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The word 愛 (ai) is commonly used in Singaporean Hokkien to mean "want to", but in Amoy Hokkien and Taiwan Hokkien, the word 欲/卜 (beh) (which means "want" in Hokkien) is used instead. 愛 (ai) in Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien it typically means "love to" or "need to".
Hokkien is one of the largest Chinese language groups worldwide. Profanity in Hokkien most commonly involves sexual references and scorn of the object's ancestors, especially their mother. The mentioning of sexual organs is frequently used in Hokkien profanity. [citation needed] Hokkien is the preferred language for swearing in Singapore. [1]
Huan-a (Chinese: 番仔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: hoan-á) is a Hokkien-language term used by Hokkien speakers in multiple countries, namely mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, etc.
It is usually a mixture of English, Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, and Tamil, and sometimes other Chinese languages like Teochew, Hainanese, Hakka, Hockchew, and Mandarin. For example, pek chek means to be annoyed or frustrated, and originates from Singaporean Hokkien 迫促 (POJ: pek-chhek). [2]
LLST - lan lan suck thumb, meaning to embrace the fact and continue; NATO - no action, talk only; Pikachu - from the hokkien expression "bai kah bai chew", meaning crippled; SBC - simply boh chup – indifferent, not caring (from the abbreviation of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation) WALI - walk around, look important; ROC - relax one corner
Kiasu is part of the vocabulary of Singapore's colloquial language, Singlish. Singlish is an English-based creole language comprising vocabulary from Chinese languages such as Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese, as well as English and Malay, and to a lesser extent Tamil and Mandarin. The latter four are Singapore’s four official languages. [6]
Singaporean Hokkien is the largest non-Mandarin Chinese dialect spoken in Singapore. As such, it exerts the greatest influence on Colloquial Singaporean Mandarin, resulting in a Hokkien-style Singaporean Mandarin widely spoken in the country.
Hokkien is an analytic language; in a sentence, the arrangement of words is important to its meaning. [49] A basic sentence follows the subject–verb–object pattern (i.e. a subject is followed by a verb then by an object), though this order is often violated because Hokkien dialects are topic-prominent.