1886 年出版的《汕頭話讀本》反映了潮州府城話的音系及語法特點，本文即探討 《汕頭話讀本》中兩類中性問句的句末標記的分布及兩類標記的可能競爭關係。「咩」 [me6] 作為中性問句的句末標記在文中大量出現，與現代潮州話的情況不一致，釐清 「咩」的來源問題，有助於加深對潮州話中性問句句末標記發展的認識。故本文詳細考 察《汕頭話讀本》中的「咩」與否定助動詞（作為中性問句句末標記）的分布情況，以 客觀的數據呈現兩者的頻率消長，探討「咩」和否定助動詞可能出現的兩種競爭場景， 指出「咩」有「自源型」和「外來型」兩種可能的來源。本文還比較閩南方言、粵語的 中性問句，得出兩個方言在中性問句演變過程中的類型特點。

Published in 1886, Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular《汕頭話讀本》is of great significance to the study of the phonology and grammar of the Chaozhou dialect at that time. One of the neutral question markers recorded in this handbook, mie咩, is no longer used in the Chaozhou dialect today. This paper explores the distributions of two types of neutral question markers found in the handbook, namely negative auxiliary verbs and mie, and the relationship between these two kinds of markers. The paper also makes a comparative study with the neutral questions of the Southern Min and Yue dialects.