Gracy Bee

I became an ‘Ou Ji Khour’

Posted on February 3rd, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Everyday life.

My ancestors are from Putian City in Fujian province in Southern China. Our language is called Putian Hua, more commonly known as Heng Hua. Well, they were and still are very proud of their dialect that any other Putianan who don know how to speak the dialect are instantly labelled as ‘Ou Ji Khour’. Just like me.

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I have met one of my many distant relatives. As he knows that I’m my father’s daugther, he instantly wanna test on my dialect ability. My hearing didn’t fail me BUT the words coming out from my mouth failed me. MISERABLY.

He: Ah….Ou Ji Khour!
Me: …
He: (speaking in a language I understand. FINALLY) You must learn how to spreak heng hua you know. Not many people know how to speak anymore!
Me: *grinning*

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I know relatively little about my ancestors and dialects. But what I do know is that our dialect belongs to a minority group in Fujian and my grandfather and late great-grandmother are proud of their traditions, family name and language, and needless to say they favour boys more than girls (I’m the exceptional case :)). We all have our generation name, eating Longevity noodles (nope, not the thin types you find in supermarkets and noodle stalls but the thick long and salty type) during CNY etc etc. So if I ever come across someone’s names with our surnames, generation and SPEAK the dialect…I tell you, he/she is 99% related to us. GOSH……MY FAMILY IS HUGE!

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Out of interest, I decide to look for more information online. Ah…our dialect’s roots come from Tang Dynasty! NOW that is interesting! My mother told me that I used to understand Heng hua due to the influence from my greatgrandmother. Since I left for Spore, my interaction with the dialect has diminished. Now I want to relearn the dialect to serve as a communicating tool with my grandparents.

I can say I’m proud to be a Putianan but I need to brush up my Heng hua skills! Aiseh…cannot be NATO (No Action Talk Only) ah!

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