Bing Xiang Bing Xiang freezerfreezer * Fen Fen to burnto burn * Dong Dong EastEast * Fang Song Fang Song let go, relaxlet go, relax * Er Zi Gan Yang Ma Er Zi Gan Yang Ma "two" character sheep horse stance"two" character sheep horse stance Guang Dong Hua sound Cantonese Yale: gwong dung wa Jyutping: gwong2 dung1 waa6 Sydney Lau: gwong2 dung1 wa2 --------------------------------------------------------------------- A Story Guang = wide/vast (Yan shelter + Huang yellow (sound)) Dong = East Hua = word/talk/speak/language (Yan speech + She tongue) Guang Dong Guangdong is the province and origin of the Cantonese language. It is also where both sets of my grandparents came from. In Cantonese, Guang Dong directly translates to Canton. The sounds of the words spoken in Cantonese is romanized/transliterated in English as "Guangdong." The two are synonymous. Both Guangdong and Canton refer to the same, southern most province of Guang Dong in China. So when you add Hua which means word/talk/language, you get Guang Dong Hua "Guangdong talk" or "Guangdong language" / "Canton talk" or "Canton language" and how one can refer to the Cantonese language. Adding to that, when Guang Dong Canton is paired with Ren , meaning person - you get Guang Dong Ren which means "Canton person" or Cantonese (people). Yue Yu Yuht Yuh I say all this about Guang Dong Guangdong, and actually Guang Dong Hua is an informal and colloquial manner of referring to the Cantonese language. The formal way is Yue Yu . Pronounced as, "yuht yuh", using the Yale system of romanization. Yue "yuht", also refers to Guangdong province. Yu "yuh", also refers to language, speech, words, speak, talk. Can you imagine. Perhaps you can begin to pick up on how building this dictionary, my 'til now lifelong journey of learning Cantonese, will be - a lifelong quest. Guang Dong Hua Yuan Guangdong Fa Yun As I learn over time, the bits and pieces of the personal history of my ancestors - I often find that it is a deep reflection of war, political conflict and global migration patterns. It's a history that is survived by individuals whose families have been separated and displaced generation after generation. For me, it's a story of survival and resilience. This history, as far back as I know, begins in Guang Dong Hua Yuan Guangdong Fa Yun. Where my grandfather was born and where my great-grandfather had a farm. The farm was destroyed in World War II during the Japanese invasion / occupation and my grandfather left in search of earning a living. In Cantonese we say, Wen Shi (to find something to eat). He went first to Hong Kong, which was too difficult with also many others trying to find any economic opportunity. Then he went to Saigon, where he eventually settled. A BBQ pork cart and wonton mein cart gradually turned into a successful butcher shop and restaurant. Kids are born, my father is born. On the other side of the same neighborhood of Cho Lon in Saigon, my mother is born. Her mother and father having also made the journey from Guang Dong Guangdong and actually the same place of Hua Yuan Fa Yun. My grandfather on my mother's side found success in making and fixing film projectors as well as distributing film. My mother and father grow up in the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Eventually they meet, marry and have kids. The war ends with warfare hitting home and any business or home that survives is lost to the transition of government. Begins the 3.5 year journey of my parents' and siblings' escape and survival. Now here we are, from Guang Dong Guangdong to Xi Gong Saigon, to Mei Guo the States. A film on this later. Patterns Guang Dong Guangdong province is where 80% of the Chinese ship hands on the Spanish trade route came from. The Manilla Galleon trade route with trading ships known as "La Nao de la China" attracted many Filipino and Chinese laborers in the 1500s. Due to the poor conditions and poor pay, many sailors metaphorically jumped ship where they could, including along the Pacific Coast in cities and pueblas like Acapulco, Jalisco etc. Known as "los chinos", there were Chinese and other Asian populations that settled in modern day U.S., Mexico, Peru, Panama and eventually all over the world. In so many words, this is how you later come to have Cantonese-speaking "Chinatowns" and in general, a Cantonese diaspora in cities all over the world. Date Added: 3/14/2021 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Radical Yan --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Radical Huang Huang 201 Huang yellow 201 Huang Hun Huang Hun sunset --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Character Guang --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Character Dong Dong Dong East --------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Character Hua About Welcome to my nomenclature project. This is a personal, interactive Cantonese dictionary that archives some of the anecdotes and stories that come with the words