Sunday

And the living is easy, except for managers of the Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau! We must slog away even on Sundays in the never-ending quest to make Cantonese a world language.

Sunday in Cantonese is 禮拜日(lai bai yat) but it can also be 星期日(seng kei yat) or, less used, 星期天 (seng kei tin) or sometimes even just 禮拜(lai bai).

禮拜 (lai bai) is definitely ‘most Cantonese’. The words mean ‘rite’ and ‘worship’ and the expression was probably based on the western religious tradition of worshipping on a Sunday. I’ve heard 禮拜(lai bai) used a couple of times to express Sunday, but most people say 禮拜日 (lai bai yat – rite worship day). So if 禮拜 (lai bai) was Sunday, then Monday would be 禮拜一(lai bai yat – day of worship plus one).

Here the tones are kind of important! 日(yat – day) and 一 (yat – one) are pronounced the same except the first yat is the lowest tone and the second yat the highest. I always tell my students to try to remember that 日(yat – day) originates from the word sun, and the sun is a very heavy object, therefore low tone. Whereas 一 (yat – one) is light as a feather, only one gram. Therefore high tone.

So you’ve got to get the tones right, otherwise you’ll turn up in the church on a Monday and your bride and the whole congregation will have buggered off.

And the 星期 (seng kei)? Yes, both 禮拜(lai bai) and 星期 (seng kei) also mean week, and work the same way. 星期一(seng kei yat – Monday) 星期二 (Seng key yi – Tuesday) etc. But 星 Seng means Star and 期 Kei means period and is Mandarin with Cantonese pronunciation. I don’t know what a star period is, so needless to say I use the good old-fashioned Cantonese expression.

Down with Mandohooliganism! Long live Cantonese!