Origin of Typhoon [was Re: Teaching and Learning English in Hong Kong]

From: Tak To (takto_at_alum.mit.edu.-)
Date: 03/24/05 

Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 15:55:20 -0500

Lee Sau Dan wrote:
LSD.0> Not Cantonese, I think. That word is pronounced [t'Oi21
LSD.0> fUN55] in Cantonese. The [O] is to far away from [a].
LSD.0> "Typhoon" is more likely to be based on Mandarin (where the
LSD.0> first syllable of the Chinese word is pronounced <tai2>) or
LSD.0> other dialects.

Tak To wrote:
TT.1> Most likely a Min dialect/language. Presumably "typhoon" is
TT.1> from the Chinese 颱風 (u+98b1 u+98a8); [...]
TT.1> Morohashi has two citation for the first character: one
TT.1> from a gazette of Fujian (福建志書), the other a gazette of
TT.1> Taiwan (臺灣紀略).

LSD.2> I refrained from making that suggestion, because Minnan doesn't have
LSD.2> an /f/ phoneme. And it is not that likely for the early Westeners to
LSD.2> transcribe the /p^h/ phoneme with "ph", either. (Portugese people
LSD.2> usually used "p'" -- p followed by an astrophe.)

Good point. Perhaps from Minbei or other Min dialects, or even Wu.
I don't know the pronunciation of these languages to be sure. Btw,
another point against the Cantonese origin theory is that the
pronunciation of the "wind" character in Cantonese ends in [N]
and not [n].

TT.1> Btw, this is a specific name for the
TT.1> meteorological phenomenon, not a general phrase that means
TT.1> "big wind".

LSD.2> True. But aren't/weren't there typhoons in northern Atlantic?

For most varieties of English "typhoon" is specifically tied to
SE Asia. Similar meteorological phenomena in other parts of the
world are called by other local names or geographically neutral
names.

Tak 

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Tak To                                            takto@alum.mit.eduxx
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