Penang Hokkien: A Unique Language in Southeast Asia - Brian Loo Soon Hua | PG 2024

An Introduction to Penang Hokkien: A Unique Language of the Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia The Penang Hokkien language spoken in Penang in Malaysia, as well as in neighbouring parts of Northern Malaysia. A very similar dialect is spoken in Medan and neighbouring parts of North Sumatra. Penang Hokkien developed in the late 18th and early 19th Century from an archaic form of Zhangzhou Minnan brought to the Malay Peninsula by migrants from Southern Fujian Province, China. It is to a certain extent, mutually intelligible with Taiwanese Minnan as well as with the prestige dialect of Xiamen, China. Penang Hokkien retains archaic vocabulary rarely used in China and Taiwan plus a large amount of Malay and English loanwords. Brian is a native speaker of Penang Hokkien from Georgetown, Malaysia. He is a linguist currently working on projects involving Aboriginal languages from Australia. He is extremely fascinated by languages with complex phonologies and has studied North American languages like Navajo, Halkomelem and Nootka extensively. He co-organised the Penang Language Event in 2023 together with Richard Simcott and is very keen to organise more polyglot and language events in his hometown. ‪@languagestolearn8155‬ This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering 2024 (https://www.polyglotgathering.com).