interrogative -indefinites

[lcumberl at indiana.edu]

While we're on the subject, I found and interesting contrast between Lakota and
Assiniboine with these words.  Lakota makes a realized/potential distinction,
thus:'taku/ta'kul, as in:

'taku icu he 'what did he take?' vs. ta'kul icukta he 'what will he take' 

Assiniboine doesn't have that distinction but makes a distinction between
non-specific-indefinite and specific-indefinite, thus: 'taku/ta'kux, as in

'taku eyaku he 'what did he take?'  vs. ta'kux 'eyaku he 'what, specifically,
did he take?' 

and 

'taku 'eyakukta he' what will he take' and ta'kux eyakukta he 'what,
specifically, will he take?'

There are also the pairs, tuwe/tuwex and tukte/tuktex, but not tona: *tonax

Linda

> On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, shokooh Ingham wrote:
> > One feature that I note is that (Dakota and Cree) both have, though not
> > to the same extent, the phenomenon of interrogative-indefinites.
> > Lakota has this to a very highly developed extent with its T-words taku
> > 'what, something', tuwe 'who, someone', tuktel 'where, somewhere', tohan
> > 'when, sometime' etc.  Cree has it but not to such a degree as Lakota
> > and they even begin with T- in some cases.  I was wondering whether the
> > interrogative-indefinites also ocur in other Siouan-Caddoan languages.
> > ... So first question is do other Siouan languages have T-words.
> > Second question is are they interrogatives, indefinites or
> > interrogative-indefinites?
> 
>