meaning of 蚵

[guang1015]

doeas anybody know the meaning and the pronounciation of 蚵 as in the infamous of Taiwanese food : 蚵仔煎 ?

I've searched my Xin Hua Dictionary 新華字典 but couldn't find it...thx!

[YuehanHao]

I don't know, but perhaps the meaning is oyster, pronunciation é.

http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/wordsearch.php?searchMode=C&word=%E8%9A%B5&search=Search

约翰好

[magores]

My native Beijing co-worker says she thinks its pronounced "ke1". But, she adds that "we never use that".

Her guess to meaning is something to do with insects

[roddy]

ABC has kè, oyster.

Unihan has hé or kè

Unihan also lists é sourced from CEDICT, which I would guess is where Yellowbridge got it from.

But you should probably ask whoever is cooking it . . .

[skylee]

蚵仔 = small oyster = 小牡蠣

dict.cn -> http://dict.cn/search/?q=%F2%C2 (hé, kè)

From the dictionary of the Taiwan Ministry of Education ->

ke1

閩南方言。指牡蠣。如：「青蚵」、「蚵仔煎」。

é

牡蠣。閩南、臺灣地區的音讀。如：「青蚵」、「蚵仔煎」。

[Mugi]

蚵 means "oyster" and should be pronounced "hé" when appearing on Taiwanese menus, although most Taiwanese (even those who don't speak Hokkien) would use the Hokkien pronunciation ("ô", similar to Mandarin "é").

[Lu]

What Mugi said. Even Mandarin speakers here shift to Hokkien when saying o-a (蚵仔). One of those words that are only used in dialect, if you say it in Mandarin chances are you won't be understood.

[guang1015]

thank u everyone