This is a great comment, it's something I have never really thought about, but now that you mention it... 、is "correct" Japanese and is used in formal or serio

This is a great comment, it's something I have never really thought about, but now that you mention it... 、is "correct" Japanese and is used in formal or serious communications. ？ isn't technically correct in Japanese but it's become pervasive in informal to semi-serious communications in the last 15-20 years, but particularly the last 10 years. It's comparable to the "passive aggressive full stop" in English, and the shift has happened over roughly the same time period too. These days, seeing someone write か。 instead of か？ makes me think they are either old or upset* *in anything other than quite formal keigo mails (JMO, I am mid 30s) > Interestingly, it has the effect on me of giving it vocal inflection which works quite well in the context of the example. It's interesting that you write that. I would say that is why people write that way: 終わったのかもしれませんよ？ 終わったのかもしれませんよ。 In [0] there is a chart that shows that Heisei-born are almost as likely to exclusively use ？ to indicate a high pitch at the end of a sentence as 40s+ are likely to exclusively use 。 [0]https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/research/kotoba/20170401_4.html https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/research/kotoba/20170401_4.html