amhoanna wrote:
A lot of Holo speakers in Taiwan, esp women, speak nasalized Mandarin. I think maybe their Holo ears "heard" the nasalization in Mandarin when they were learning the language, then mimicked it using full-blown Holo-style nasalization. Kind of like with the retroflexes in Indian English.
Slightly related is this phenomenon I noticed in myself...
With Mandarin 4th tone, I sometimes put a glottal stop at the end (which is of course totally ridiculous for Mandarin). To me, it seems to make the tone "even MORE falling". So, for "strength" 力, I might say "lih", or for "correct" 对, I might say "tuih".
Is this just an idiosyncratic thing of mine, or do other Hokkien speakers do this too...?
This just made me wonder, what are the main differences between women's and men's Hokkien? I met Mr.Cheah yesterday and he remarked that Baba Hokkien sounds more feminine. I think he was talking about the words and expressions, but the tone of the Baba Hokkien in Penang is supposed to be more musical too, so I have heard.
I notice that down on the South Seas, people seem to tack final stops back onto Mandarin syllables that historically had them. Six, seven, and eight are a good example. A friend of mine from Muar, MY thinks it's a Malaysian thing, but I have a recording for learning Thai where the Mandarin prompts have that same feature, and chances are the recording was made in Thailand or by someone from Thailand. I wonder who got everybody to do that, and how?
The Hokkien monk Bante Dhammavudho always puts a stop on for ka 教 to teach, turning it into kah7, and he doesn't sandhi to ka3, but to kah8 as many people in Penang do.
Okay....I still don't know the numbers, and I'm just using the ones I have in my little blue dictionary! Now that I think about it I should say Bhante Dhammavudho says a low kah4 (im-jip) rather than a high kah8 (iang-jip) and sandhis it to kah8 in front of an object.
Kam2-sia7! Many of Bagan women of my mother's generation (or older) have that kind of "casual" names. Many also worked hard, usually to help their husbands who didn't earn much. Some were luckier, only needed to do house chores, and lived relatively comfortable life.
