Once upon a time in the USA I had the opportunity to stay in the same house with a Vietnam-born Chinese grandma (Nenek Tua) and a Chinese guy from Indonesia (Indonesian Cantonese) plus a few others.
It was interesting because all three of us are Cantonese by descent but born outside China, grew up in non-Chinese countries and speak different languages as our main language (me: English, Nenek Tua: Vietnamese, Indonesian Cantonese: Bahasa Indonesia). The only way we could chat with each other was through Cantonese, our only common language, also our ancestral language but spoken only as a second language.
It took me some time to get used to Nenek Tua's Cantonese. Her sentence structure shows heavy Vietnamese influence. e.g. "Yau hui jo? 有去做?" (got go do?) means "yau mo hui jo gung 有冇去做工" (got go work or not?). Bcos in Vietnamese it's "có đi làm"... "làm" means "do" or "work" in Vietnamese. Overlapping meanings... just like "hacer" means "to do" or "to make" in Spanish. Comparing all the languages that I know and am learning, each one has different ways of saying things and little interesting differences in structure and use of words plus overlapping meanings.
When I wanna go out, she'd ask "Nei yau mo hui... 你有冇去..." (you got go or not)... but go where? What she means is "you are going out or not?" which would be "nei yau mo hui kai a 你有冇去街呀?" Nenek Tua's sentences are often hanging... haha... Back to the "yau hui jo 有去做" thingy, the Vietnam Chinese usually say "hui jo 去做" instead of "jo gung 做工" for work, working or to work.
Some words same with Malaysian Cantonese are: lui 铝 (money), jung goo 仲估 (thought/guessed), bai yat 拜一, bai yee 拜二... laai bai 礼拜 (days of the week), hui liu 去辽 (holidaying/traveling), tong yan 唐人 (ethnic Chinese). In Hong Kong, those words would be chin 钱, yee wai 以为, sing kei yat 星期一, sing kei yee 星期二... sing kei yat 星期日, hui fong ga 去放假 / hui lui yau 去旅游, wah yan 华人 /jung gwok yan 中国人. I'm not sure whether Vietnam Cantonese uses "yat bai 一摆, leong bai 两摆" or "yat chi 一次, leong chi 两次". (one time, two times).
Nenek Tua's Cantonese (and what she means):
hui jo 去做 = go work
hui 去 = go out
ji 纸 = paper (any kind of paper... newspaper, toilet paper, normal paper also is referred to by the same word)
At first, when she asked me bout things, I thought.. do what? go where? what paper? Once, I said "sak che 塞车" (traffic jam), she asked whether my car was blocked... hahahaha... Onn Nam Yan 安南人 means ethnic Vietnamese as opposed to Tong Yan 唐人 (ethnic Chinese). gor gor ye 嗰个嘢 (that thing/person) is how she refers to both things and people. I remember saying gor tiu yau 嗰条友 back in Malaysia, but a better way to refer to people is gor gor yan 嗰个人 while gor gor ye 嗰个嘢 is more used for things.
Nenek Tua's English vocabulary:
microwave, computer, heat (this is how she calls both the heater and the kitchen ventilation fan... hehe), car, work, eat, sick, thank you, husband, nephew, my, no, speak, English, Chinese, Vietnamese, hi, bye... Unlike most Chinese who don't speak English, she pronounces R as R and not L because southern Vietnamese has the R sound.
As for Indonesian Cantonese guy, his pronunciation is more like those heong ha wa 乡下话 spoken in some of the Cantonese villages that differ significantly from Standard Cantonese. I can understand him though, it's not as different as my late grandma's (from father's side: marmar 嫲嫲) Sun Wooi Wa 新会话. Indon Cantonese guy uses "wooi 会" instead of "sik 识" or "hiu 晓" if he's referring to knowing how to do something. He also says "hook 哭" instead of "haam 喊" for crying.
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