The Letter Speaking Singlish: Book 1: End-Particles

Following on the success of his 2017 hit, Spiaking 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 “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 powerful one! We will look at a whole bunch of lah, leh, ler, lor, loh, liao, ha, ah, hor, wor, mah, meh, siol, sial, sia, eh, nia, neh, and bah. Some are long already used although their uses may have evolved. Others are very new even to my ears!