and sayings I learn from my Mom and Dad. From the origin of Fa Yoon, Guangdong, to Saigon, to LA, to Brooklyn. This preserves the isms - the intonations, humor and philosophy that is meaningful to my parents' Cantonese. The dictionary includes Vietnamese as well. I created this as a tool to gain fluency in a native language, to preserve my parents' voice and to carry on their stories. This is a love for a language that is full of color and life; a great love for the culture and my parents. Eventually, a version of this project will be open source so that others can preserve their own language and native voices too. More below. Thank you, C. For best (intended) experience, view in Firefox on desktop. --------------------------------------------------------------------- How to Use Navigation The icons have their own meaning. Explore at your own curiosity. * hollow circle: this page (the about page) * solid circle: leads to Cantonese words and sayings chart/ directory * pong (concentric circles): word randomization, leads to a randomized word page * muy fa (plum blossom): Kung Fu & Wing Chun page with words related to Kung Fu * star: Vietnamese words and sayings directory (to come) * plus sign: a page for adding a word, this is not yet able to support public word contributions at the moment, but hope to * asterisk: an index for Cantonese words * half-concentric circles on the word card: click to play audio (the icon's animation will last the duration of the audio's length) Index The index is still in construction. Search Bar Search by Cantonese character or by English meaning. On desktop: clicking a category will send you to the section on the page. Clicking a word will scroll you to the word on the page and temporarily highlight the word for visibility. On mobile: clicking a category will send you to the section on the page. Clicking a word will go to the word page. Cantonese "card" Info you may find: * a Cantonese word written in traditional character(s) * a literal word-for-word translation in English * 3 different pinyin systems for English phonetic pronunciations including Yale, Jyutping, Sydney lau * some show an IPA phonetization * a story or personal/contextual description of the word * an audio of my mom or dad pronouncing the word in Cantonese * related radical section: includes a radical (or multiple radicals) that's within the word and shows a grid of other related characters or words that have that radical * related character section: includes a character that's used within the word and shows a grid of other related words that have that character Related Radical & Character Sections Every Cantonese word includes sections of related radicals or characters (if existing the dictionary). Each related radical or character section has a grid of related words (if they exist in the dictionary). Any word in the related grid is clickable:. On mobile, clicking a related word will go to that word's page. On desktop, hovering on the word will show the english translation. Clicking will play audio and create a pop-up to the side to show the information. Desktop Functionality In the "Cantonese", "Kung Fu", and "Vietnamese" pages, there is a word grid per category. Each word within the grid shows the English meaning on hover. On click, audio plays and a pop-up appears on the right showing a word card with info. There is a custom scrollbar that appears and shows the length of the info for the particular card and updates to indicate how much info has been scrolled. The pop-up stays with you as you continue scrolling. Clicking on either another word in the directory or a related word within the pop-up card, will repopulate the new pop-up with new info. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Words Entries come eventually and manually, as I learn. -From conversations with my mom, dad and siblings and from everyday experiences, movies, music and the practice of Ving Tsun. To help fill-in the in-betweens, for each entry I pull ping-yum (there are over four different Cantonese ping-yum systems), radical references, stroke counts and other contextual info from multiple sources listed in the "Resources" section below. For comments, thoughts or suggestions on the words and meanings, please feel free to share at nomenclature@ctang.art . --------------------------------------------------------------------- Intentions Nomenclature / Why a personal dictionary? I find language to be very personal. We make words our own with slang, music, poetry and the day-to-days' expressions. "Nomenclature" is an extension of the words, mannerisms and the (literal and metaphorical) figures-of-speech I've documented over the years from family, friends and strangers. This is an appreciation for how people use language, the ones that are native to them and the ones that are adopted and adapted to connect with others. I'm fascinated by all languages and the one I'm starting with in this dictionary is the one I grew up with, yet know very