I've hear on many occasions that Chinese prolong the last word in a sentence, for example:
ni hao ma ?
becomes
ni hao maaaaa ?
(I'm not sure that's clear enough but can't think of a better way to describe)
What is the purpose of this? Does it have any cultural meaning? What does it convey?
Edit: Perhaps I misunderstood, maybe it's 你好吗啊? with the 啊 being longer than usual?
Ni hao ma~~~?
– Kabie Dec 14 '11 at 22:12ni hao maaaa
does not really ring a bell. On the contrary,ma
can be very short and shift the sentence intoni hao me ?
. FYI, am Northerner, it could be a different story from Southerner. :P – Flake Dec 14 '11 at 22:18