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Interrogative pronouns

The basic interrogative pronoun is:

• what / who: šæ

Both pronouns can be declined, with the nominal declension endings, according to their animacy class.isplay two different forms: one for animate entities (who?) and one for inanimate entities (what?)

šárem tôh áɣoɣíðə êma?
did you give bread to whom?

There are also other interrogative pronouns (and adverbs):

• šar: where (static location)
• šah: where (motion toward)
• šaš: where... from (motion form)
• šax: why (cause)
• šajǔ: when
• šamê: how much (inanimate)
• šámê: how much (animate)
• šamaɣ: how

There are also the following interrogative adjectives:

• šaɣə: which (inanimate)
• šáɣə: which (animate)
• šamêɣə: how much / many (inanimate)
• šámêɣə: how much / many (animate)

Such adjectives, like the demonstrative adjectives, tend to be placed before their nouns and they are never used with the prepositive articles. Moreover, they are never declined, except for some archaic fixed expressions.

šamêɣə çâjînə lîβəh?
how many trees do you see?

Within an interrogative clause, pronouns usually are usually moved at the beginning of the sentence but, in earlier texts they can be found in their syntactical position. This position is regarded as extremely marked in the modern language. In addition, like other parts of the sentences, they can be introduced by prepositions:

gú šáre sôwg?
whom are you talking about?