Interrogative Indefinites in Siouan

[Bruce Ingham]

Dear Konstantin

|Thankyou for the suggestions.  Yes tuwe waN or tuwe waNji and
taku waN or takunl are useful ways around it.  I like the suggestion
of -sel.  I think that would work.  I am tempted to think that
intonantion might work.
For an open question a slow rising intonation can be used as in
ungnin kta hwo 'shall we go home'  (my own made up example.  I
hope it's correct), whereas for a T- question a higher endiong is
used as in tokhiya la? or tokhiya la hwo 'where are you going.  So
therefore if we use the slow rising intonantion for tokhiya la it
should mean 'are you going somewhere?'.  But I don't know for
sure.  Any other suggestions?

Bruce

PS

I think I'll try and find out what happens in Algonquian.  I know that
Cree has a word kikwaay which means 'what' and 'something'.
Perhaps they have the same problem.

Dr. Bruce Ingham
Reader in Arabic Linguistic Studies
SOAS