涻 vs 嗎

English translation: a sentence tag employed in written Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.) for asking a yes/no question

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Chinese term or phrase:	盾
English translation:	a sentence tag employed in written Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.) for asking a yes/no question
Entered by:	Roddy Stegemann

08:02 May 28, 2003

Chinese to English translations [Non-PRO]
Science / linguistics - Cantonese

Chinese term or phrase: 涻 vs 嗎

This is an answer to the question: 你揑朁桭橉泹拞暥涻丠

How would the meaning of the above sentence change, if 嗎, rather than 涻, were used as the question word?

Roddy Stegemann KudoZ activity Questions: 666 (4 open) (6 without valid answers) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 1221 United States
Local time: 20:41

mo vs. ma

Explanation:
in colloquial cantonese, neither "或" (mo1) nor "盾" (ma3) is used to form a question.

"盾" is the correct interjection to used for question.

but in cantonese, your question would be asked in numerous ways:
狟ね醚醚糶いゅ? (normal question)
狟ね醚醚糶いゅ琜? (interogating tone (suspicious), as in: Does he REALLY know how to write chinese)

there are many more interjections you can replace with to make the question having different tones, though "或" is not one of them.

The question can also be asked WITHOUT the use of intejection:
狟ね醚醚糶いゅ?

but this would sound matter-of-fact, and rather unfriendly, and business-like.

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Note added at 2003-05-28 08:17:10 (GMT)
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big-5 coding.

Selected response from:

Kvasir
Canada
Local time: 21:41

Grading comment

Thank you for a very interesting explanation of different ways to employ question tags in spoken and written Cantonese. Unfortunately, I still do not understand the meaning of 或 in this context. Please see previous question.
2 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +2

mo vs. ma

Kvasir

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

14 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

mo vs. ma

Kvasir
Canada
Local time: 21:41
Native speaker of:

Chinese
PRO pts in pair: 123

Grading comment

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