What do 系 and 噶 mean?

[zchenyu]

I see these two characters (系 and 噶) over and over again in some places but never see them elsewhere. I presume they're used in Cantonese (correct me if I'mwrong) and would like to know what they mean.

[Hofmann]

Well...if you showed their context, it might be easier to identify their function, and what language it is.

[wai ming]

I have seen these used by Mainland Cantonese speakers for 係 and 㗎 respectively.

[leeyah]

In Cantonese 系 is the simplified variant of 係 as in >>(Cantonese) 粵語系華語中較動聽嘅語言之一 = (Mandarin) 粤语是华语中较动听的语言之一 or >>点解会系咁样？ = 为什么会是这样？where it means "is" (Mandarin "是"). 系 is also the equivalent of "在" >>要放系边度? = 要放在哪里? & is also seen in some Cantonese words like 但系 for Mandarin 但是, or 真系 = 真是.

In the first example above you can see 嘅 used for the possessive "的". But 噶 seems to be also one of Cantonese variants of "的", more often used as assertive 语气助词 though, same as 嘎 e.g. 系广州人噶,识讲粤语噶 He is Cantonese, (so naturally) he speaks Cantonese. In informal writing you can also often see "D" for "的", or all three in a string, as in：点解有D甘嘅人噶? Why are there people like him? /How come there are such people like him? So I guess 噶 is commonly even if most likely erroneously, used instead of 嘅 or 的 in informal writing, as in：用噶廣州話 which should be 常用的广东话 according to 标准GZ话 ( 广州话, 也称广府话):

「嘅」也有被写成“噶”，亦都不对。

[siledouyaoai]

Not sure if this is any help, but 噶 is often used in 昆明话, somewhat similar to 吧 in mandarin.

[zchenyu]

Thanks leeyah, that really helped

Now what I'm reading actually makes sense XD