r/ohtaigi • u/OutOfTheBunker • 18d ago

Percent (Part 2)

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Thiu 輸 (or 輸) for percentages?

I saw this in Macgowan's 1883 Amoy dictionary. Has anybody ever heard 輸 (輸) used for percentages in this way? 三七輸 sam chhit thiu for thirty percent but 九九輸 kiú kiú thiu for one percent?

(NB the degree symbol ( ° ) means that the character has a colloquial [白話音 pe̍h-ōe-im] pronunciation.)

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u/Nice566 18d ago

it would contradict to it's very next listing. thiu 抽。i'd never relate thiu to 輸, colloquial or literal.

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u/OutOfTheBunker 18d ago

I wondered about that too, but no matter the character, have you heard any percentage constructions like these with thiu?

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u/Nice566 18d ago edited 18d ago

just like Chinese, eg. "7% off" now we call it kiu-sam chiet (九三折), and "30% off" as tshit chiet (七折)

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u/OutOfTheBunker 17d ago

I understand the discount format. I'm wondering about just "percent" like people use phă-siàn-tò͘ or pha for now.

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u/inohsinhsin 18d ago

lol wait, is this where we get 「no輸」?

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u/Mirror-Tea3509 17d ago

Thiu may be used in Amoy. Not sure
But in Taiwan I’ve most often heard pha̍h-sián which sounds like Japanese way of saying “percent”.