my $x = ...
    my %hash = map { s/(^'|'$)// } split /(:|, )/ $x;

##</code><code>##

  %x = ( a => 'n', b => 'o', ...);

##</code><code>##

    my $x = ...
    my %hash = map { my $v = $_; $v =~ s/(^'|'$)//; $v} split /(:|, )/ $x;