Cantonese vocabulary: Royalty
I’m going to throw up this short list of vocabulary related to royalty because kiddo has this adorable just-before-bed routine* where he likes to pretend he’s a princess on a throne being visited by subjects (me) who bring gifts or ask for help, etc. While he declines me telling him a story (without a book), I guess this is the stand-in for it.
It’s not a long list at the moment because I can’t think of too many more terms that are also within his comprehension. At 3.75 years of age, knows familial relationships and physical objects but maybe not so much about kingdoms and other abstract details.
| English | Chinese | Pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| King | 王帝 | wong4 dai3 | literally "royal god" |
| Queen | 王后 | wong4 hau6 | |
| Princess | 公主 | gung1 zyu2 | |
| Prince | 王子 | wong4 zi2 | |
| Knight | 大俠 | daai6 haap6 | |
| Castle | 城堡 | sing4 bou2 | |
| Crown | 皇冠 | wong4 gun1 | |
| Throne | 王位 | wong4 wai6 | |
| 王座 | wong4 zo6 | ||
| Servant | 工人 | gung1 jan4 |
* The other bedtime role-playing we do is he likes to pretend he’s a baby in the womb who punches and kicks until I double over and go to the hospital and we re-enact the moment he was born – which was by C-section so I am truthful about the details, in a toddler-friendly manner. Mostly, I like to convey how he’s loved from the moment he was born.