Wh-questions

How are wh-questions formed in Medumba? For Yes/No questions please see that page.

Subject
In a wh-question where what serves as a subject, a clefted structure is used. The embedded clause "that saw the dog" is framed by the relativizer "zə" on the left and the right edge clause marker "ɔ" (or its allomorph "lɔ"), on the right.


 * 'It is who that (s/he) saw the dog?'

ELDER entry for this sentence

The being verb, 'bɒ' can be omitted in this structure.
 * 'It is who that (s/he) saw the dog?'

Note that attempting to use it as if it were the subject of a declarative sentence is ungrammatical. The following example illustrates this ungrammatical form.
 * 'Who saw the dog'

Object
When a wh-word acts as an object, it can be fronted or it can be left in situ. The first sentence below illustrates a fronted wh object. The next sentence illustrates an in situ object.
 * 'It is what that (you) ate? '
 * 'What did Ariane see?'

When, where, how
'Wh'-words of manner always remain in situ. In the following examples, the wh-word is always at the end of the utterance. It is possible that modifiers may be places after the wh-word. his is yet to be investigated. Note that in this case it is no known if the copula verb "bɒ" can be dropped. Note that attempting to front 'sɯ' like the English counterpart 'when' will result in an ungramatical sentence. It is not known if you can form a clefted sentence using 'sɯ'.
 * Where is the dog?
 * 'When did you sleep?'
 * 'When did you sleep?'

How questions are simple declarative sentence followed by how, 'ndʒɯkɯ'. It is not clear if there are other grammatical structures using 'ndʒɯkɯ'. We do know that the copula verb 'bo' can be omitted as in the greeting 'andʒɯkɯ', literally "how is it". A more straightforward example is given below. An interesting note, 'ndʒɯkɯ' seems to contain within it 'kɯ'. We do not have any evidence to analyze it as morphologically complex; however it may be an idea to keep in mind.
 * 'How do you eat?'

Why
Why, 'nuŋkɯ' patterns slightly differently than the other wh-words described thus far. Instead of requiring a clefted structure (such as who, 'kɯ' and what, 'wɯ'), 'nuŋkɯ' can appear either before or after a declarative which is followed by the right edge clause marker. In these cases there is no relative pronoun or subordinate clause.
 * 'Why did the woman go to the farm?'
 * 'Why did the woman go to the farm?'

Regardless of the position of 'nuŋkɯ', these types of questions are answered with a sentence of the following general form.
 * 'The woman went to the farm because...'

Multiple wh-questions
There seems to be a limited grammaticallity to multiple wh-questions. This is an area needing further work. Thus far the following has been identified as grammatical. Note that I have assumed the copula, "bo" is omitted here.
 * 'Which chicken did you see where?'
 * 'It is which chicken that you saw (it) where?'