Thursday, June 25, 2015

Interrogative Pronouns in Dairwueh and Bryatesle

Bryatesle



animate inanimate
nominative tëm sëm
accusative tna sëm
dative tënk sënk
ablative tnam snam

Bryatesle, despite lacking a genitive, has a possessive interrogative pronoun as well,
erten
which is positioned phrase-initially in the NP.

Dairwueh

Dairwueh has an odd detail going on, viz. it has an actual gender distinction going on in its interrogative pronouns


animatefeminineinanimateplur anim.plur. inan.
nomtumtitisveterasva
acctutatnusvetetarsva
dattuvuttirsinteritsavit
gentudinturasiŋaterinsavit
loc-instrtudertuvatsiŋaterarsiŋa

The possessive pronoun stems are
masc: atov-
fem:- ativ-
neuter: siŋa (uninflected for congruence)
plur anim: atev-
plur inan: siŋa

We can see certain similarities between these two sets, and in fact they are among the most clear cognate sets between Dairwueh and Bryatesle.


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