臺灣閩南話語氣助詞「呢」的來源和演變

In hopes of tracking down the origin of ＂nih8,＂ an utterance particle commonly employed in Southern Taiwan, this article scrutinizes the usage of clause-final ＂ni5＂ as attested in the Ming-Qing Southern Min playscripts, the usage of clause-final ＂nih8＂ as attested in the Yuyuan, a linguistic magazine published in Taiwan under Japanese rule, and the usage of clause-final ＂nih8＂ as reflected in the fieldwork data elicited from native Southern Min speakers in Tainan. Synchronically, ＂nih8＂ is nothing like a clause-type, but rather occurs in all types of clauses, creating an effect of exaggeration or emphasis; this focus marking function of ＂nih8＂ is arguably inherited from its demonstrative ancestor ＂er,＂ roughly translatable as＂like this.＂ Diachronically, about a century ago, the rise of the utterance particle ＂leh4＂ left in its wake the gradual confinement of ＂nih8＂ to interrogative clauses; nowadays, in addition to marking indicatives and imperatives, ＂leh4＂ extends to marking wh-questions, while ＂nih8＂ is primarily restricted to yes-no questions, especially to rhetorical questions intended to make negative assertions provocatively.