[Multilingual Monday] ????
intonation indicates that you're asking a question.
While not mandatory, many Semitic languages employ a "question word" -- usually untranslatable -- when a word like "who," "what," etc., doesn't exist in a sentence. Amharic uses ወይ, wey, after a verb to specify that there is, in fact, a question being asked (seen in ጥሩ ነው ወይ, t'iru näw wey, "Is it good?"). Hebrew uses (albeit formally) האים, ha'im in a similar manner, and Arabic employs هل, hal, for yes/no questions.
Japanese and various forms of Chinese all use question particles at the end of their sentences. Japanese often uses か, ka (as in 分かるか？, Wakaru ka?, "Do you understand?"), but several others exist depending upon circumstance (including かい, kai, which sounds a bit quaint, and の,no, is fairly informal' ね, ne, is more of a "it is, isn't it?"). Mandarin uses several question markers as well including 嗎, ma (fairly standard yes/no questions), 呢 (ne, more for reciprocity), and 吧 (ba, like the Japanese "ne"). However, this hasn't always been the case, as Classical Chinese used endings like 乎 (hū) to indicate a question.
Finally, Cherokee. Cherokee's verbs can indicate many things, with many particles that connect with one another to give very specific meanings. The common interrogative is found in ᏍᎪ,sgo. For example, ᎦᏬᎯᎾ, gawohina, "He is speaking," gets the aforementioned suffix and becomes ᎦᏬᎯᎾᏍᎪ, gawohinasgo, "Is he speaking?" Ꮷ, tsu, can be used also as an interrogative, but its meaning is different, more of a "verification". ᎦᏬᎯᎾᏧ, gawohinatsu, is something like, "Well? Is he speaking?" This variant is asked to another who is looking into something or trying to find something out. Our example might be heard asked to someone who's coming back after seeing if a politician has started a speech, or something of that sort.
Do you have any fun stories about the interrogative? I'd love to hear them!
While not mandatory, many Semitic languages employ a "question word" -- usually untranslatable -- when a word like "who," "what," etc., doesn't exist in a sentence. Amharic uses ወይ, wey, after a verb to specify that there is, in fact, a question being asked (seen in ጥሩ ነው ወይ, t'iru näw wey, "Is it good?"). Hebrew uses (albeit formally) האים, ha'im in a similar manner, and Arabic employs هل, hal, for yes/no questions.
Japanese and various forms of Chinese all use question particles at the end of their sentences. Japanese often uses か, ka (as in 分かるか？, Wakaru ka?, "Do you understand?"), but several others exist depending upon circumstance (including かい, kai, which sounds a bit quaint, and の,no, is fairly informal' ね, ne, is more of a "it is, isn't it?"). Mandarin uses several question markers as well including 嗎, ma (fairly standard yes/no questions), 呢 (ne, more for reciprocity), and 吧 (ba, like the Japanese "ne"). However, this hasn't always been the case, as Classical Chinese used endings like 乎 (hū) to indicate a question.
Finally, Cherokee. Cherokee's verbs can indicate many things, with many particles that connect with one another to give very specific meanings. The common interrogative is found in ᏍᎪ,sgo. For example, ᎦᏬᎯᎾ, gawohina, "He is speaking," gets the aforementioned suffix and becomes ᎦᏬᎯᎾᏍᎪ, gawohinasgo, "Is he speaking?" Ꮷ, tsu, can be used also as an interrogative, but its meaning is different, more of a "verification". ᎦᏬᎯᎾᏧ, gawohinatsu, is something like, "Well? Is he speaking?" This variant is asked to another who is looking into something or trying to find something out. Our example might be heard asked to someone who's coming back after seeing if a politician has started a speech, or something of that sort.
Do you have any fun stories about the interrogative? I'd love to hear them!