Classical Gluonic Topic

Questions

Keywords: interrogative, questions

Questions in Classical Gluonic are expressed using a modal coverb expressing the interrogative mood, K'Á (khaa). Like the modern language, in less formal writing the interrogative mood could be omitted from statements that were clearly questions to convey a sense of assuming the likely truth of the statement, often in polite contexts, but in the formal language it was always required. The equivalent of English's WH question words are constructed using the interrogative focus clitic, -MI ('mi), translating approximately as "what," often paired with a noun classifier.

It is not uncommon for an element marked with 'mi to be fronted, but by no means required or especially common.

Examples:

Assuming all of the actors have been previously mentioned:

Khaasu kwajle gorano veppehe?
INT-AGT.BLUE throw-PAT.RED child.BLUE-SG.ABS.BLUE ball.RED-SG.ABS.RED
"Did the child throw the ball?"

Khaasu kwajle gorano veppehe'mi?
INT-AGT.BLUE throw-PAT.RED child.BLUE-SG.ABS.BLUE ball.RED-SG.ABS.RED
"What ball did the child throw?"

Khaasu kwajle gorano beehe'mi?
INT-AGT.BLUE throw-PAT.RED child.BLUE-SG.ABS.BLUE THING.RED-SG.ABS.RED
"What did the child throw?"

Vocabulary

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