Calque ofHokkien抑無 /抑无(a̍h-bô / á-bô, literally“or not; or no; or none”). See alsoHokkien是毋是(sī-m̄-sī / sǐ-m̄-sǐ,“whether or not”),是抑毋是(sī á-m̄-sī / sǐ á-m̄-sǐ,“isn't?”, literally“is it? or is it not?”),Mandarin是不是(shìbùshì,“whether or not”), forming a question, and similar interrogative expressions with不,無 /无,唔 and other dialectal synonyms.
In contrast to most English dialects, where "or not" is only optionally appended to ayes-no question formed syntactically ("He called" → "Did he call?" → "Did he call or not?"), inColloquial Singaporean English, "or not" functions as a final particle and forms a question by itself: "Hegot call" → "He got call or not?".
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