The Kunming "ga"

stone_nomad
 December 05, 2009, 11:02 AM posted in General Discussion

Anyone understand the Kunming sentance ending particle "ga". It seams to be used as a replacement for 吗(ma), 呢(ne), and/or 吧(ba), but I'm not really sure. I've started using, "谢谢ga", as a set expression since I hear it so much but I'm not sure what It adds.

Also Is there a character that is used for it? I suspect there isn't but it might be helpful If there was.

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bodawei
 December 05, 2009, 11:43 AM

@stone_nomad

Why don't you ask a native Kunming speaker?  I haven't noticed it myself (tone deaf?) 

I have discussed elsewhere on ChinesePod the 个 that is pronounced guo and 走 that is pronounced somewhere near zuo. I hear this nasally uo ending a lot.  With the addition of 啊 this in some cases sounds like ngua.  (I added the 'ng' to convey the nasal sound.)   Does that come close to an explanation of the ga sound you hear?  

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stone_nomad
 December 05, 2009, 12:03 PM

I have talked with some about it and have not come up with any good explinations. I mainly find them giving me example uses but no clear cut explinations. It's kind of like them asking me to explain English grammer. I thought I might beable to find a more clear explination here amongst learners how have already strugled with it.

The pronunciation of it does not seem too nasally. It seems that it is pronounced with the mouth relativly wide open with a relativly hard 'g' initial sound. I will listen more closely to see if I can hear any initial nasal sound. 啊, does seem like it may be a good canidate for the different uses though.

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stone_nomad
 December 08, 2009, 07:19 AM

As far as character is concerned a friend told me that he uses 嘎 and 噶 for ga when he chats on line. Pleco came up with nothing helpful. I think these characters are just being used for sound loan purposes.