Cantonese Reading of Chinese Character
Anyone out there know — or know someone who knows — how to read ‘滇’ in Cantonese? I know that in Mandarin it’s diān. Apple’s Chinese Text Converter indicates that 婊 should be the traditional version, but I’ve no way, at the moment, of verifying that, and on-line dictionaries don’t give the same definition.
滇紅茶 is Dian Hong tea. The first character is a name for Yunnan — one that predates 云南 (Yúnnán) by a century, probably, at least. The second is hóng, which means ‘red’. In Cantonese, it’s hùhng. The term 紅茶, literally ‘red tea’, corresponds to English ‘black tea’. This tea is often sold in the US as ‘Yunnan tea’, ‘Yunnan gold tea’, or ‘Yunnan red tea’. Probably some other names out there, too — I got it as ‘yellow tea’, yesterday (though ‘yellow tea’ often refers to another kind of tea entirely).
Any help would be much appreciated.


11 February 2006 at 16:46
滇 In Cantonese, has been used often in reference to a collection of the singular. So you would write:
‘滇南 紅茶云’ very roughly translated: “A Gaggle of Deer Tea EM.”
11 February 2006 at 16:56
Bogus self-plug! But, all things considered, quite fair. Welcome, Dheivre!
30 May 2009 at 19:38
tìhn