Re: How close is Vietnamese to Mandarin or Cantonese?

Lee Sau Dan wrote:
> Do the Portugese like using "ph" for the /f-/ sound? And "th"
for
> /t'-/? I ask this because this may relate to the origin of
"typhoon".

I don't know why people still argue about origin of "typhoon". I have
seen people conjecturing it came from Greek.

The simple fact is that people neglect to look this expression in
Hoklo. In Hoklo, it is not "ty-phoon", it is "hong thai". Mystery
solved. Period. The fact that Hoklo uses "hong thai" means:

(1) the "phoon" part is 100% sure cognate of modern Chinese "feng",
meaning "wind".

(2) the Hoklo term follows Austronesian/Taic grammar of putting
adjective after noun. Therefore, this expression must existed long
before any interaction with the West, and cannot possibly have anything
to do with European languages. The Hoklo term must have easily existed
one thousand year ago and likely much more.

I am not saying Hoklo is the origin of the expression "typhoon". I am
saying that "typhoon" is built from two words: "ty" and "phoon", and
that "ty" itself describes the type of wind, and that this term "ty"
was used in Chinese South and possibly Southeast Asia to describe this
type of wind, long before any interaction with Europeans.

Why have all kinds of weird theories about this expression, when the
theorists haven't consulted with the obvious: who do you think suffered
the most from typhoon in Chinese coast, if not the seafaring Hoklo
people?

-- Ekki

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