ordinal interrogative pronouns

[Martin Haspelmath]

Lezgian has an ordinal interrogative, shumud lahaj (derived from shumud
'how many' + lahaj 'ORD marker'), see my 1993 grammar of Lezgian, p.
193.

Perhaps we should not ask which languages HAVE an ordinal interrogative,
but which languages LACK an ordinal interrogative, although they have a
productive way of forming ordinals. I find it quite puzzling, I must
say, that English does not allow "*how manieth".

Martin

--
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Inselstr. 22
D-04103 Leipzig (Tel. (MPI) +49-341-9952 307, (priv.) +49-341-980 1616)