巧克力
The English word chocolate is translated into Hokkien as 巧克力.
The term refers to food made from ground roasted cocoa beans.
Meaning: food made from ground roasted cocoa beans (noun)
Did you know?
- The character 巧 in 巧克力 usually means 'clever' or 'skillful' in other contexts, making the word look like 'skillful powder' to a literal reader.
- In Hokkien, the phonetic approximation of 'chocolate' is heavily influenced by Mandarin Chinese. This creates a layer of linguistic borrowing where English entered Hokkien via Mandarin first.
- While the writing is the same, a speaker in Taiwan and a speaker in Penang or Medan will pronounce 巧克力 using entirely different vowel sounds and tones.
Example conversation
Two friends are shopping for snacks at a store.
- 美玲 Mei-ling國強，咱欲買巧克力嗎？Kók-kiông, lán beh bé tsiok-ko-làt m-siá?Guoqiang, do we want to buy some chocolate?
- 國強 Kok-kiang好啊，我最愛食巧克力。Hó-ah, góa tsuè ài chia̍h tsiok-ko-làt.Sure, I love eating chocolate the most.
- 美玲 Mei-ling這款黑巧克力較好。Tse kuan oo tsiok-ko-làt khah hó.This dark chocolate is better.
- 國強 Kok-kiang沒問題，就買這款吧。Bô bûn-tê, tsiū bé tse kuan pa.No problem, let's buy this one.
