User:Bukkia/sandboxVIII

Interrogative pronouns

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

• what: šwe
• who: šwor

Both pronouns can be declined, with the nominal declension endings, according to their animacy class.

šwoš kwov ših ačiǧid jẽr?
whom did you give water to?

However, the inanimate interrogative pronoun display an irregular nominative form, which is identical to the accusative form:

šwe nwožr?
what do you want?

There are also other interrogative pronouns (and adverbs):

• šweč: where (static location and motion toward)
• šwex: why (cause)
• šwer: when
• šwemĩr: how much
• šwemwẽ: how

There are also the following interrogative adjectives:

• šweɣur (šweg): which
• šwemĩɣur (šwemĩg): how much / many

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. Their syntactical position is regarded as extremely marked or archaic. In addition, like other parts of the sentences, they can be followed by postpositions:

šwoš no čwiwňid wẽr?
whom are you talking about?