第五堂
貴姓
你貴姓呀？
我姓陳。
陳先生，係嗎？
係呀。
練習一翻譯
佢姓陳。
你貴姓呀？
係你嗎？
陳太太。
早晨，先生。
練習三聽寫
貴
係
第
練
田
姓
先
先生
晨
生
先生
我
五
陳
茶
Notes:
Now we get to learn surnames. In Sinitic cultures, personal names start with a surname followed by a given name, unlike in many other cultures. A surname is often one character, but there can be more. A given name is one, two, or more characters. Hong Kongers typically have a name of 2 to 4 characters. In my transcriptions, I use Hong Kong romanization which is conventional, usual spelling of Hong Kong names on people's documents. The HK romanization, on legal documents, does not reflect true phonetic values like Jyutping does, for Cantonese learning.
Surnames in Sinitic cultures may sound more important than in some other cultures. In some social occasions, you might be asked to supply your surname only, such as a workplace, when people might only casually interact without knowing someone's full name, or when reserving a table. There are relatively fewer native surnames in Chinese than in other languages. This course covers only a few. In the Hong Kong culture, specifically, Anglophone names are very common, and they may go with an owner's surname for social purposes. Made-up names in English letters and names from other languages are also used. Whether you know someone's full Chinese or English or another name depends on your level of friendship. You might well know someone without ever knowing their character name!
呀 aa appears with different tones. 呀/吖 aa1 may suggest surprise. 呀 aa3 is indicative and confirming. 呀 aa4 usually express suspicion or doubt. It may end up with a period in Cantonese, but would end with a question mark in English. It may sound confusing how one character, in fact, one particle, to come in different tones. But the more you learn, you get used to them in different contexts.
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