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Intonation forms an important part of Penang Hokkien dialect. What is Intonation? It's the pitch pattern that you pronounce. Say the word Mama (as in Mamma Mia). Note how the first "ma" has a different tone from the second? That's intonation.
In English, we often take intonation for granted. We speak without realising the different tones we offer to the words. Consider the following sentence:
I'm meeting him at the meeting.
In Penang Hokkien intonation, the first "meeting" is pronounced mee1ting4 while the second is pronounced mee3ting1.
The number I write following each syllable corresponds to the expected tone. In English, you pronounce "meeting" twice in the sentence without paying much attention that the word is pronounced with different intonation at each instance. In Penang Hokkien, if you do not pay attention to the proper intonation, people will not be able to understand you. That's because each syllable may represent several different words, depending on the choice of tone you employ to it.
Take the word "Kau" as an example.
Kau1= to hang
Kau2= monkey
Kau3= enough
Kau4= dog
For this reason, you can write a sentence like this, "Kong-kong kong-kong kong kong-kong," and a person who speaks Penang Hokkien will understand that you're telling him "Grandpa hurriedly hit the tin can," as long as you got the intonation right. Otherwise, it's totally unintelligible. Within this course, the first time I introduce a new Penang Hokkien word, I will number the intonation. After that, I will write per normal, without numbering the intonation. The reason is, while you'd see people often transcribe their speech, they will - like you would in English - have taken the intonation for granted. So learn the correct tone each time you learn a new word, you won't see the tones numbered for you.
The 4 tones
Get someone who speaks Penang Hokkien to pronounce the "kau" word in the above example. Observe the pitch of each tone, then practise it yourself, with "kau" and with any other syllables of your choice. Once you get used to each syllable coming in four different tones, you are on your way to pronouncing Penang Hokkien correctly. Here's another example:
Kong1= grandfather
Kong2= in a hurry
Kong3= to knock, hit
Kong4= tin can
It is imperative to get the intonation right, otherwise the result will be comical if not disasterous. For example:
Wah4 beh3 chuu3 = I sell houses.
Wah4 beh4 chuu3 = I buy houses.
Although each syllable can be pronounced with the four tones, for most syllables, not all four tones carry a meaning. Each time you learn a new word, memorize its tone.
When tone changes
In Penang Hokkien, rather unfortunately for beginners, many words change their tone depending on their location in a sentence. This is especially true when it is used as a "noun-modifying adjective". What's a noun-modifying adjective? When you say "red shirt", the word red is the adjective modifying the noun shirt. In Penang Hokkien, red shirt would be ang3 sah1.Now look at this sentence:
My red shirt is red in colour.
Notice the first red in the sentence is pronounced red1 while the second is pronounced red4. As shown, changes to the intonation appears in English as well.
In Penang Hokkien, the sentence would be:
Wah-eh ang sah ang.
The first ang (red) is pronounced ang3 while the second ang is pronounced ang2. The root word for red in Penang Hokkien is ang2. However, when it is used as a noun-modifying adjective, it changes its tone to ang3.
To ensure that you pronounce correctly, I will inform if a word changes its tone when used as a noun-modifying adjective.
View Glossary of Penang Hokkien Words
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