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Re: Question about Questions

From:Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>
Date:Monday, September 17, 2001, 9:39
>From: laokou <laokou@...> >Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 00:53:21 -0500 > >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
True, but do you think it's because ma marks a question or because it is commonly pronounced at such a high pitch causing a compensatory rise in the pitch of qu4 (or any other word preceeding ma). Or maybe the two thing are one and the same. Adam _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

Replies

Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>
Damon M. Lord <lorddm@...>