little about. Cantonese, as a spoken langauge is colloquial and colorful in its unique expressions across diasporas all over. I've only encountered its complexity through the only Cantonese I'm exposed to, at home and some childhood years of watching TVB. Even within this pocket of Cantonese, I think about how the language has survived many iterations through generations of displacement by war and political conflict. I reflect upon how families have been dispersed all over the world, therefore their Cantonese has adapted to new places and communication - supplemented by language of a new home country. I have relatives all over whom I've never met, in Taiwan, France, Australia and Italy to name a few and our common language is the little Cantonese that has been carried on to the next generation. This personal dictionary captures the Cantonese that is unique to my mom and dad. Whose origins, come from Saigon and before them - Fa Yun, Guangdong. Their stories in Cantonese, this personal history is what I hope to hold on to and pass on to the next. Initially, this was a tool I had designed and developed for myself to learn, but I hope others can find value in being able to capture their own language and story. Why enter the info manually, why not use APIs or contribute to other robust open-source dictionaries? There is a freedom to adding colloquial and annectotal definitions that come from one's own lived experience. I'm learning and not an expert. Adding the entries manually as I learn is part of the learning process, which includes taking time to reference many different sources for one entry. I'm very grateful for all the resources that exist - those which I couldn't find when I was younger. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Future Visions There's culture, history, geography, story and collective thought imbued in language. We make words our own with slang, poetry, music. The core of this project for me is to be able to make this platform so that others can preserve their own language, history and voices too. I would love to collaborate with others to make a version of this open to contributions and languages from all over! Please feel free to reach me at nomenclature@ctang.art if you are interested in collaborating. For this version, currently there are audio recordings for the pronunciations and written entries for the definition. In time, I hope to add graphics, animated graphics, video, audio stories, music references... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Audio Recordings The audio recordings are pronunciation sound bites of my mom and dad. Most are taken with a Tascam in a quiet setting, but for the in-the-field, in-the-moments, an phone is used for recording. For DAWs - there's been a mixed-use of iZotope RX 10, Ableton, Logic, Audacity and Reaper to adjust sound levels, reduce any background noise, EQ, mix and bounce. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Design Designed this for myself, for fun. Initially intended as a project/tool for self, this (visual, interface, experience) design was the vision I had for an interface with functionality for my own intuitive use. Right now, other than the audio for the pronunciations, the definitions of the entries are mostly written. In time, I'll add graphics, animated graphics, video, audio stories, music references, etc. Typefaces: * Toppan Bunkyu Gothic for main characters * DM Sans for body Tools: Designed using Adobe Illustrator and Figma. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Development This was painstakingly coded with love and excitement. Developed using: * Nuxt3 framework * Vue * MongoDB * Git * VS Code * Firefox as main browser * HTML, CSS, JS --------------------------------------------------------------------- Resources In addition to what I learn from my mom and dad, siblings and Ving Tsun community - this list of resources include a mix of books and online resources that I reference to fill in the supplementary info for each entry and to help further contextualize my learning in general. Books Cheung, C., Zhang, Z., & Li, T. (2008, July). Cantonese (5th edition). Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd. A Cantonese pocket-sized phrasebook published by Lonely Planet. This was the first Cantonese book I was able to find and purchase as a kid in high school. It was also the first time I saw the language I speak at home, contextualized in English. It's written with a certain sense of humor, cultural-awareness and familiarity that definitely got some laughs from my siblings and I, because of its references to colloquial phrases with meanings that are generally read in-between-the-lines and are understood, but unspoken. The phrasebook is mostly intended for travel to Hong Kong. There are color-coded pages (visible from the side of the book) that break up the book into visual sections: "a-z phrasebuilder", "practical", "social", "food", "safe travel", "dictionary". Within the