Penang Hok-kiàn ê Thák-chheh-im 讀冊音

[SimL]

I agree with Andrew. In all (other) Penang (and other) Hokkien syllables, it really is a "ua" (perhaps even a [?ua], with a very light glottal stop before the start of the vowel). But in the so-called ' Teochew-"wa"-for-"I" ' in Penang Hokkien, it is a glide/semi-vowel [w-]. In that sense it doesn't fit into Hokkien phonology at all.

It's analogous to the distinction that some English speakers make between "ear" and "year". I.e. the first is /?i:ər/ (with a light initial glottal stop) and the latter is /ji:ər/ (with the glide/semi-vowel).

Sorry to have broken the magic and posted a reply in that awful foreign language, but I was totally unable to say the above in Hokkien. (I couldn't even say "I agree with Andrew", to say nothing of all the phonetics terminology and "analogous to the distinction"!)

[Ah-bin]

Goân-lâi sī án-ne-khoán. eng-kai sī wá ê âng-mô∙ hī-á thiaⁿ bē chheng-chó, āu-pái wá to siá “wá”.

Wá beh mūi lú-lâng, kàu-té “agree” án-choáⁿ kóng?

Wá siāuⁿ-ê siâng ka Andrew?

a-sī

Wá siāuⁿ Andrew kóng tióh?

a-sī

Wá siāuⁿ kóng Andrew kóng ê tióh?

A-sī koh ū wá á-bōe siāuⁿ-tióh ê kóng-hoat?

[aokh1979]

Tse-sī wá ka-kì ê khuànn-huat.

Wá kám-kak Andrew kóng liáu tsiânn tióh. (我感覺 Andrew 講了誠著)
Wâ lā-sa (Malay “rasa”) Andrew kông ê tsiânn ū tō-lí. (我 la-sa Andrew 講丌誠有道理)
Wá tông-ì Andrew ê kóng-huat. (我同意 Andrew 丌講法)

[aokh1979]

Wá tam-á tshâ kuè liáu, 聲母 thák tsò "Siann-Bú". Wá iōng Tâi-uan Kàu-iók-pōo ê Bân-lâm-uā Hàn-jī Su-jíp-huat tshì kuè. Kok-uī ū hìng-tshù ê pîng-iú pún ing-kai khì hā-tsài (download) lâi iōng. Bē-hiáu thák ê jī thong-kuè tse tiō ē thàn tshuē tshut-lâi.

[SimL]

...
Wâ lā-sa (Malay “rasa”) Andrew kông ê tsiânn ū tō-lí.
...

Hi aokh,

Thanks very much for having this one . I had forgotten this word, after so many years away. For me, it's a very "colourful" word, and I use it almost exclusively in the negative.

"wa bo la-sa kong i e lai"

"I didn't take account that he would come", "I never imagined that he would come", "It never entered my mind that he would come", "I didn't take into consideration that he might come".