Question words

Question Words and Demonstratives
Jarhoni ki Naškušni Orpe

Contents:
    Question Words
        Question Pronouns
        Question Adverbs
    Non-Question Forms
        Relative Pronouns
        Conditional Adverbs
    Demonstratives
    Prefixed forms
    "Nu- ... E-" Pairs

Question Words
Jarhoni Orpe

Rhean question words come in two types: those that start with ku- and those that start with č-. I've divided these as "question pronouns" and "question adverbs", but that's not entirely accurate -- most of the pronoun kind function as adverbs. The difference is that the ku- words have matching relative pronouns ("that which..." "the one who..." "the way that..." etc) and also "this/that" forms, while the č- words have no such forms.

QUESTION PRONOUNS
Jarhoni Šidnamenzi

The ku- words ask "what place?" "what person" "what amount" etc. Some of these decline as nouns, and some don't. The declining ku- words are:

kui	what	kui has an irregular genitive kura "of/from what". Kud is almost never seen in the nominative, but instead as kudom "(at) where", kuda "from where", or kudu "to where". Kuč is more like "what direction" or "which way" and so it appears as kuča or kuču (but kučom is not unheard of).
kure	who
kud	where
kuč	(where)

żKuin gantat?
what-ACC stare-2SG
    What are you staring at?

żKure yai manclad torioš?
who my wallet(-ACC) take-3SG:PAST
    Who took my wallet?

żKudom ivriǩ?
where-INST live-2PL
    Where do you live?

żEya klamwa kra kuča kura?
that noise from where-GEN come-3SG
    Where is that noise coming from?

The ku- words that do not decline are:

kuya	which..., what...	kuya is used before nouns like an adjective. kunie and kubie are both adverbs.
kunie	how
kubie	how much

QUESTION ADVERBS
Jarhoni Nunhernoki

Even though some of the ku- words are grammatically adverbs, those are still counted with the pronouns. There are only three question adverbs:

čorod	when
čaze	why
ču	("whether"; forms a yes/no question)

żČorod sreru yurirti?
when bed-DAT go-2SG:FUT ?
    When are you going to bed?

żČaze fratas dlovu nelioš?
why your:brother monk-DAT become-3SG:PAST ?
    Why did your brother become a monk?

żČu kvicop ftukioš?
QU package arrive-3SG:PAST ?
    Did the package arrive?

Non-Question Forms
Mijarhoni Keir

All of the question words have non-question forms. The question pronouns have both relative and demonstrative forms, and the question adverbs become adverbs that form conditional clauses.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS
Üstornok-Šidnamenzi

Relative pronouns are found in phrases like "the one that..." or "the person who..." or "the place where...". In Rhean, these are formed by taking the ku- off the question form and replacing it with nu-. Like the ku- forms, some of these decline and some do not. These can be used as a modifier after a noun as in English:

otoǩ nure nap miǩinadom ravowa
man who by machinery-INST work-3SG
    a man who works with machinery

micen nudom kujor strečiom
shop where-INST girlfriend(-ACC) meet-1SG:PAST
    the shop where I met my girlfriend

afto nuin zorižait
car that-ACC steal-2SG:PAST
    the car that you stole

Or they can stand on their own:

nuin kina miriom
what-ACC yesterday see-1SG:PAST
what I saw yesterday

nudu praniiri yuramu
where-DAT every-day go-1PL
(the place) where we go every day

But these structures are found more often in written Rhean than in the spoken language. It is more common to use the verb suffix -na which turns the whole clause into a modifier.

nuin küpiomna üžovukro
that-ACC buy-1SG:PAST-REL canoe
    the canoe (that) I bought

so nurem Mezüzemir raizišna glernoki
with whom-INST president travel-3SG-REL bodyguards
    the bodyguards with whom the president travels
or
    the bodyguards the president travels with

This -na structure is explained further in the section on relative clauses.

CONDITIONAL ADVERBS
Macasmini Nunhernoki

Replacing the č- of the question adverbs with d- forms the conditional adverbs:

dorod	when...
daze	because
du	(if/when)*
(adis)	if*

* du was the original word for "if", but later came to be used for ambiguous if/when-type conditionals. Now it is used for "(the fact) that...", a usage which has nothing to do with conditional clauses. The word that replaced du for "if" is adis, a borrowing from Omurax.

dorod okiam
when wake-1SG
    when I wake up

daze yeleč čeraz amöz anaše
because before night rain exist:3SG:PAST
    because it rained the night before

adis adin pšoktom bile limu kurat...
if one step-INST even close-DAT come-2SG
    if you come even one step closer...

These conditional clauses usually come before the main clause in a sentence, and are closed with a particle ba:

Adis adin pšoktom bile limu kurat ba voptirmi že!
if one step-INST even close-DAT come-2SG COND shoot-1SG:FUT EMPH !
If you come even one step closer, I'll shoot!

These clauses can also come after the main verb. There are more details about this structure in the section on conditional clauses.

Demonstratives
Naškušni Orpe

The ku- words correspond to some demonstrative "this/that" forms. In Rhean, as in English, there are two levels: a "this" level and a "that" level.

Declinable:

kui	what?	tor	this	er	that
kure	who?	tore	this person	ere	that person
kud	where?	tod	here	ed	there
kuč	where?	toč	this way	eč	that way

Tore Kizi če.
this:person Kizi be:3SG
    This is Kizi.

żEr miriot anče?
that(-ACC) see-2SG:PAST exist-3SG:PAST
    Have you ever seen that before?

Toču kura! Todom surnyet!
this:way-DAT come-3SG ! here-INST hide:self-2SG:IMP
    (He) is coming this way! Hide here!

Indeclinable:

kuya	which, what ...?	toya	this/these ...	eya	that/those ...
kunie	how?	tonie	like this	enie	like that
kubie	how much?	tobie	this much	ebie	that much

Notice that toya and eya are adjectives and do not have separate plural forms:

toya tawok
this chicken
toya tawoki
these chickens

Prefixed forms
Yelkinitmabza Keir

The question words and their non-question forms can take the prefixes pai- "every", dir- "some/any" and mu- "no".

Paikudom šula anče!
everywhere-INST water exist:3SG
    There's water everywhere!

Dirkure cumzhernok fugir fogaiš.
someone fridge(-ACC) open leave-3SG:PAST
    Someone left the fridge open.

Mučorod fumam.
never smoke-1SG
    I never smoke.

żYarilyan dirkui anče?
cheaper something exist:3SG
    Do you have anything cheaper?

The non-question forms retain their relative or conditional function when prefixed this way:

Paidorod u eya güüjukhazu yuramu ba, skijie tafam.
every-when to that restaurant-DAT go-1PL COND , too:much-ADV eat-1SG
Every time we go to that restaurant, I eat too much.

Yai maruin wodišna dirnure šinir že.
my things-ACC touch-3SG-REL any-who die-3SG:FUT EMPH
Anyone who touches my stuff is going to die.

"Nu- ... E-" Pairs
Tümi e "Nu- ... E-"

A common device in Rhean is the "nu- ... e-" pair. In this construction, the e- word refers to the same thing that is described by the nu- word: "as X is, so Y is" or "what X does, so Y does".

Nudom sis, edom ǧuf.
where-INST smoke , there-INST fire
    Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Nuin kunim, er tafam
what-ACC like-1SG , that(-ACC) eat-1SG
    I eat what I like.

Nubie yašu neliš, usa tukuak ebie ardut neliš.
as-much-as cold-DAT become-3SG , morning rise-INF that-much difficult-DAT become-3SG
    The colder it gets, the harder it is to get up in the morning.

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