Lesson 8 — Question words:  kune – suku – taka  

You've learned how to ask yes/no questions by adding the particle he after the verb: does she have a pet?
s–wil he ha s–qo? "does he/she have a pet?"
swil he ha sqo?
  –amn he ha p–t? "does he/she know your name?"
There's a set of words for asking more specific questions. You've seen one of them already:  suku  "what."
  kune "who"    
  suku "what"    
  taka "where"    

Shortened forms of the question words
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You've seen  suku  "what" in the context of sentences without verbs, where an expression such as  suku heki?  "what [is] that?" is a perfectly good sentence.
You also learned that  suku heki?  is routinely shortened to  suk eki?  in normal speech — unless you're making a point of speaking very precisely.
This is exactly the same as the difference between English "what is that?" and "what's that?" It's also exactly the same as with demonstrative words such as keni / heni "this" and kweki / heki "that," where you routinely run demonstratives together with the following ha, as in  ken a ii "this child."
Here are examples of all three of the question words in sentences without verbs, sentences in which the verb "to be" is implied but not stated. Notice the shortened forms:
kune heni? > kun eni? "who [is] this?"  
kune heki ha eneq? > kun ek a eneq? "who [is] that woman?"  
  suku heni? > suk eni? "what [is] this?"  
  taka ha p—–isy? > tak a pisy? "where [is] your husband?"  
  taka ha ii–wun? > tak a iiwun? "where [are] the kids?"  

Question words in regular sentences
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You can also use these words more as you would in English, with a verb spelled out.
who are you thinking about?
In the examples below,  ha  shows up here to introduce these verbs when they're not first in the sentence.  It sounds like the  ha  that means "the" but its function is to link the verb to the question word. Notice that  ha  here also has the effect of making the string of sounds easier to pronounce.
As usual, you run the question word together with the following  ha:
kune ha p–aqniwil? > kun a paqniwil? "who are you thinking about?" kun a paqniwil?
  kune ha s–esqen–wa? > kun a eqenewa? "who did he/she ask?  
  suku ha p–itaq? > suk a pitaq? "what do you hear?" what do you hear?
suk a pitaq?
      or "what are you listening to?"
  suku ha –it? > suk a it? "what does he/she find?"
  suku ha p–tamay–wa? > suk a ptamayawa? "what did you forget? where will the two of them go?
  suku ha p–uniyw? > suk ha puniyw? "what are you looking for?"
  taka ha no–s–i–nan? > tak a noinan? "where will the two of them go?"
  taka ha p–kuti–wa? > tak a pkutiwa? "where did you see it?" tak a noinan?

Question words in more complex sentences
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You can also use the question words in more complicated sentences that spell out noun subjects:   who is the woman listening to?
kune ha s–itaq ha eneq? >  "who is the woman listening to?" or "who does the woman hear?"  
  kun a sitaq a eneq?  
  suku ha s–kuti ha iii? >   "what does the boy see?"    
    suk a skuti ha iii?     who hears the bird?
or noun objects:    
  kune ha s–itaq ha wic? > "who hears the bird?" or "who's listening to the bird?"  
    kun a sitaq a wic?    
  taka ha s–it–wa heki? >   "where did he find that?"   where does the boy find the money?
    tak a itwa eki?    
or both:    
  taka ha s–it ha alum ha iii? >   "where does the boy find the money?"    
  tak a it a alum a iii?      where is the man taking the child?
  taka ha s–nukum ha iii ha hy? >   "where is the man taking the child?"  
  tak a nukum a iii a hy?    

A sentence with one of the question words could also include a modifier:
kune ha s–axutiwil hi nono? > "who talks a lot?" who talks a lot?
  kun a saxutiwil hi nono?
kun a saxutiwil hi nono?
  suku ha p–ip hi kp? >  
    suk a pip i kp? "what are you saying now?"  

You may have started wondering how you'd ever know that the question words are  kune, suku  and  taka  when they always seem to get shorted to  kun, suk and tak  in front of a following vowel.
There are at least two places where you'd use the full form of the question words.
In very careful speech you use the full forms  kune, suku  and  taka.
The question words — or at least  kune and  suku  — also show up after the verb under certain circumstances. They can function as nouns, as you'll see next.

The question words as nouns
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Two of the question words can also act as nouns:
kune    "somebody, anybody" — as well as "who?"    
  suku    "something, anything" — as well as "what?"    
You can tell the difference because both  kune  and  suku   show up with the article  ha  when they're functioning as nouns.
  k–itaq–wa ha kune "I heard someone"   he finds something
  ini––tiik ha kune   "he/she doesn't know anybody" it ha suku
  –it ha suku "he/she finds something"  
ini–s–wil ha kune> insil a kune "there's nobody," literally "there doesn't exist anyone"   there's nothing
  ini–s–wil ha suku >   insil a suku   "there's nothing," literally "there doesn't exist anything"  
     
insil a suku

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