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Lesson 6

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Saved by Rex May
on July 31, 2011 at 12:08:28 pm
 

Lesson Six - Asking 'what,' and Yes or No Questions.

 

There are three 'what' words in Ceqli.

 

ka - asks for an identification

 

ku - asks for a description

 

ki - asks which one of something already identified.

 

Basically, ka calls for an argument as an answer.

 

Da ka?  What is that?  Here you're expecting an answer that is a specific identification.

 

Da janzo.  or Da gosa xyen.

 

Ka sta dor?   What's/who's at the door?

 

(If you want to make it specifically 'Who,' you just say kajin.)

 

But, the person who answers might not be able to identify the knocker, so the answer might be a predicate.

 

Da poljin.  It's a policeman.

 

So you don't get exactly the answer you wanted, but you got all the info the answerer had.  You might continue.

 

Ki poljin?  Which policeman?  Answer:  Da to poljin hu pamo Janzo.  It's the policeman who is John's father.

 

Or you might ask:

 

Da ku sa poljin?   He's what kind of policeman?  Da ceqsa poljin.  He's a city policeman.

 

And if you're asking what something is, and don't expect an identification, but a description, or identification of a class of things, you ask:

 

Da ku?  What is that?  Da xyen.  It's a dog.

 

Yes or no questions.

 

Ceqli has a GW like Esperanto, that turns a statement into a question:

 

Da xyen. >  Xuke da xyen?   It's a dog.  Is it a dog?

 

It's actually a compound of xu and ke.  Ke, as you remember, turns a sentence into a unit that you can refer to, as in:

 

Go jan ke da xyen.  I know that it's a dog.

 

xu by itself turns the following word into a question, this way:

 

Go xnel sa pa kom tri si pom.  I quickly ate three apples.

 

Xuke zi xnel sa pa kom tri si pom?  Did you eat three apples?

 

But you can ask about specific words thus:

 

 Xu zi xnel sa pa kom tri si pom?   Was it you who ate three apples?

 

Zi xu xnel sa pa kom tri si pom?   Was it quickly that you ate three apples?

 

Zi xnel sa xu pa kom tri si pom?   Was it in the past that you ate three apples?

 

Zi xnel sa pa xu kom tri si pom?   Did you eat three apples? (as opposed to doing something else with them)

 

Zi xnel sa pa kom xu tri si pom?   Was it three apples that you ate?

 

Zi xnel sa pa kom tri si xu pom?  Was it three apples that you ate?

 

In some cases, it's possible to make a question in both ways with pretty much the same meaning:

 

Xuke zi ten fayrstaq?  Do you have a match? — Is it so that you have a match?

 

Zi ten xu fayrstaq?  Do you have a match? — Is a thing that you have a match?

(I know you have something — is it a match?)

 

Xuke zi pa xlensa kom?  Did you eat slowly — Is it so that you ate slowly?

 

Zi pa xu xlensa kom?   Did you eat slowly — You ate... Did you do so slowly?

(I know you ate — did you do it slowly?)

 

As you can see, the mechanism to 'questionize' individual words is more awkward in English, and sometimes you just emphasize the word.

 

Go on to Lesson 7

 

Return to Lesson 5.

 

Return to FrontPage.

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