An Irish lady once told me, “almost every Irish family has a relative in the United States.” Because of famine and poverty, a large proportion of the population of Ireland had emigrated to the United States.
“Which dialect you spoke determined where you were going to go, where the 水客 sui haak (the man driving the boat, your only means of transport and your lifeline) took you. It was where you would find your kinsmen and people who spoke your dialect already settled there”
So true! And a testament to people-to-people connections. My grandparents also said that the dialect that the border officer he got also determined how our family name got spelt in English 😅
I loved this deep dive so much. Love writing that covers history, family and language!
Oooh interesting! I like looking at Singaporean/Malaysian names and guessing what dialect the family speaks from that. I’ve also heard people complaining about bad spellings from people in charge of writing names of birth certificates who didn’t speak chinese or the dialect 😅 Thanks for popping by, Ange ☺️
“Which dialect you spoke determined where you were going to go, where the 水客 sui haak (the man driving the boat, your only means of transport and your lifeline) took you. It was where you would find your kinsmen and people who spoke your dialect already settled there”
So true! And a testament to people-to-people connections. My grandparents also said that the dialect that the border officer he got also determined how our family name got spelt in English 😅
I loved this deep dive so much. Love writing that covers history, family and language!
Oooh interesting! I like looking at Singaporean/Malaysian names and guessing what dialect the family speaks from that. I’ve also heard people complaining about bad spellings from people in charge of writing names of birth certificates who didn’t speak chinese or the dialect 😅 Thanks for popping by, Ange ☺️