What is the status of 什么来的 and 什么来着 in standard and colloquial Mandarin Chinese? When I first moved to the south of China, I was surprised to hear the phrase "什么来的" used to mean "what," as in 


  　这是什么来的？: "What is this?"


As far as I could tell, in many cases there was no question of motion or origin. (I.e., the question was not "where did this come from?"). The "来的" had been completely grammaticalized and did not carry its original meaning. At the time, I (probably wrongly) assumed that this was due to the influence of the Cantonese construction "係乜嘢嚟嘅" ("what is it?").

Fast forward several years, when I was speaking to a friend from the North who is studying to get his degree in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. He said that the phrase "什么来的" does not exist, and that the correct phrase is "什么来着." He even intimated that I may have been mishearing 来着 as 来的 all this time.

Nevertheless, a Google search gives ample evidence for both phrases, and even seems to indicate that 来的 is more prevalent!

So, my questions: (and here I'm looking especially for responses from native speakers)


Do you personally say "什么来的"? "什么来着"? Both? Neither?
Which of these phrases strikes you as more standard? Does either one evoke Chinese spoken in a particular region?
If you use both phrases (or have heard both phrases used), do you maintain a distinction in meaning between the two?
Are there analogous phrases in your native dialect? Do those phrases influence your usage in Mandarin?
I agree with your friend. I think the correct version is "什么来着". You can find the word"来着",but you can't find the word"来的“ in the dictionary.
I think it's popular in northern area(such as 北京，天津，河北，辽宁). I have heard of "什么来着" on the TV and I can understand it, though I have never used "什么来着", either in mandarin or in my dialect.
(Not applicable)
Of course the dialect will influce the way you speak mandarin Chinese, both in pronunciation and words. Examples from one of my roommates when I was in the university, he came from 浙江 province(in south China), and his mother tongue is a subclass of 吴 dialect.He likes to use words below and confused me at the first time when I met him, though he speaks in mandarin(not very standard).



  纸头 paper  In mandarin, we use 纸 or 纸张
  烧饭 to cook In mandarin, we use 做饭
  A structure "不要太[an adj]". He means "very, quite [adj]", but in mandarin, it means "don't be so [adj]".


At last, I want to make a clarification that, when I searched "什么来着" as keyword with Google, on the first page, I saw 10 results, each of which contains the complete "什么来着";however,when I searched "什么来的”, I saw 11 results on the first page, only 4 of which contains the complete "什么来的“. Also, you could see "什么来的" as in "他是冲什么来的？(what does he come for?)”,but that's another story.