Toa Payoh

From SgWiki
Revision as of 14:23, 29 September 2008 by Shit (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Names
English: Toa Payoh
Chinese: 大巴窑
(Pinyin: dàbāyáo)
Malay: Toa Payoh
Tamil: தோ பயோ

'Toa' in the Hokkien (Fujian) dialect of Chinese means 'big', but 'Payoh' –- and it's always spelt as a single word even though it consists of 2 syllables -– is a corruption of the Malay 'Paya'. Hence, Toa Payoh is a place name made up of a Hokkien Chinese adjective, qualifying a corrupted Malay noun.