Two phrases in Hokkien that occur regularly: "If not...,then..." (e.g. if XXX does not happen, then...") and "Why don't... ?"
Penang Hokkien appears to use the phrase "ă bó" for both. Singaporean Hokkien appears to make a clearer distinction: "If not..., then..." is "nă bó" and "Why not...?" is "ă bó". As much as most of my Hokkien was learnt in Penang, I have to say I find the Singaporean Hokkien distinction far more elegant.
"ă bó" = 抑無, nă bó" = 若無... anyone care to correct me?
Just to confirm: "If not, then..." is nă bó (as used in Singapore) and not ă bó, as used interchangeably with "Why not...?" in Penang?
I have heard a Penang Hokkien friend even use the phrase "ă si" interchangeably for "if" and "or". I often found myself correcting her by reminding her that "ă si" 抑是 is "or" and "nă si" 若是 is "if" (hope I got the Hanzi correct).
As an aside, this friend also uses "kha ca" 較早 interchangeably for "just now" and "previously". Again, I find myself constantly reminding her to make the distinction between "tam-a/cam-a" (暫仔?) (just now) and "kha ca" 較早 (previously).
we have to know that a in minnan is 發語詞 for starting a phrase like 阿汝有去毛﹖so misuse of this word to joint with other word is possible.
I find dict put 阿是a si as 抑或﹐或者。you are right about the meaning but 若is nann not na.
I don't think that tam ma is a correct minnan yet but cam ma is correct.cam means 一段時間。頂站 will be exacltly same with 較早。
why don't we just use 頭先﹖
籃 baidu is nann5.wendu lam5.The sound nn at the back for this word are not like san and sann,puan and puann which sounded like two words.
媽 ma and mann have same sound.The important is no n,ng,m as consonant in minnan but not other dialects.
putian 閩 is mang but we cannot do that with no nn at the back..
