Chapter 51Interrogative and Indefinite Expressions
Question-word classes, their dialect forms and sentence patterns, and their relationship to indefinite expressions.
51.1 Question words belong to several classes
Ainu question words include nouns, adverbs, and adnominal modifiers. Nakagawa's Saru classification distinguishes their syntax as follows Nakagawa (2024: 411, table 77):
| Function | Saru form | Class in this account |
|---|---|---|
| What | hemanta, hnta, hinta | Noun |
| Who | hunna | Noun |
| Where | hunak, hinak | Noun, usable as a place expression |
| How | makanak, mak | Adverb |
| When | hempara | Adverb |
| How many | hempak | Adnominal |
| Which | inan, hinaan | Adnominal |
The label “question word” thus groups expressions by function. It does not assign them all the same part of speech or the same range of positions in a sentence. Refsing's Shizunai account likewise relates interrogative forms to nominal, place, and manner expressions Refsing (1986: 108–110, §12.3.6).
51.2 What and who questions
For Saru “What is it?”, Nakagawa gives hemanta an?, with existential an, as the ordinary construction. Full hemanta ne instead ordinarily belongs to “why” expressions in this account. The contracted hnta permits both hnta an? and hnta ne? for “What is it?” Nakagawa (2024: 412).
The unusual spelling hnta represents a syllabic n in Nakagawa's phonetic description. It is a documented contraction, distinct from the uncontracted noun use of hemanta for a strange being or monster. His narrative example uses that noun for an already-known creature Nakagawa (2024: 412, examples 859–860).
Saru “Who?” similarly commonly uses hunna an?. Other copular frames are documented, including this Chitose question:
The normal Saru question frame therefore does not establish a general ban on copular predicates containing a question word Nakagawa (2024: 413, 417).
51.3 Why and how
Saru has hemanta kusu, hemanta ne, and hemanta ne kusu for “why,” with contracted hnta variants. Nakagawa explicitly leaves the semantic difference among the three constructions unclear Nakagawa (2024: 412–413).
Makanak and Saru mak ask about manner. Nakagawa also uses mak e=iki when asking what someone is visibly doing: the Ainu construction asks how the person acts, where an English translation may use “what” Nakagawa (2024: 414, examples 870–872).
51.4 Place, quantity, and choice
Hunak combines directly with place particles: hunak ta “where,” hunak un “where to,” and hunak wa “where from.” For “of which place,” Saru and Chitose use ney un. Nakagawa distinguishes the latter's verb un “belong to” from the directional particle Nakagawa (2024: 413–414, 417–418).
Adnominal hempak normally precedes a noun, as in questions about a number of days. Related nominal forms include hempakpe “how many things” and hempakiw “how many people.” Inan and hinaan select among alternatives Nakagawa (2024: 414–415). Counting expressions are described in Chapter 55 (Numeral Syntax, Ordinals, and Quantity).
51.5 Dialect differences
For “what” and “who,” Saru, Chitose, and Mukawa use the h-initial forms in Nakagawa's comparison. Many other Hokkaido varieties use nep and nen. Other interrogatives cut across this division Nakagawa (2024: 415–419, table 78):
| Function | Selected regional forms |
|---|---|
| How | Horobetsu nekona / nekon; Shizunai, Tokachi, Bihoro, and Ishikari nekon. |
| Where to / from | Shizunai and Tokachi enon / onon; Bihoro nene / ney wa; Asahikawa ney ne / ney wa. |
| When | Tokachi and Bihoro nempara; the other varieties in the table have hempara. |
| How many | Tokachi and Bihoro nempak, also reported for Kushiro; other listed varieties hempak. |
| Which | Upper Saru commonly hinaan; Nibutani and downstream Saru inan; Shizunai and several eastern varieties inkian. |
Nakagawa reports Asahikawa nean “which” from the dialect dictionary but says that he has not seen an actual example Nakagawa (2024: 419). The broader Ishikari heading in the table includes this more specific locality.
51.6 Interrogative and indefinite uses
In Saru and Chitose, the usual question forms for “what,” “who,” and “where” contrast with indefinite nep, nen, and ney. The distinction does not extend uniformly to every semantic category, and h-initial forms can sometimes be indefinite too Nakagawa (2024: 419–421, table 79).
Indefinites frequently occur with ka(y), hene, or ne yakka. Their interpretation depends on the construction: Nakagawa's Chitose hempara ka means “sometime,” while ney ta hene in another example means “always” Nakagawa (2024: 420–421). A particle alone does not determine a single translation for every indefinite expression.
Horobetsu has both nep and hemanta among its indefinite forms for “what” Nakagawa (2024: 420).
51.7 Embedded questions and proposed histories
Question words also occur in embedded questions. Nakagawa quotes Kirikae's Tokachi sentence a=kor konnarpe ney ta hokke ru ne ya a=korampetek, “I did not know where my aunt was lying” Nakagawa (2024: 417, example 888, reporting Kirikae 1996: 146). Its clause ending shows that an embedded question need not use p/pe nominalization.
Several historical connections have been proposed. Nakagawa suggests ney derives from ne plus hi, and that analogy helped produce nempara. His discussion of enon/onon leaves part of their structure unexplained Nakagawa (2024: 417–419) ‹speculative›. Refsing raises possible relations among anaphoric, interrogative, and copular ne Refsing (1986: 110) ‹speculative›. These proposals are separate from the documented regional forms.