Wo

While we can't escape the suffixes lah, mah, lor etc. in our daily conversation, I do try to limit their existence in Gooly's speech.. well, that is until he is able to switch comfortably from using them at mamak stalls to total wipe-out during formal presentations.



Today he convieniently inserted the dreaded suffix in his "I can't erase it" making it "I can't erase it wo~~"



So I casually corrected him, and said, "It's alright when you are speaking Chinese." I immediately regretted as soon as those were said so I back-pedalled quickly. "Nah.. even those words don't exist in Chinese. Do they? Wo.. what is wo? Can you think how to write wo?" I challenged.



I was of course being non-sensical. How is a 5 year old gonna write WO in chinese when I seriously and confidently thought the word doesn't exist. Actually I doubt he can actually combine W and O to make the WO (morpheme? Bah! Goodbye forever Semantics 404!) sound even. Ha!



BUT!



He took a pen. Confidently.



And I went, "Woooooaaaat? Is he really going to crack his head over this?"



And he presented this...

Ha! (Thats wo meaning I, me, myself). Pretty ingenious.

And he proceeded with the presentation of the hanyu pinyin of 'wo' with its four tonal sounds. And because this character is pronounced using the 3rd tone (I think!), he suggested that we replace the usual hiao-hiao sing song 'wo~' to a sterner, more serious tone and more adjusted to the 3rd tone of the proper word 'wo'.

Are we all confused yet??

I think so wo~~...I mean wo! (3rd tone).