Two curators at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum have put together a 58-page e-book documenting 300 Hokkien animal names as they are used in Singapore.

Click on picture to go to PDF:

Called Minnan (Hokkien) Animal Names Used In Singapore, the e-book can be found on the museum's website and can be downloaded for free. It was published in June 2015.

The two man behind the project are Tan Siong Kiat, 41, and Kelvin Lim, 48.

It contains common translations of more than 300 animal names, complete with photos.

The translations are colloquial names used by ancestors to refer to animals and were compiled from memory, experience, and from Hokkien speakers who are mainly the older members of our families and social circles, according to Tan in an interview with The Straits Times.

However, both men stressed that the list is "neither comprehensive nor authoritative".

The directory was started in mid-2013. This was after Tan and Lim, both native Hokkien speakers, started conversing with a volunteer at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in Hokkien as she wanted to learn more about the dialect.

These conversations sparked the idea to compile a list of Hokkien animal names.

Here, let Mothership.sg teach you how to speak Hokkien using animal names:

1. Cockroach

"Wah! This guy is really resilient! Pah buay si! Like a ka zuaq!"

Literal translation: "This guy is so resilient, he is indestructible like a cockroach."

2. Housefly

"Today the weather is really damn hot, quick pai hor sin to make it rain."

Literal translation: "The weather's hot, pray to the rain god to make it rain."

3. Clam

"Uncle, mee siam mai hum."

Literal translation: "I would like to not have clams for my mee siam."

4. Chicken

"Tonight I feeling it man, come, we go Geylang look for kueh."

Literal translation: "Hey, let's go to Geylang to look for hookers."

5. Snake

"Wah I damn shagged. I jiak zua a bit, cover for me, can?"

Literal translation: "I'm tired, I'm going to take a break."

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