“á" (仔) is a common noun suffix that serves as a “diminutive" in Taiwanese. In other words, “X-á" may imply “a smaller X". But this is not a general law. Sometimes it is optional to add them after a noun to make it sound “better". For example, io̍h-á (藥仔) and io̍h (藥) both mean medicine, but the former is widely used, while the latter seldom appear independently.
The normal sandhi rule does not apply to á-suffixed nouns. Section 2.6.4.1 of cput it in somewhat misleadling way that “á does not change tone while the preceding syllables do change". Yes, the preceding syllables do change tone, but they change abnormally.
In the following list we present the so-called pre-á sandhi rules that apply á-suffixed nouns. The numbers denote the tone of the syllable right before á, and the ★ symbol indicates the rules that differ from the normal ones.
- 1→7
- 2→1
- 3→1★
- 4(-h)→1★
- 4(-p/t/k)→8
- 5→7
- 7→7★
- 8(-h)→7★
- 8(-p/t/k)→4
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