哪 used as a sentence-final particle

[klortho]

I was looking in my dictionary, and it says that "哪" can be used as a sentence final particle, pronounced "na" (qingsheng), only after some other syllable that ends in "n". It gave the example, "谢谢您哪".

In a book I'm studying, it's used in "你们房间住几个人哪?", and does come after "ren". But, on another page, it's used in "除了钱少, 人家姑娘还嫌他个儿太矮哪!". It comes after "ai3" -- maybe in that sentence it should be "呢" instead.

A general question about this is -- does it have the same meaning as "呢", or is there any subtle difference?

[笨笨德]

i believe this usage of 哪 orignated from the ㄋ + 啊 blending into one sound...

i think its ok to stick it onto the end anywhere, where 啊 is appropriate... i do see it in comics all the time...

Im not sure on this though?

[semantic nuance]

Tonal auxiliaries are used to express different mood. They can mean same thing in different forms. affected by the previous syllable.

啊 is used after -ng, -i

呀 is used after -a,-e, -i, -o, -uo, -u.

哇 is used after -u, -ou, -ao.

哪 is used after -n

You're right about the usage of 呢 here, which is used to show contrast. Is it possible that 哪 used here is only a variation of pronunciation. As I know, the word 了 is sometimes pronunced as 啦...For example: 行了! 行了! can be pronounced as xing la xing la. Hope it helps.