Leeter Spiaking Singlish , livre ebook

Marshall Cavendish International - Li Sui Gwee

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55 pages

English

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Following on the success of his 2017 hit, Spiaking Singlish: A Companion to How Singaporeans Communicate, Gwee Li Sui is back with a series of three "Leeter" books covering the quintessential features of Singlish, Singapore's unofficial language - written in Singlish!In this first volume, we delve into what is known as the end-particle: "a modifier that primarily comes at the end of a sentence or a clause. Its appearance changes the meaning of the whole construction - yes, it is that powderful one! We will look at a whole bunch of them: lah, leh, ler, lor, loh, liao, ha, ah, hor, wor, mah, meh, siol, sial, sia, eh, nia, neh, and bah. Some are long-long oredi got use although their uses may have evolved. Others are sibeh new even to my ears!"The AuthorDr Gwee Li Sui is a former academic who now labours in the arts as a poet, writer, editor, literary critic and graphic artist. He wrote Singapore's first long-form graphic novel, Myth of the Stone, back in 1993, and has five books of verse to date. He has edited numerous literary anthologies, including Singathology: 50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers (2015).

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Publié par	Marshall Cavendish International
Date de parution	14 janvier 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789815009965
Langue	English

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Text and illustrations 2022 Gwee Li Sui
Published in 2022 by Marshall Cavendish Editions An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196. Tel: (65) 6213 9300. E-mail: genref sg.marshallcavendish.com
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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
Name(s): Gwee, Li Sui, 1970-
Title: The Leeter Spiaking Singlish. Book 1, End-particles / Gwee Li Sui.
Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2022.
Identifier(s): e-ISBN: 978 981 5009 96 5
Subject(s): LCSH: English language--Variation--Singapore. | English language--
Spoken English--Singapore. | English language--Dialects--Singapore.
Classification: DDC 427.95957--dc23
Printed in Singapore
CONTENTS
Terima Kasih!
Introduction

1. Lah Your Head Lah!
2. Leh or Ler - Got Difference?
3. The Lor and Loh of It
4. The Multiverse of Liao
5. Ha? Ah?... Ah!
6. Words at War: Hor versus Wor
7. This is Still a Title Mah
8. To Meh or Not to Meh ?
9. The Terror Triplets: Siol , Sial , Sia
10. Eh , Nia , Neh , Bah ... What Else?

