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I know ㄍ一ㄥ[gīng] is used extensively in Taiwan and in Taiwanese media, but my question is what dialect/topolect does this come from and what exactly is the character for this word?

I know a lot of people are going to tell me - it's just used orally and there is no way to write it but that's just a bunch of baloney...

edit:

Examples:

youtube: ㄍ一ㄥ舞曲
个性测试：你是否ㄍ一ㄥ一族. 个性测试开始....
msn: 【測驗】妳到底ㄍ一ㄥ在哪？
別ㄍ一ㄥ了,你可以吐苦水| Facebook
國際書展《創意不是用ㄍ一ㄥ的》新書發表會| Facebook
安海瑟威上錯車愛面子死ㄍ一ㄥ| 蘋果日報
[不負責任健康講座] 為什麼搖頭丸能讓你ㄍ一ㄥ？

你是否ㄍ一ㄥ一族 - 星座屋
"ㄍ一ㄥ" | Flickr – 相片分享!
张克帆_百度百科: 个性:温暖,很ㄍ一ㄥ 最爱吃的食物:玉米
阿喜扮「猫熊圆仔」! 收起丑脸硬ㄍ一ㄥ清纯模样 | ETtoday影剧...
...确实,作为闷骚而又很ㄍ一ㄥ的A型血,实在不能理解B型血到底在想什么,...

edit 2: my guess is the character will be something like: '硬'

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  • Can you provide some context?
    – 杨以轩
    May 11, 2014 at 5:07
  • @QuestionOverflow added a bunch of examples
    – Mou某 ♦
    May 11, 2014 at 5:37

2 Answers 2

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This wikipage says that 台語正字 is 矜/楗(教育部用字).

Also this online dictionary of Taiwanese dialect lists 楗 to be the character in question.

However, it is possible that neither is the true character. They just made up some characters in order to transcribe the word. The ancient phonetic books describe that 楗 rhymes with 偃/鍵/建/件, which rhyme with -ian or -iann in Taiwanese， not -ing. On the other hand, 矜 has a historic pronunciation that ends with -m instead of -n or -ng, and the meaning does not really match 硬撑 either. A wild guess of mine is that the character might be 经/擎.

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ㄍ一ㄥ translates to 撑, as in 硬撑: 勉强支撑, 逞強, 死要面子, to overexert oneself, to stubbornly do something you can't really do, to preserve face at all cost.

I don't think it is any particular dialect, it is just standard taiyu slang.

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  • 弓 has the same pronunciation (I believe) and also has the meaning 撑 in 闽南语 —— might it be this character?
    – Mou某 ♦
    May 11, 2014 at 8:06
  • @user3306356 I speak a different Min dialect in which ging also means 硬撑. I think this is something Min dialects have in common, so it doesn't seem to be 弓 as it doesn't sound ging in my dialect. I do not know what character it is either, it could just be a native Yue word (so it isn't Chinese).
    – user58955
    May 11, 2014 at 8:42
  • @user58955 how about 拱? -- there's def got to be a correlating character : 拱 has the meaning of 用一物顶住或撑住另一物
    – Mou某 ♦
    May 11, 2014 at 8:58
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    @user3306356 I don't think so. That's not even ging in Taiwanese. btw, in this wikipage zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/…, it says that 台語正字 is 矜/楗(教育部用字). And see this twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/index.html . But I don't think either is the true character. They just made it up.
    – user58955
    May 11, 2014 at 10:53
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    @user3306356 Ah my bad. Hope this one works： twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/…
    – user58955
    May 12, 2014 at 12:31

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