# Hakka phrasebook

Hakka (客家话 Hak-kâ-fa/Hak-kâ-va) originated in China but is also spoken in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and among overseas Chinese, especially in Southeast Asia. It is one of the official languages of Taiwan. In this article, the Hong Kong dialect of the Hakka language will be used.
Most Hakka speakers are bilingual: in Hong Kong, they are able to understand and speak Cantonese, whilst in mainland China and Taiwan, they also speak Mandarin, with those from Guangdong province often being trilingual in Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin. Foreigners in the area typically choose to learn Mandarin and/or Cantonese instead of Hakka as they are more widely used.

## Brief overview

The Hakka (客家 Kèjiā, IPA: [hak₃ ka₃₃] ) people migrated south from Northern China over the centuries to settle in southern Jiangxi and Hunan, western Fujian, northern Guangdong, and various other areas, due to wars, famine, natural disasters, and political persecution.
Hakka comes from the words '客' "guest" and '家' "families" which derives from an official term during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) for the program of resettlement of the coastal areas of Guangdong after evacuation orders imposed during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. These settlers whose language was different to the original inhabitants were given this appellation to show they were not indigenous to the areas they became settled in. The indigenous inhabitants (punti) had generally occupied the more fertile basins, so the incoming Hakka often settled in the more inaccessible valleys and mountainous or hilly terrain.
As the Hakkas were constantly in conflict with their neighbours for much of the Qing Dynasty, often resulting in bloody civil wars, they developed a tradition of living in fortified communities. In some areas, the Hakka built tulou (土楼, tǔlóu), earth and straw round houses. These fascinating, centuries-old buildings are home to a whole clan and are easily defended. The largest groups of tulou, in Fujian, are now on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Though less well known internationally, Hakka people in other areas built different types of walled villages such as wei (围, wéi) and weilongwu (围龙屋, wéilóngwū). Many of these can be seen today in Hong Kong and the Hakka-speaking parts of Guangdong. Constant warfare with their neighbours, including the Punti–Hakka Clan Wars of 1855-1867, in which the Qing government was complicit in a genocide of the Hakka people by Cantonese and Taishanese peoples, led many Hakkas to emigrate for greener pastures. Many of them ended up in Southeast Asia, which now home to some of the world's largest overseas Hakka communities, which have produced numerous prominent figures like former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
To a considerable extent, Hakka have their own culture, different from their neighbours. In Neal Stephenson's novel Ream De, much of which takes place in Xiamen, one character is a Hakka lass from a tea-growing mountain area, and she is sometimes called a "big-foot woman" in reference to the fact that, unlike most other Chinese, the Hakka never adopted the custom of foot-binding.
The Hakka language (客家话; Kèjiāhuà) shares a common vocabulary with Southern languages such as Cantonese, Teochew and the many dialects of Fujian, and there are regular sound correspondences to the historical sound system of Middle Chinese. In terms of pronunciation, it has some features in common with Cantonese and some with Mandarin, though it's not mutually intelligible with either dialect.
All Chinese languages, in general, use the same set of characters in reading and writing in formal settings, based on standard Mandarin. This means that a Hakka speaker and a Mandarin speaker cannot talk to each other, but either can generally read what the other writes. However, there can be significant differences when the "dialects" are written in colloquial form, and special characters may need to be used in addition to the common characters to convey some dialectal terms. Use the Chinese phrasebook for reading most writing in Hakka-speaking areas.

## Pronunciation guide

Like other Chinese languages, Hakka is written using Chinese characters, but employs its own "unique" pronunciation.
There is no standard form of Hakka. Regional variations in local dialects are extensive, but can usually be surmounted by understanding the gist of the spoken sentence and knowing some sound correspondences that the user will encounter. Many people consider the dialect spoken in Meixian, Meizhou to be the prestige dialect of Hakka. In Taiwan, the Miaoli dialect is taken as the de facto standard, and used in Hakka broadcasting.
There are some sounds in Hakka which do not occur in English. The following pronunciation guide aims to rhyme English words with the sounds found in the Hakka syllable. Please note they are approximations, you may require a Hakka speaker to guide your pronunciation. There is no widely-used standardized romanisation system for Hakka, and native speakers almost never learn the romanisation systems that exist, so stick to Chinese characters for written communication.