Glossary
About the Author cum Illustrator
TERIMA KASIH!
W HEN UNKER WAS a boi-boi, my lao peh used to tuition me England. Tuition teacher last time oredi not cheap, and summore my family low SES. My lao peh s England was learn from ang moh one, so it is quite powderful. But hor, when he was not telling me simi past tense lah, present tense lah, future perfect continuous tense lah, he acherly spoke a bit differently. So I got a bit blur.
Only later did I unnerstan this other way of spiaking was called Singlish. When I gave my lao peh a copy of Spiaking Singlish some years ago, he asked me where I learnt all this nonsense from. I said, From you lor. He stunned like vegetable. He thought he only got teach me England! But chewren are liddat mah. We got ears. We pick up what we hear and not what ah laos wan us to know nia.
So the champion I need to thank here is Ricardo Monteiro Gilbert Alphonso Gwee Seng Hong. I previously got sayang a lot of other peepur liao. Those kakis started me on my current ongoing journey to think and write about Singlish. But, with this new phase, I fewl I should hormat the ah pek who began it all in me. He is a true pioneer. And he deen even know it.
INTRODUCTION
S INGLISH IS WHAT AH ? Singlish is Singapore s unofficial language. It is not its official language. If you anyhowly say and then say I say, I sure kena buak gooyoo one. Singapore s official languages got four: England, Melayu, Mandarin, and Tamil. But this does not make Singlish an underground language since everywhere you go can still hear it. Look at our commercials or even our Gahmen websites and social media - it is oso there. So why liddat?
As the pirate Chow Yun-fat in some filem sagely says, Welcome to Singapore! Singlish s status is the tok kong metaphor for this real Singapore that chum-chums the lawful and the unlawful, the said and the unsaid, the official and the subversive. Here got the full richness of Sinkie life in all its lawa and gila contradictions. It is where values and ideas get very the messy and the different social layers acherly interact.
In this Singapore, our last time low-crass hawker culture can now become our yaya UNESCO-listed cultural heritage. In it, our leaders of a system that tekans Singlish can somehow be among its kilat speakers. Or consider the Sinkies who always how lian they bilingual or multilingual but, when it comes to Singlish, suddenly cannot. Terbalik got those we dismiss as bo tak chek - but some can spiak a whole range of local languages ler!
You see, the straight truth is this. What many say about Singapore is neh the whole reality, nor is, to be sure, what they dun say about it. One day, Singlish sure will tio enshrined as the island s heritage language - but right now no lor. Singlish is what happens when not just Singapore s official languages but hampalang languages and dialects used in it campur. It kapos their words lah, phrases lah, syntaxes lah, and transforms all these with wit and charm.
My this humble book series The Leeter Spiaking Singlish is something that more or less re-treads my original Spiaking Singlish from 2017. Wah, that one got sell macam hot kalipoks siol! But it has areas that still can make lagi steady such as its structure and its scope. Oso, unker fewls the material covered there needs some updating liao. So this one is same-same but different - or maybe different-different but same? (Got anyone say liddis?)
I am now arranging my discussion by categories. Each volume got just a few chapters, so easier to digest and follow, but the chapters are oso longer , some even double their former lengths. Hampalang content is oso revised lah, boosted lah, and, where need be, corrighted. New chapters sure must have one. The Singlish is cranked up, made lagi heow, because I fewl can liao lah. We can push this summore to achieve more Singlish huats.
The volume in your hands focuses on one sibeh tok kong feature in the spiaking of Singlish. It is the use of end-particles. I got say this many times liao. If you wan to learn Singlish, you can pick up all the funny words you suka - teh siew dai lah, kopi-O kosong lah, alamak lah, steady pom pi pi lah. That is a fun chow mugger s way to learn, but dun expect to sound authentic lor. To be truly champion, you need to acquire the Sinkie accent.
You must oso know your Singlish end-particles - which, I tell you now, is fifty per cent of fluency. Unker no bedek you one. Master these, and you oredi halfway to becoming a solid Singlish speaker. Other Singlish words you may drop here drop there, but use just one end-particle salah and you pecah lobang. Everybawdy will know you wayang king liao. Terbalik, if you spiak perfect England but, as your sentences end, you let slip zhun Singlish end-particles, we will know you Singlish can one. No use kay-kay!
Wait ah. Talk until now you know an end-particle is what anot? Simi sai ah? Well, a particle in any language is a unit that buay sai inflect - that is to say, cannot change to make a new, specific meaning. A noun in England can change from singular to plural by adding an -s or -es , tio bo? A verb can change by switching its tense, corright? So a noun or a verb is not a particle lor. While a particle may ownself not change, it can always link with other words to do this.
An end -particle is such a modifier that primarily comes at the end of a sentence or a clause. Its appearance changes the meaning of the whole construction - yes, it is that powderful one! In this book, we will look at a whole bunch of them: lah , leh , ler , lor, loh , liao , ha , ah , hor , wor , mah , meh , siol , sial , sia , eh , nia , neh , and bah . Some are long-long oredi got use although their uses may have evolved. Others are sibeh new even to my ears!
Got some pandai peepur claim can , what , and one are oso end-particles, but I dunno leh. Can in Singlish still works like an England modal verb what - except, when we ask a question, we can put it in front or behind. So Can we go kai kai? and We go kai kai, can? are same-same. The case with what seems more related to the cow-peh form of what while one is so much more! Maybe we should talk about all these elsewhere.
I use the term end-particle to mark a departure from the normal term sentence-final particle cunning linguists got use. It is not to say that they are incompatible hor. Many East and Southeast Asian languages - from Mandarin and Japanese to Indonesian and Thai - got such sentence-final particles one. But I wish to free our Singlish ones from the restrictive senses tied to those. I see Singlish end-particles potentially and oredi doing more.
Flexibility and this freedom to be flexible must maintain for something that, at the centre, is still evolving. Unker is not exaggerating to say that today s Singlish sure will not resemble macam Singlish in fifty years time. Just compare it now to how ah peks and ah mms remember spiaking when last time policemen wore shorts! So, insofar as we are dealing with a young language, we better get used to multiplicities and transformations lah.
As such, I try not to centralise the question of word origin since usage is negotiate - or we say chum siong - in multicultural societies one. Source informs as anything historical informs, by providing an interesting note, but we cannot confuse it with application . Still hor, got some peepur so hung up on original meanings that they forget how language is a living thing. You just cannot turn back the clock to get speakers nowsaday to accept or keep to a set of meanings we no longer relate to lah.
In Singlish, as in any language, wor