Avid scholar: Vollmann’s interest is piqued by how Hakka sounded so different from other local Chinese dialects.
AN Austrian university professor is dedicating a large part of his research to studying the Hakka dialect after marrying a Malaysian, reported China Press.
Dr Ralf Vollmann, of University of Graz, first heard Hakka in his wife’s chats with her family over the phone back in 2017.
The scholar then started learning the dialect from his wife and soon became so engrossed in it that he embarked on research into the sociolinguistics of Hakka.
What piqued his interest, the 57-year-old Vollmann explained, was how Hakka sounded so different from other local Chinese dialects.
“For example, the Han word ‘me’ is pronounced ‘wo’ in Mandarin whereas in Hakka, it is ‘ngai’.
“Some of the Hakka phrases bear similarities to the Tibetan language and others. I found it very special,” he said.
To research the Hakka dialect in Malaysia, Vollmann and his wife are currently in the country visiting various Hakka associations to understand how it is used within families and in society.
The couple have visited the Kelapa Sawit town in Kulai, Johor Hopo Cultural Museum and Kulai Hakka Association to gather data on how the dialect is used in Malaysia.
Despite being mostly oral evidence, Vollmann said it will greatly help in his research.
> A woman in her 60s in Shanghai was arrested for running a love scam where she managed to con more than 20 men in a month, reported Sin Chew Daily.
The woman, whose surname is Zhao, would pretend to be in a relationship with middle aged men and request for expensive fruits from them before secretly returning to the shop to get cash.
A man named Zhang learnt his lesson the hard way after knowing Zhao through an online matchmaking site.
They met up in public and Zhao invited him back to her home.
On the journey back, Zhao stopped at a shop and picked out fruits, including durian and kiwi, amounting to 1,200 yuan (RM790) before requesting Zhang to pay.
However, Zhang got suspicious when Zhao left the fruits at the store and dragged him to lunch.
Realising that he had been scammed, Zhang made a police report.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
