Posted by Goh, Hooi Luan (61.6.54.227) on May 08, 2004 at 05:30:50:
In Reply to: my last name---ip posted by Peter Ip on November 24, 2003 at 06:09:59:
My husband's surename is also that character, except in the hokkien dialect it is pronounced as YAP.
Why that pronunciation - different dialect groups would pronouce the same word/character differently. The emperor Shih Hwang Ti standardized the writing, but not the pronunciation unfortunately for us, or else a chinese in the north can perfectly understand another chinese in the south, and we would not need Mandarin to be the national spoken language.
There are 2 tribes of YAP, one from the Fujin province, the other, I believe that's what you belong is a hakka tribe from Henan province. They migrated down south to Hokkien. This tribe is very risilent, mobile, hardworking, and smart.