M'ni - Rhetorical / Impolite question?

[roddy]

Over the last few months I've noticed sentences like these:

In a shop:

You ling qian m'ni? - have you got any change / anything smaller?

Between friends

Baichi m'ni - are you an idiot?

I'm curious about the little 'm'ni' at the end. I'm assuming it's a contraction of the 'ma' question participle and 'ni' (ie you)

It only seems to be used in a slightly impolite way - either between friends joking, or by shop assistants annoyed at being handed a 100Y note for a 2Y purchase.

Has anyone else noticed this, or is it new / confined to Beijing?

Roddy

PS Apologies for the lack of characters - my computer's tired.

[Guest Anonymous]

I've heard "m'ni" used in places outside of Beijing, including Taiwan. I believe I've also heard it on Taiwanese TV (lianxuju).

[Guest loopkill]

I think these sentences are very common and very popular in china; sometimes the purpose of the people put "m'ni" after the whole sentences is because they want to emphasize sth. It is not an impolite using.

[roddy]

So am I right in saying that this is not a full 吗你, but an contracted form where the vowel of the 吗 is not pronounced fully?

Roddy

[Guest samantha]

it is also a colloquial way of speaking. sometimes we say"b'ni"

for example:"hu shuo b'ni"(you are liar). this is not a full吗你or 吧你，you needn't say it clearly.

the youth at present alway say"你走先ni zou xian"(you leave first). it is just a popular oral chinese because we learned it from a popular movie by Zhou Xingchi.

[roddy]

And a bump up from the very depths of the forums for this one . . .

If I wanted to write this in characters, how could I do it?

Incidentally, i think I hear this a lot less now. Maybe I just stopped paying attention.

Roddy

[Quest]

So am I right in saying that this is not a full 吗你, but an contracted form where the vowel of the 吗 is not pronounced fully?

Yes, but you still write 吗你 regardless.

[BeijingSlacker]

I'm curious about the little 'm'ni' at the end. I'm assuming it's a contraction of the 'ma' question participle and 'ni' (ie you)

It only seems to be used in a slightly impolite way - either between friends joking, or by shop assistants annoyed at being handed a 100Y note for a 2Y purchase.

You are completele right.

Has anyone else noticed this, or is it new / confined to Beijing?

I don't think it's only used in Beijing

You ling qian m'ni? - have you got any change / anything smaller?

This can be quite RUDE

[roddy]

But how can I indicate that they said m'ni, and not ma ni?

Roddy

[Quest]

But how can I indicate that they said m'ni, and not ma ni?

mni = ma ni, just different speaking speed. You can give it an "allegro" mark if you want.

so, how can you indicate that your post was written in a British accent?

[Zingaro]

I'm not sure I understand the grammar construction here. (Of course, my grasp if Chinese grammar is only very basic..) I thought that "ma" was supposed to come at the end of an interrogatory. Why would "ni" (the sentence's object) come after the "question mark"?

Sentence order notwithstanding, I do understand the blending of the words verbally, if not in written form. It's pretty common to say "b'yao le" rather than "bu yao" or "bu yao le". Is this "m'ni" construction kind of like that, as a verbal contraction?

[roddy]

The word order is unusual, which is why I first noticed it.

[seagate]

IMHO, m'ni(吗你) is just a special example of a more general colloquial usage, that is, to put the subject to the end of the sentence in order to emphasize the rest part of the sentence that used to be behind the subject. So the subject is generally spoken weakly compared to the emphasized part.

Examples:

1. 啊你：In the morning, some people may say 'good morning' as '早啊你' instead of '你早啊'.

2. 吗你（我）：After lunch time when your friend sees you, s/he may say hello to you as 吃了吗你？ instead of '你吃了吗？'.

Another example of ‘吗你(我)’is （我）容易吗我？ to express a self-complaint.

3. 了你：干什么去了你？

Similarly, there are also '吧你','呢你' etc.

Another related example: 他怎么还没来，12点了已经！here 已经 is put to the end in order to emphasize ‘12点了’, ie to emphasize it has been very late.

I don't think this kind of usage necessarily implies 'impolite'. Actually, in some cases whether 'impolite' or not depends more on speaker's tone, rather than the grammer and words s/he uses.

[HashiriKata]

This can be quite RUDE

Unlikely! or rather, the opposite seems to be the case: note that this usage is confined only to NI, the person you're talking to. I believe that it is added to soften the question, to make it more friendly and less questioning.

People who are in China please observe those who use this structure when talking to you, you may notice that they're trying to be nice/ friendly. Just try again and let us know.

[BeijingSlacker]

Actually, in some cases whether 'impolite' or not depends more on speaker's tone, rather than the grammer and words s/he uses.

Yes, it always does. That's why I said "It CAN be rude"

Consider the following:

你明白嘛 vs 明白嘛你

你知道嘛 vs 知道嘛你

你见过她嘛 vs 见过她嘛你

你有女朋友嘛 vs 有女朋友嘛你

btw, 嘛你 used alone means " What the hell are you doing?"