In the following children's fantasy-adventure book, written for British children in the context of the British empire:
Arthur Ransome, "Missee Lee", Jonathan Cape, London, 1941
English children have been captured by pirates near Guangdong. When the captors bring food to their prisoners, sometimes they say "man fan." From context, this appears to be the evening meal. What is the Cantonese word? The phrase "chiu fan" also appears in this book, which I recognize as Cantonese for "chi fan," but I have been unable to identify "man fan". In context, it could not possibly mean 滿帆 mǎn fān, under full sail or going as fast as possible.
At https://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/1258/ we find that 晚餐 maan5 caan1 means evening meal.
Is there some nearby, southern Chinese dialect in which caan1 turns into fan?
Another possibility is that the author Arthur Ransome was sloppy and wrote "fan" when he should have written "caan". At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missee_Lee we find:
Ransome visited China in 1926 and 1927, where he learned about Chinese life and culture. He also met, amongst others Soong Ching-ling, the wife of Sun Yat-sen.
By the time he wrote this novel, perhaps he simply forgot his Chinese.