### Vowels

The vowels can be long or short. Long vowels occur in open syllables, where there are no endings. Short vowels occur in syllables which end in nasals (-m, -n or -ng) or stops (-p, -t or -k).
Vowel Sound Length Varies with Syllable Endings :
| Romanised Vowel | IPA | Long Vowel (syllable ends in a vowel) | IPA | Short Vowel (syllable ends with -m, -n, -ng, -p, -t, -k) |
| a | [ aː ] | a in car (UK) or o in lot (US) | [ ɐ ] | a in pat |
| e | [ ɛː ] | e in bed | [ e ] | a in baby (the first part of the sound, without the closing towards the end) |
| i | [ iː ] | ee in feed | [ ɪ ] | i in pit |
| o | [ ɔː ] | aw in maw | [ ɒ ] | o in pot (UK) |
| u | [ uː ] | oo in boot | [ ʌ ] | u in put |
In some dialects there is a vowel which we represent as ii, which does not occur in standard English. It is a retroflex i, the closest sound is almost like ir in "shir" when saying English 'sure'. In the Hong Kong dialect, these sounds become -i or -u.

### Initial or Consonant

In Chinese linguistics, syllables are traditionally divided into an "initial" (the consonant at the beginning of the syllable) and a "final" (the vowel and the consonant after it if there is one).
Consonant Sounds in Hakka :
| b | p | m | f | v |
| [ p ] | [ pʰ ] | [ m ] | [ f ] | [ ʋ ] |
| almost like b in boy | almost like p in pot | like m in man | like f in far | almost like v in van |
| d | t | n | l |
| [ t ] | [ tʰ ] | [ n ] | [ l ] |
| almost like d in dart | almost like t in star | like n in no (in most Hakka dialects) | like l in low |
| g | k | ng | h |
| [ k ] | [ kʰ ] | [ ŋ ] | [ h ] |
| like g in gone | like k in kin | like ng in singer | like h in how |
| z | c | s | y | |
| [ ts ] | [ tsʰ ] | [ s ] | [ j ] | [ ˀ ] |
| like ts in tests | like t in too or c in Italian ciao | like s in sow | like y in yew | A slight closing of the throat before syllables that begin with a vowel |

