WHAT vs. WHO

[Claire Bowern]

Another example is Bardi (Nyulnyulan, NW Australia). Bardi has separate
words for "who" - anggaba and "what" anggi, but anggaba is a transparent
cleft construction and must be really recent. Other Nyulnyulan languages
have only yangg(i) for 'what/who/something/someone'. (Bardi lost initial
glides.) Even in Bardi the distinction is neutralised if the referent is
clear from context, e.g. you can say anggi aarli inamboona? (who fish
speared) or anggaba aarli inamboona with no large difference in meaning.
They also tend to be neutralised in double interrogatives. I haven't tried
it but I bet you could cleft "anggi" "what" and neutralise the
anggaba/anggi distinction further - e.g. something like arra ngangarrarda
"goorlil jina maandoo nganarlij" minjoogalj. Anggabaninga minarlij? (I
don't believe you said you ate turtle brains. WHAT did you eat?)

Claire

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Claire Bowern
Department of Linguistics
Harvard University
305 Boylston Hall
Cambridge, MA, 02138