| Abstract |
Kua-á (歌仔) booklets (“songbooks”) — folk works in long-form metered verse — are a staple in Hokkien folk literature, serving as a priceless record of life and language in the early modern period especially. I begin by summarizing the early 20th century Tsuè Sin 12 Uánn Tshài Kua. I also discuss the relationship between this and two other versions of the same work. I then probe the phonological characteristics of the underlying dialect of Hokkien. First, having identified nine dialectologically significant rimes, I examine verses that feature rhyming (sentence-final) syllables involving these rimes that do not vary across dialects (tīng-ūn jī 定韻字) alongside those that do (tīng-khiunn ūn 定腔韻). I conclude that the underlying dialect is the so-called Hái-kháu (海口, “seaward”) dialect of Tsuân-tsiu (泉州). Next, consistent with this finding, I note that Hàn-jī (漢字) with tsiūnn-khìr (上去) tone readings are borrowed to write ē-khìr (下去) tone syllables, and vice versa, indicating that the two tones are not distinct in citation form; it is also evident that the ē-khìr and ē-piânn (下平) tones are commingled in non-citation form. Last, I discuss eight Tsuân-tsiu-specific words used in the book; four kinds of modern loanwords; and 10 words that modern readers are apt to misinterpret. |