### Finals

Syllable Finals in Hakka :
| a | ai | au | am | an | ang | ap | at | ak |
| [ a ] | [ ɐj ] | [ ɐu ] | [ ɐm ] | [ ɐn ] | [ ɐng ] | [ ɐp ] | [ ɐt ] | [ ɐk ] |
| far | eye | how | ham | an | fang | lap | sad | hag ] |
| ia | | iɐu | iɐm | | iɐng | iɐp | | iɐk |
| [ ja ] | | [ jɐu ] | [ jɐm ] | | [ jɐng ] | [ jɐp ] | | [ jɐk ] |
| yarn | | yow | yam | | yang | yap | | yak |
| e | | eu | em | en | | ep | et | |
| [ ɛ ] | | [ eu ] | [ em ] | [ en ] | | [ ep ] | [ et ] | |
| hair | | eow | em | en | | epic | bet | |
| ie | | ieu | iem | ien | | iep | iet | |
| [ jɛ ] | | [ jeu ] | [ jem ] | [ jen ] | | [ jep ] | [ jet ] | |
| yeah | | yeow | yem | yen | | yep | yet | |
| i | | | im | in | | ip | it | |
| [ i ] | | | [ ɪm ] | [ ɪn ] | | [ ɪp ] | [ ɪt ] | |
| bee | | | dim | tin | | dip ] | lit | |
| ii | | | iim | iin | | iip | iit | |
| [ ɨ ] | | | [ ɨm ] | [ ɨn ] | | [ ɨp ] | [ ɨt ] | |
| fur | | | firm | fern | | burp | bird | |
| o | oi | | | on | ong | | ot | 'ok |
| [ ɔ ] | [ ɒj ] | | | [ ɒn ] | [ ɒŋ ] | | [ ɒt ] | [ ɒk ] |
| core | coy | | | con | kong | | cot | cock |
| io | ioi | | | ion | iong | | iot | 'iok |
| [ jɔ ] | [ jɒj ] | | | [ jɒn ] | [ jɒŋ ] | | [ jɒt ] | [ jɒk ] |
| yore | yoy | | | yon | yong | | yot | yok |
| u | ui | | | un | ung | | ut | 'uk |
| [ u ] | [ uj ] | | | [ un ] | [ uŋ ] | | [ ut ] | [ uk ] |
| woo | wee | | | bun | bung | | but | book |
| iu | | | | iun | iung | | iut | 'iuk |
| [ ju ] | [ jʌj ] | | | [ jʌn ] | [ jʌŋ ] | | [ ʌt ] | [ ʌk ] |
| you | youeille | | | 'yun | young | | yut | yuck |
| | | | m | n | ng | | | |
| | | | [ m ] | [ n ] | [ ng] | | | |
| | | | mmm | nnn | ung | | | |

### Tones

Tones in Hakka :
| # | IPA | Tone Letter | Character | Romanisation | Syllable in IPA | Meaning |
| 1 | 33 | ˧ | 被 | pi1 | [ pʰi˧ ] | quilt cover |
| 2 | 11 | ˩ | 皮 | pi2 | [ pʰi˩ ] | skin |
| 3 | 31 | ˧˩ | 彼 | pi3 | [ pʰi˧˩ ] | that, there, those |
| 4 | 53 | ˥˧ | 鼻 | pi4 | [ pʰi˥˧ ] | nose |
| 5 | 3 | ˧ | 匹 | pit5 | [ pʰi˧ ] | bolt of cloth; counter for horses |
| 6 | 5 | ˥ | 蝠 | pit6 | [ pʰi˥ ] | flying mammal called a bat |
Tones vary substantially by dialect. The tone changes known as sandhi do occur, but are less complex than many other Chinese languages.

### Some sound correspondences between dialects of the Hakka language

Apart from tonal differences, there are small variations in pronunciations from place to place. The following details some of the more commonly found differences, which may be helpful to the user when hearing other speakers from different areas.
h is sometimes pronounced as s, especially when there is a vowel -i- in the syllable. E.g. 兄 hiung1 may be pronounced siung1.
au is sometimes pronounced as o. E.g. 好 hau3 / ho3
ai is sometimes pronounced as e E.g. 雞 gai1 / ge1
Some Hakka dialects has the -u- medial, so you may hear words like 光 gong1 pronounced as guong1 (gwong1).

## Phrase list
### Basics
#### Hello.

    . (Neh Ho )

#### How are you?

    ? ( Ne How Mau)

#### Fine, thank you.

    . (Simungi )

#### What is your name?

    ? (Nyah Miang Hair )

#### My name is ______ .

    ______ . ( Ngah Miang Hair .)

#### Nice to meet you.

    . ( How Seek Ne)

#### Thank you.

    do1 cia4 . ( )

#### Is there someone here who speaks English?

    ? (Neh Wooi You Nyin Kong Yin Mun Mau?)