sections, the phrases are organized into sub-categories, for example in the "social" section, "meeting people", "interests", "feelings and opinions", "going out", "romance", "beliefs and cultural differences", "art", "sport" and "outdoors". For some laughs, definitely check out the "romance" section for, "asking someone out", "pickup lines", "rejections", then "getting closer" and so on with tips on "sweet nothings", "it's not you, it's them", "problems", "leaving". Helpful as a native speaker, to quickly remember certain words by searching through phrases. This is also helpful when trying to find the right character for a spoken word by finding them contextually in a phrase. Chik, H. (2000). Chinese-English Dictionary: Cantonese in Yale Ramonization, Mandarin in Pinyin. A great physical dictionary that includes a radical index, number of strokes index and a Cantonese romanization index. Found this resource as recommended by Sue Marguerite (who has spent 33 years living in Hong Kong) in her Cantonese Corner Youtube channel (listed below). I was inspired by the radical index and found it incredibly helpful to be able to see related words by radical and by romanization Ching, C. B. (2009). Cantonese for Everyone (Jyutping version) (First edition). The Commercial Press (H.K.) Ltd. An introductory book to learning Cantonese with a CD included. Purchased this book at a bookstore on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. In the Preface, Chow Bun Ching writes that the book is "principally designed for newcomers to Hong Kong (especially international students) who wish to overcome the language barrier in their new living environment. The aim of the course is to introduce the fundamental structure of the Cantonese language as well as common auseful Cantonese vocabulary, phrases and expressions that can immediately be put to use in daily life" The emphasis will be on the practical side of the language use, so as to meet everyday's need while residing in Hong Kong." I appreciate the very encouraging perspective of the title and the author. This book is helpful in establishing a foundation and structure to learning Cantonese. My intention with purchasing this introductory book was a way to become more familiar with learning how to write Cantonese. On the other hand, it was my first time exposed to the Jyutping system of phonetic transrciption and I struggled with it. I realized that I'm much more comfortable with Yale phonetization as it's more similar to how I might phonetically romanticize Cantonese in English. Fortunately, Chow Bun Ching offers two versions of the book in Jyutping and Yale. What's great though is I realized how helpful Jyutping was for a Mandarin speaking friend and how quickly - comfortably and accurately they were able to prounounce some Cantonese words. Kwan, C. W. (1996). The right word in Cantonese. (Enlarged edition). The Commercial Press (Hong Kong) LTD. Great quick reference book for everyday Cantonese. Organized by English words in alphabetical order. Each page has three columns, English words on the left, Yale romanization in the center and Cantonese characters on the right. Found this resource as recommended by Sue Marguerite. Prof Leung, Jing. (Jan 2000). Rots & Branches of Wing Tsun (First Edition) Leung's Publications. A book lent to me by my sifu, Sifu Miguel Hernandez. Referenced the glossary of Ving Tsun terms with Cantonese characters. Helpful and interesting Ving Tsun contextual info. (1996)General Chinese-English DictionaryChung Hwa Book Co.,(H.K.) LTD. A dictionary that is intended for a Cantonese reader, with publication date, preface and page headings written in Cantonese characters. There are 903 pages of words printed in what seems like 6.5 pt font (don't quote me on that). The entries are as follows: Cantonese Characters, followed by English definition. There is no English-equivalent word for the Cantonese word, just an English definition. Definitely not meant for an English reader to find words, but certainly helpful to learn new written Cantonese words. This is a fun, open-the-book-to-a-random-page-and-discover-a-new-word type book. So you can learn a new Cantonese word with an English definition, but unless you know how to read the Cantonese word, you won't know how to pronounce. How I use: open the book, find an interesting English definition, ask my Dad about the Cantonese characters with a magnifying glass to learn how to pronounce and then looking up the Cantonese character in an online dictionary for some more context. Digital Resources 214 Chinese Radicals: What Do They All Mean? A Handy Guide. (2022, December 8). Berlitz. https://www.berlitz.com/blog/ chinese-radicals-list Provides radical number and radical variations Cantonese Radicals - CantoneseClass101. (n.d.). CantoneseClass101. https://www.cantoneseclass101.com/chinese-radicals/ Provides Cantonese Jyutping phonetization and radical variation. Radicals are organized into sections by stroke count. Like