HYECK FAAN AND OTHER PHRASES

So what happens when on the 2ᶮᵈ day of the lunar year you walk into a bakery filled with elderly Cantonese types who all know you speak their language? A hearty chorus of "san nin faai lok". Happy New Year. Warm and welcoming. As one of the regulars there I joined in when the next familiar face came in, and the next.

新年快樂!

In between new arrivals, I listened in on a conversation that involved lots of old mothers, despicable acts, and unspeakable body parts, all used for emphasis and exclamation. No, shan't reproduce those sounds here, because there really is no reason for you to know them if you don't already. Suffice to say that the speech defect is exactly the same as a Dubliner employing the "F" word. Or how a Dutchman uses "k", "l", or "kl".

I will note, however, that in dialect a familiar obscene imperative verbform characteristically loses the "t" or "d" with which it begins in city speech.


Oh, let's change the subject: San Nin Faai Lok!

San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok. San nin faai lok.


Plus several other congratulatory phrases. San tai kin hong, maan si yu yi, seui seui ping on, and something that sounds the same as 'fish' (but means a surplus).
May you have fish all the time. But mostly san nin faai lok.

While I was enjoying the first egg tart and third cup of HK milk tea after my recent surgical adventure -- see, I'm well on the road toward recovering my old self -- many flaky pastries were consumed, the noise level hit the roof, caffeinated beverages were swilled, and one Ah Sook was asked why he was leaving so soon. "Meuwhaai h'-hyek faan luh!" Which I believe means that as a matter that you should have taken for granted (too many slurred-together particles) he was going home to have his dinner.


After departing I smoked a pipe while observing dusk falling over Waverly. Fathers and their little daughters, pretty in bright new clothes, headed home. Rosy cheeked tykes alternated with elderly ladies, even the thuggish teenage boys seemed well-behaved and scrubbed. More places in C'town were open than the day before.

Later, I too hyecked some faan. Roast meats, fresh vegs, rice.
And another cup of a stimulating beverage.
Followed by a second pipe.



San nin faai lok.




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