Datapoint Kriol/Interrogative pronouns

The relevant interrogatives in Kriol speakers are hu 'who’, wotaim 'when, what time’, weya 'where' and wijei 'where’ (directional); the same form wijei also means 'how' but is used alternately with hau. The directional 'where' form is not considered here, but considering one variant of 'how' leaves us with two compound expressions. The second part in both of them can be considered productive: -taim in wotaim recurrently forms temporal adverbials such as reintaim 'in the wet season', moning-taim 'in the morning', dina-taim 'at lunchtime'. The suffix -wei in wijei forms other adverbials of manner, e.g. blekbala-wei 'Aboriginal way (of doing/saying things), seim-wei 'same manner/way'.

Values

Two compound expressions

Example 25-81:
Hu dijan im kaminap? – Rong pleis im go jet gardiya!
Hu
who
dijan
prox:adj
im
3sg
kam-in-ap?
come-prog2-up
–
–
Rong
wrong
pleis
place
im
3sg
go
go
jet
dem
gardiya!
non.Aboriginal
Who's this coming? – He's going to the wrong place, the white person!
Example 25-82:
Wotaim yu gota go hom [...] kantri?
Wotaim
when
yu
2sg
gota
fut/oblig
go
go
hom
home
[...]
[...]
kantri?
country
When will you go home to [your] country?
Example 25-83:
We yu go, wijei jed pleis?
We
where
yu
3sg
go,
go
wij-ei
which-dir
jed
dem
pleis?
place
Where do you go, which way is that place?
Example 25-88:
Bikos wi bin kamap wotaim? – Maidi ten aklak iya, im maidi leven aklak.
Bikos
because
wi
1pl
bin
pst
kamap
come
wotaim?
when
–
–
Maidi
maybe
ten
ten
aklak
o'clock
iya,
here
im
3sg
maidi
maybe
leven
eleven
aklak.
o'clock
Because we arrived when? – Maybe [around] 10 o'clock here, it might be 11 o'clock.

Source: Angelo et al. 1998

Example 25-89:
Hau wi bin go? – Bas maidi.
Hau
how
wi
1pl.excl
bin
pst
go?
go
–
–
Bas
bus
maidi.
maybe
How did we go? – Maybe (by) bus.

Source: Angelo et al. 1998

Example 25-27:
Blanga hu jadan waya?
Blanga
dat/poss
hu
who
jadan
dist:adj
waya?
wire/spear
Whose is that fishing spear?

Source: Sandefur 1979: 98

Example 25-122:
Yu no wijei im go.
Yu
2sg
no
know
wij-ei
which-dir
im
3sg
go.
go
You know where he goes.
Example 25-123:
Burrum weya yundubala bin kaman?
Burrum
from
weya
where
yundubala
2du
bin
pst
kaman?
come
From where did you two come?

Source: Sandefur and Sandefur 1982: 9

Example 25-124:
Wijey im na?
Wijey
how
im
3sg
na?
now
How does it go now? (Context: speaker wondering how to continue her story).
Confidence:
Intermediate