Chan from Jiangmen - dialect

[June]

I hope that this is the correct place to post this message. I am trying to do research on my husbands family who came from just outside Jiangmen. When we were there 4 years ago we were able to walk from the centre of Jiangmen to the house that his father had built (although this walk did take about an hour). I am trying to find out which clan my husband would belong to and who his ancestors were, I am also interested in trying to find out which dialect my husband would speak - from what I have read there are many dialects not just 'Cantonese'. Is there anyway I can tell which dialect it would be that he is speaking.

Thank you and I hope that my query makes sense.

[Henry]

Alex,

Can somebody provide you with the Chinese characters for the name of your husband's ancestral village outside of Jiangmen ?, the administrative city for the SiYi region. If it took you an hour to walk there - then it is probably within a 3 to 4 mile radius of Jiangmen. Your husband probably speaks a variant of the Si Yi dialect which is different from the Cantonese dialect you hear in Hong Kong. There are many people on this Forum that speak the SiYi dialects.

Henry

[tyuti1668]

I guess it's 新會 (Xinhui) variety of siyi dialect because in history the 江門 proper was a town in 新會 (新會縣江門鎮)


c-c-c db had village info in that area (江門鎮 approx = 新會 area 2 in ROC)

[June]

I will try and find the characters for the area he comes from. I believe I may have it on an envelope.

When we were in Hong Kong and then Jiangmen even I noticed that his Chinese was different to that in Hong Kong, and most of the people there knew he was not from Hong Kong and thought that he was from the mainland. When we went to Jiangmen the people there did not believe that he was not a native.

If I find the characters how can I post them?

Thank you

[June]

I am still looking for Chinese characters for the area my husband comes from but his brother pronounces it Pak Sar (that is the closest I can write down). Has anyone heard of this area?

Thank you

[philiptancl]

Hi Alex,

To write the Chinese characters go to the free website at www.nciku.com to do so by using the computer mouse to imitate the strokes in whatever sequence you like. I do not know how to use any Chinese software to write out the Chinese characters but I had been using the said website to do my past posting that involved Chinese characters.

Philip

[mugenpower168]

Pak Sar would be 白沙 (lit. "White Sand"). According to Village DB, there are two Pak Sar villages inhabited by Chan's (in Sun Wui).
www.c-c-c.org/villagedb/display.cgi?level=Village&id=6141
www.c-c-c.org/villagedb/display.cgi?level=Village&id=6110