this because it's specific to Cantonese. CantoDict. (2003, November). Adam Sheik. http:// www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary Amazing collaborative Cantonese Dictionary project contributed. Can search by character, English meaning, English word. For specs, shows stroke count, Jyutping and the reference radical with the radical's number. It also includes a list of "compounds", different combinations of words that the character is used in, along with examples. The dictionary shows a search frequency too, which is interesting. Google Translate. (n.d.). Google. https://translate.google.com/ Google Translate - Cantonese Traditional https://translate.google.com /?sl=auto&tl=zh-TW&text=cantonese%0A&op=translate Helpful as a speak-into tool to translate oral language into characters and phrases, especially if not familiar with writing Cantonese characters. Hong Kong Vision. (2023, May 21). Chinese character - Cantonese Pinyin Converter. https://hongkongvision.com/tool/cc_py_conv_en Translates a character or multiple words at once to any pinyin/ romanization system including Yale with tone numbers, Yale with accents, JyutPing, Cantonese pinyin, Sydney Lau, Guangdong romanization and "Lai style". It also lets you choose between different formats for the info to appear in: including pinyin with character, just pinyin or pinyin above characters - which is really helpful. This is great for translating multiple words at once. Sometimes with translating just one word, it gives you multiple versions of the romanizations with different accents and numbers. Linguee | Chinese-English dictionary. (n.d.). Linguee.com. https:// www.linguee.com/chinese-english/ Great way to see Cantonese words and phrases in context from actual text - pulls and aggregates info from different cultural online resources. Listen to Cantonese text read aloud - Cantonese resources. (n.d.). https://www.cantonesetools.org/en/cantonese-text-to-sound Cantonese Tools https://www.cantonesetools.org/en/ cantonese-text-to-sound Translates a character to Jyutping, and also provides sound! Does not show any other related words. Marguerite, S. (2018). CantoneseCorner. CantoneseCorner. https:// www.youtube.com/@CantoneseCorner A great channel by Sue Marguerite (who had spent 33 years living in Hong Kong) which contextualizes learning Cantonese from the perspective of an English speaker. She is very passionate and enjoyable to learn from as there is a care for the spoken language, the written language and the culture. Pleco Software Incorporated. (n.d.). CC-Canto - A Cantonese dictionary for everyone. https://cantonese.org/ Another awesome open-source Cantonese-to-English dictionary with over 22,000 entries. "The initial release of CC-Canto was developed by a team of about a dozen paid freelance editors - native Cantonese speakers..." The search tool allows input by english word, romanization, or Cantonese character. The search interface also lists related words with multiple definitions making it a useful browsing tool as well. The entries don't include sound. Can only effectively search one word at a time (rather than a phrase). The Chinese Radicals | HSK Academy. (n.d.). https://hsk.academy/en/ learn/the-chinese-radicals https://hsk.academy/en/learn/ the-chinese-radicals This has a helpful explanation for why there is one "key radical" associated with a character which is the radical to reference by in a dictionary. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Story This project of learning Cantonese started when I was a kid and wanted to become fluent in a language native to me as much as English. In junior high, went to local bookstores, only to eventually find one pocket-sized travel book of Cantonese phrases for travel to Hong Kong. In high school, I checked nearby community colleges for programs open to the public, but none offered a course for Cantonese. At university, I took a year of Mandarin Chinese. Over 10 years since then, I've taken up my own journey to learn more, read and one day write Cantonese. Started with Cantonese radicals and my dad had all these mnemonic stories and ways to remember certain characters. More and more these associations came with more words, philosophical sayings and life stories from both Mom and Dad. The 3x5" flashcards really couldn't keep up. The system of physical papers was missing the the dimensional aspect of being able to connect to other words with similar radicals and concepts. Also, my own personal phoneticiation of the words (since I don't know how to write characters) really failed at helping me to remember how the word is pronounced. So began this interactive, personal dictionary and an ongoing lifelong pursuit to learning Cantonese. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact For any questions, comments, collaborations, feel free to reach me at nomenclature@ctang.art --------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) 2021 - 2024 C Tang. All Rights Reserved.