Talk:tone sandhi

@Kc kennylau and @Tooironic Kenny, Carl, what's the deal with all these changes? Sorry, I couldn't reply on my talk page earlier. 吗 has original third tone (mǎ) and like 哪里, still works as if it's the third tone. Nominal tone: nǎli, actual tone: náli. , that's why the actual tones are "ní háo ma". Besides, it's "wó hén hǎo" - several third tone syllables in a row can be affected. @Wyang please join, if you can. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 01:12, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

嗎 is toneless when used as a particle. Hence reduction in 你好嗎:

ni3 hao3 ma > ni2 hao3 ma

我很好 has two possible patterns of reduction:

In careful speech:

wo3 + hen3 hao3 (+: morpheme boundary) > wo3 + hen2 hao3

In colloquial speech:

wo3 hen3 hao3 > wo2 hen2 hao3

Wyang (talk) 01:17, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

OK, thanks for clarifying. I see 吗 never affects previous syllables - I saw someone claiming that it does. Come to think of it, I never heard "ní háo ma" but I was affected by the explanation (I can't find it any more). --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 01:30, 17 June 2014 (UTC)