[Sealang-l] query: "What is your name?"

[David Gil]

Dear Sealangers,

A linguistics query for those of you with a few moments to spare ...

How, in the languages you are familiar with, do you say "What is your 
name?".My interest is specifically in the choice of the interrogative 
("WH") word; I am less concerned with the other words, or the syntax of 
the clause as a whole.I distinguish between three major types of 
languages in accordance with the choice of interrogative word:

(1) WHAT languages (e.g. English, Tamil, Thai, Tagalog)

(2) WHO languages (e.g. Zulu, Amharic, Malay, Dani)

(3) OTHER languages, often but not always involving HOW (e.g. Wolof, 
Persian, Korean, Yucatec)

in addition, there are two minor types of languages:

(4) WHATorWHO languages, where either interrogative word is possible 
(e.g. Kikuyu, Bislama)

(5) WHAT=WHO languages, where the same interrogative word means both 
WHAT and WHO (e.g. Asheninca)

Note: A language is considered as a WHAT language even if it also has an 
alternative construction involving an interrogative word other than WHAT 
or WHO, e.g. Hebrew, which has "WHAT is your name?" and also "HOW are 
you called?".Analogously, a language is considered as a WHO language 
even if it also has an alternative construction involving an 
interrogative word other than WHAT or WHO.

Please provide a classification of your language or languages in 
accordance with the above types.If you like, you may also provide 
complete transliterated sentences with interlinear glosses; this would 
be welcome but is not necessary.

Many thanks,

David

-- 
David Gil

Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany

Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816