#### Where is the toilet?
### Problems
#### Can I use your phone?
### Numbers
#### 1

    一 yit5

#### 2

    二 ngi4

#### 3

    三 sam1

#### 4

    四 si4

#### 5

    五 ng3

#### 6

    六 luk5

#### 7

    七 cit5

#### 8

    八 bat5

#### 9

    九 giu3

#### 10

    十 sip6

#### 11

    十一 sip6 yit5

#### 12

    十二 sip6 yit5

#### 13

    十三 sip6 sam1

#### 14

    十四 sip6 si4

#### 15

    十五 sip6 ng3

#### 16

    十六 sip6 luk5

#### 17

    十七 sip6 cit5

#### 18

    十八 sip6 bat5

#### 19

    十九 sip6 giu3

#### 20

    二十 ngi4 sip6

#### 21

    二十一 ngi4 sip6 yit5

#### 22

    二十二 ngi3 sip6 ngi4

#### 23

    二十三 ngi3 sip6 sam1

#### 30

    三十 sam1 sip6

#### 40

    四十 si4 sip6

#### 50

    五十 ng3 sip6

#### 60

    六十 luk5 sip6

#### 70

    七十 cit5 sip6

#### 80

    八十 bat5 sip6

#### 90

    九十 giu3 sip6

#### 100

    一百 yit5 bak5

#### 200

    二百 ngi4 bak5

#### 300

    三百 sam1 bak 5

#### 1000

    一千 yit5 cien1

#### 2000

    二千 ngi4 cien1

#### 10,000

    一萬 yit5 van4

#### 100,000

    十萬 sip6 van4

#### 1,000,000

    一百萬 yit5 bak5 van4

#### 10,000,000

    一千萬 yit5 cien1 van

#### 100,000,000

    一億 yit4 yit6

#### 1,000,000,000

    十億 sip6 yit6

#### 10,000,000,000

    一百億 yit5 bak5 yit6

#### 100,000,000,000

    一千億 yit5 cien1 yit6

#### 1,000,000,000,000

    一兆 yit5 cau4

#### number _____ (train, bus, etc.)

    _____號 hau4

#### half

    半 ban4

#### less

    少 sau3

#### more

    多 do1

### Time
#### now

    今下 gin1 ha4

#### late

    遲 ci2

#### early

    早 zau3

#### morning

    朝頭早 zau1 teu2 zau3

#### afternoon

    下晝 ha1 zu4

#### evening

    暗晡晨 am4 bu1 sin2

#### night

    夜晚晨 ya4 man1 sin2

#### dawn

    日頭一起 ngit5 teu2 yit5 hi3

#### dusk

    日頭落光 ngit5 teu2 lok6 gong1

#### Clock time
##### 1 o'clock

    一點鐘 yit5 diam3 zung1

##### 2 o'clock

    兩點鐘 liong3 diam3 zung1 (Note 兩 liong3 is used)

##### 3 o'clock

    三點鐘 sam1 diam3 zung1
The twelve divisions of the hour by five minute increments makes it fairly convenient to tell the time.

##### at the hour

    搭正 dap5 zin4

##### 5 past

    搭一 dap5 yit5 (literally "connected to number 1 on the clock face")

##### 10 past

    搭二 dap5 ngi4

##### quarter past

    搭三 dap5 sam1

##### 20 past

    搭四 dap5 si4

##### 25 past

    搭五 dap5 ng3

##### half past

    搭半 dap5 luk5

##### 25 to

    搭七 dap5 cit5

##### 20 to

    搭八 dap5 bat5

##### quarter to

    搭九 dap5 giu3

##### 10 to

    搭十 dap5 sip6

##### 5 to

    搭十一 dap5 sip6 yit5
Combine the two and you can express time as hour and minute combinations

##### twenty five past seven

    七點搭五 ciu4 cit5 diam3 dap5 ng3
When you want to express a time between the five minute divisions, you can do so by nearly or just after in the following manner.

