> I don't plan to email him asking these two stupid question at all.
> You are only talking about unimportant things, it is not about 本字 or regular words like 語氣詞= koh which is missing but appear in 廈門方言志 and many articles.
In any kind of a language which can be divided into several categories:
1. phoneme 音素 im-sou
2. syllable 音節 im-chat
3. morpheme 詞素 su-sou
4. word 單詞 tan-su
5. phrase 片語 phiN-gu
6. clause 子句 chi-ku
7. sentence 語句 gu-ku
and etc...
The reserch of those "original logogram 本字" (bun-li) or "regular logogram 正字" (chiaN-li) is about to the category of "morpheme 詞素". Then the discussion of "hokkien words" is the research of "word 單詞". They all are the research of a same language, just they belong to the different categories.
Some persons search the "original logogram" or "regular logogram", and others like to research the native words. These all are the normal study, not about clever or stupid. We must know they belong to different categories in a language.
If we only research the "morpheme 詞素" that did not help us to preserve the "hokkien speaking". Now, our speaking is named hokkien language in the world, that because it has many its own native words.
Any one kind of language, their native words are "the Spirit of this language". The speakers of any one language need to search its native words in this language, then they could express their meaning accurately, and talk in this language naturally.
magpie
the practice of sentence making
In 1955, prof. Ng Tian-seng made a project of investigation about the population of hokkien writing (or Peh-oe-ji). When that time, there were about 115,500 persons could read and wrote in the Hokkien language.
hokkien (southern hokkien and others) 34,000
tai-oan 32,000
canton (tio-chiu and others) 1,000
other provinces of china 8,000
the philippines 7,000
vietnam 2,000
thailand 7,000
indonesia 10,000
malaysia 10,000
burma 1,500
other states and districts 3,000
the total numbers 115,500
Past old days, the Western missionaries wrote down many and many works in "written language" of Hokkien, Wu, Hakka, Cantonese, and etc...
These Western missionaries help these peoples to preserve their language in the tool of romanized writing. They did not need to know those "original logogram", or "regular logogram". Why these missionaries could be success? That is simple because they learn and research the "native words" of these languages.
Although those scholars of Mainland and Tai-oan put most of their time in the research of these "original logogram", or "regular logogram". But the population of hokkien writing is lower and lower than that 1950s.
In the mainland there may be 1 % 340 persons, and the tai-oan may be 10% 3,200 persons who can read and wrote in the hokkien language at the present time. (the hokkien writing include: 1. the logo-syllabic writing, 2. logo-romanized writing, and 3. the romanized writing)
magpie
hokkien (southern hokkien and others) 34,000
tai-oan 32,000
canton (tio-chiu and others) 1,000
other provinces of china 8,000
the philippines 7,000
vietnam 2,000
thailand 7,000
indonesia 10,000
malaysia 10,000
burma 1,500
other states and districts 3,000
the total numbers 115,500
Past old days, the Western missionaries wrote down many and many works in "written language" of Hokkien, Wu, Hakka, Cantonese, and etc...
These Western missionaries help these peoples to preserve their language in the tool of romanized writing. They did not need to know those "original logogram", or "regular logogram". Why these missionaries could be success? That is simple because they learn and research the "native words" of these languages.
Although those scholars of Mainland and Tai-oan put most of their time in the research of these "original logogram", or "regular logogram". But the population of hokkien writing is lower and lower than that 1950s.
In the mainland there may be 1 % 340 persons, and the tai-oan may be 10% 3,200 persons who can read and wrote in the hokkien language at the present time. (the hokkien writing include: 1. the logo-syllabic writing, 2. logo-romanized writing, and 3. the romanized writing)
magpie