http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j174/debserendipity/altered%20pics/1161212110054.jpg

Actually, that caption should be 'Ni hao?'. Or else 'Ni hao ma' (the ma being a question-marker).

Pedantry brought to you courtesy of the Polyglotia Police. :-)

Actually, that caption should be 'Ni hao?'. Or else 'Ni hao ma' (the ma being a question-marker).

Pedantry brought to you courtesy of the Polyglotia Police. :-)

I spent five years working with Chinese speakers. The white dood who came to visit always used the ma. The native speakers seldom seemed to... I wonder if there is an air of familiarity at play with the coming and going of the question mark part.

Actually, that caption should be 'Ni hao?'. Or else 'Ni hao ma' (the ma being a question-marker).

Pedantry brought to you courtesy of the Polyglotia Police. :-)

I spent five years working with Chinese speakers. The white dood who came to visit always used the ma. The native speakers seldom seemed to... I wonder if there is an air of familiarity at play with the coming and going of the question mark part.

Good question. I haven't the faintest, and never noticed a pattern. The friend I often ate lunch with grew up in Sichuan, and she always put a western rising inflection on it, but had no pattern in which form she used. A male colleague, on the other hand, who grew up in either Beijing or Shanghai, I can't remember, and who still frequently made the ta error, always used the ma form with a flat inflection.

(That's an awfully cute kitten, even if it doesn't speak good Chinese)