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Four days ago, rumors and reports were flying fast and furious that Alice Mak Mei-kuen, a member of Legislative Council of Hong Kong for the New Territories West constituency, representing the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, swore at the Chief Executive (CE) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, using the most vile language imaginable:

"Swear words heaped on Carrie Lam as pro-establishment lawmakers express fears of election rout over Hong Kong extradition bill fracas:  Lawmaker hurled expletives at Lam as she tearfully explained her decision to suspend the bill; Many fear electoral backlash in November’s district council elections", by Gary Cheung and Tony Cheung, SCMP (6/20/19)

Although the language employed by Mak was, shall we say, quite colorful, I held off on posting on it until I could get better confirmation of her actual words.  That came through yesterday evening in the form of these notes from Bob Bauer:

Intrigued by the incident you had asked me about, I Googled some Hong Kong Chinese websites to see if I could find a transcription of what Alice Mak had actually said to Carrie Lam.

If I understand correctly what has transpired so far, Alice Mak has neither confirmed nor denied that she had hurled vulgar language at Carrie Lam at a meeting held at Government House (the official residence of the HKSAR Chief Executive). However, on a tape recording that later surfaced someone who had attended this meeting can be heard discussing with another person what Alice Mak had said to the CE. One website gives the transcription of this conversation, and it is pasted below at the bottom of this post in the Appendix.

In your email to me you had included the following text:

"日日被人x (I guess it should be 屌)"

Jyut Ping: jat6 jat6 bei6/2 jan4 diu2

English translation: ‘being fucked every day’

“x(屌)你老母个女仔呀

Jyut Ping: diu2 nei5 lou5 mou5/2 go3 neoi5 zai2 aa3

English translation: ‘fuck your mother’s daughter’

(However, in the transcription of the recording given below, 个女仔 does not seem to be part of the quoted vulgar speech but could be referring to Alice Mak as the one who had said it).

“x(屌)呀郑月娥

Jyut Ping: diu2 aa3 zeng6 jyut6 ngo4

English translation: ‘Fuck! Carrie Lam’

In my search I found these same texts as in your email:

「. . . 日日被人X！. . . . 日日畀人X呀！」,

「X你老X」

I also discovered another vulgar phrase that Alice Mak had said to Carrie Lam, namely,「X街」; this must be 仆街 puk1 gaai1 which literally means ‘fall down in the street’, but as vulgar, abusive language means ‘drop dead, go to hell!’

Please know that the following lexical items occur as lexical entries in the forthcoming ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary:

仆街 puk1 gaai1 ‘drop dead; go to hell!’

屌你老母臭閪！diu2 nei5 lou5 mou5/2 cau3 hai1 ‘(I) fuck your mother's stinking cunt!’

Further confirmation came from Abraham Chan this morning:

There have been multiple rumours about the exact swear words being used. According to this article,【維港會】麥美娟向林鄭爆粗「X街」+建制派怨氣大爆發), what Alice Mak said was "ngo5 di1 hing1 dai6 lok6 heoi3 gaai2 syut3 jat6 jat6 bei2 jan4 diu2 ! puk1 gaai1, nei5 si3 haa5 lok6 keoi1 jat6 jat6 bei2 jan4 diu2 aa1 ! 我啲兄弟落去解説日日被人X！X街，你試下落區日日畀人X呀！", presumably referring to "我啲兄弟落去解説日日畀人屌！仆街，你試下落區日日畀人屌呀！" ("My brothers [i.e., colleagues] have been fucked everyday while explaining [to the community]. Drop dead! Why don't you try facing the community and be fucked everyday!")

 

Appendix

Transcription of the Recording (referred to in Bob Bauer's notes above):

政Whats噏：內幕對話流出　張華峰證麥美娟爆粗鬧林鄭

聲帶對話文字實錄：
張華峰：你唔知啊？
梁定邦：唔知啊
張華峰：「X你老母」個女仔呀，X林鄭(月娥)呀，只有你呢個女人識喊呀？我喊咗成晚呀
梁定邦：有冇搞錯呀
張華峰：麥美娟啊，工聯會，因為佢應承選民一定會過
梁定邦：喺立法會講㗎？
張華峰：喺依個，特首辦呀，嗰個咩迎賓館呀，嗰個貴賓館呀，特首住嘅屋企
梁定邦：喺嗰度講啊？有冇搞錯啊？身為立法會議員，咁失身份呀，問候人老母(笑)，而且係女人
張華峰：佢(麥美娟)將所有政治押落呢鋪到，肯定選唔到㗎喇

 

Readings

"Hong Kong protest puns" (6/20/19)

"Double-barrelled surnames: ask Language Log" (6/21/19)

"The perils of '7' and '9' in Cantonese" (9/28/16)

"Heavy traffic jam" (7/21/16) — for 卜街

"Nerd, geek, PK: Creeping Romanization (and Englishization), part 2" (3/5/13) — for "PK" = 卜街

"Memes, cartoons and caustic Cantonese: the language of Hong Kong's protests", Jerome Taylor, Elaine Yu, AFP (6/24/19) — with five must-see photographs and excellent text

 

[h.t. Arthur Waldron and John Rohsenow; thanks to Zeyao Wu]

June 24, 2019 @ 6:04 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics, Swear words

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