Datapoint Mauritian Creole/Interrogative pronouns

/ki/ means 'what' as well as 'who' but occurs in the latter role at least as often as /ki senla/ (< French qui + celle-la) and /ki dimun/ (< French qui + du monde) combined. Of the 'where' words, it is our impression that /kot/ is rather more frequent than /ki kote/ today. /kot/ is an abbreviation of /akot/ (still current but less frequent) from Fr. à cote de. /kote/ occurs only utterance finally, e.g. 'Where is his house' can be rendered as /ki kote so lakaz/, /kot so lakaz/ or /so lakaz kote/. /ki kote/ is often used to request more precise information, e.g.
kot li reste? 'where does she live?
- Por Lwi 'Port Louis'
ki kote? 'whereabouts?'
lari Madam 'rue Madame'.
Of the 'when' words, only kan (< French quand) can be used in all circumstances, /ki ler/ being limited to times of day (but being more frequent than French à quelle heure or English what time). For 'how' /ki manyer/ and /kuma/ (< French comment) occur with roughtly equal frequency.

Values

Three compound expressions

Example 55-33:
ki, ki senla, ki dimun
ki,
who
ki
which
senla,
who
ki
which
dimun
person
who, who, who
Example 55-34:
ki kote, kot, akot, (kote)
ki
which
kote,
side
kot,
where
akot,
where
(kote)
(where)
where
Example 55-35:
kaṅ zot ti revin Moris? (Zedi) — ki ler u ti sort lakaz? (Never par la)
kaṅ
when
zot
they
ti
pst
revin
come.back
Moris?
Mauritius
(Zedi)
(Thursday)
—
 
ki
what
ler
hour
u
2sg
ti
pst
sort
leave
lakaz?
house
(Never
(9.o'clock
par
by
la)
there)
When did they come back to Mauritius? (Thursday) — What time did you leave home? (About nine o'clock)
Example 55-36:
ki manyer so mama? kuma to ti kone kot mo reste?
ki
what
manyer
manner
so
3.poss
mama?
mother
kuma
how
to
2sg.fam
ti
pst
kone
know
kot
where
mo
1sg
reste?
live
How is his mother? How did you know where I live?
Confidence:
Intermediate