##### nearly twenty five past seven

    就七點搭五 ciu4 cit5 diam3 dap5 ng3

##### just after twenty five past seven

    整過七點搭五 zang4 go4 cit5 diam3 dap5 ng3

##### nearly (approaching)

    就到 ciu4 dau4
    just past (gone) : 過滴 go4 dit6

##### noon

    正午 zin4 ng3

##### midnight

    半夜 ban4 ya4

#### Duration
##### _____ minute(s)

    _____分鐘 _____fun1 zung1

##### _____ hour(s)

    _____隻鐘頭 _____zak5 zung1 teu2

##### _____ day(s)

    _____日 _____ngit5

##### _____ week(s)

    _____隻星期 _____zak5 sin1 ki2 / _____隻禮拜 _____zak5 li1 bai4

##### _____ month(s)

    _____ 隻月頭 _____zak5 ngiet6 teu2

##### _____ year(s)

    _____年 _____ngien2

#### Days
##### today

    今日 gin1 ngit5

##### yesterday

    喒晡日 cam4 bu1 ngit5

##### tomorrow

    明早日 min2 zau1 ngit5

##### this week

    這隻星期 ngia3 zak5 sin1 ki2 / 這隻禮拜 ngia4 zak5 li1 bai4

##### last week

    上隻星期 song4 zak5 sin1 ki2 / 上隻禮拜 song4 zak5 li1 bai4

##### next week

    下隻星期 ha4 zak5 sin1 ki2 / 下隻禮拜 ha4 zak5 li1 bai4

##### Sunday

    禮拜 li1 bai4 / 星期天 sin1 ki2 tien1

##### Monday

    禮拜一 li1 bai4 yit5 / 星期一 sin1 ki2 yit5

##### Tuesday

    禮拜二 li1 bai4 ngi4 / 星期二 sin1 ki2 ngi4

##### Wednesday

    禮拜三 li1 bai4 sam1 / 星期三 sin1 ki2 sam1

##### Thursday

    禮拜四 li1 bai4 si4 / 星期四 sin1 ki2 si4

##### Friday

    禮拜五 li1 bai4 ng3 / 星期五 sin1 ki2 ng3

##### Saturday

    禮拜六 li1 bai4 luk5 /星期六 sin1 ki2 luk5

#### Months
##### January

    一月 yit5 ngiet6

##### February

    二月 ngi4 ngiet6

##### March

    三月 sam1 ngiet6

##### April

    四月 si4 ngiet6

##### May

    五月 ng3 ngiet6

##### June

    六月 luk5 ngiet6

##### July

    七月 cit5 ngiet6

##### August

    八月 bat5 ngiet6

##### September

    九月 giu3 ngiet6

##### October

    十月 sip6 ngiet6

##### November

    十一月 sip6 yit5 ngiet6

##### December

    十二月 sip6 ngi4 ngiet6

##### First lunar month

    正月 zang1 ngiet6

##### Second lunar month

    二月 ngi4 ngiet6

##### Third lunar month

    三月 sam1 ngiet6

##### Fourth lunar month

    四月 si4 ngiet6

##### Fifth lunar month

    五月 ng3 ngiet6

##### Sixth lunar month

    六月 luk5 ngiet6

##### Seventh lunar month

    七月 cit5 ngiet6

##### Eighth lunar month

    八月 bat5 ngiet6

##### Ninth lunar month

    九月 giu3 ngiet6

##### Tenth lunar month

    十月 sip6 ngiet6

##### Eleventh lunar month

    十一月 sip6 yit5 ngiet6

##### Twelfth lunar month

    十二月 sip6 ngi4 ngiet6

##### Leap intercalculary month

    閏月 yun4 ngiet6

##### First day of lunar month

    初一 co1 yit5

##### Second day of lunar month

    初二 co1 ngi4

##### Ninth day of lunar month

    初九 co1 giu3

##### Tenth day of lunar month

    初十 co1 sip6

##### Eleventh day of lunar month

    十一(日) sip5 yit5 (ngit5)

#### Writing time and date
### Colors
#### black

    ( )woo sek

#### Taxi
##### Taxi!
##### Take me there, please.
### Lodging
#### ...a bathroom?

    (baa fong )

#### I want to check out.
### Money
#### Where is an automatic teller machine (ATM)?
### Eating
#### chicken

    (gai )

#### beef

    (ngu nuk )