Re: Question about Questions

From: "H. S. Teoh"

> Mandarin Chinese doesn't raise the pitch at the end of a question
> (obviously, since it's tonal and the meaning of words would drastically
> change if the pitch changed).
I would obviously agree that the raising pitch thing doesn't kick in in
Chinese. However, sticking final interrogative particles on the end of a
sentence ("ma" in Mandarin or "bo" in Hokkien) does affect the overall pitch
degree of a sentence. In other words, in the following sentences:

Ni3 qu4. "You're going"
Ni3 qu4 ma? "Are you going?"

"qu4" remains 4th tone, but where they place in the speaker's vocal register
change due to the "ma".

Kou