User:Bukkia/sandboxVIII

Interrogative pronouns

Basic interrogative pronouns display two different forms: one for animate entities (who?) and one for inanimate entities (what?).

• what: ʂä
• who: ʂaj

Both pronouns can be declined, listed here in their accusative singular forms, with the nominal declension endings, according to their animacy class.

çice ʂajŕä om qakohäker?
whom did you give water to?

However, while the animate class pronoun keeps its original meaning when declined, the inanimate class pronouns usually acquire new meanings, depending on the selected case:

• ʂäʈar: where (static location)
• ʂäŕä: where (motion toward)
• ʂäʂu: where... from (motion form)
• ʂäɣu: why (cause)

All forms can, nevertheless, keep their original meaning of “what”:

ʂäʂu loljyçika om qaqjyser?
what didn’t you see?

The various meanings of the declined forms can be usually inferred by the context of the sentence.

There are also other interrogative pronouns (and adverbs):

• ʂätujri: when
• ʂämine: how much (inanimate)
• ʂajmine: how much (animate)
• ʂämäw : how

There are also the following interrogative adjectives:

• ʂäko: which (inanimate)
• ʂajko: which (animate)
• ʂämineko: how much / many (inanimate)
• ʂajmineko: how much / many (animate)

Within an interrogative clause, pronouns usually are usually placed in their syntactical position, according to their role, but in the later period they increasingly tend to be moved at the beginning of the sentence. In addition, like other parts of the sentences, can be introduced by prepositions:

wuj ʂajŕä om ʈäwehuw?
whom are you talking about?