Example 55-33

ki, ki senla, ki dimun
ki,
who
ki
which
senla,
who
ki
which
dimun
person
who, who, who
Comment:
/ki/ means 'what' as well as 'who' but occurs in the latter role at least as often as /ki senla/ (< Fr. qui + celle-la) and /ki dimun/ (< Fr. qui + du monde) combined. Of the 'where' words, /kot/ is much 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 more 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 (< Fr. 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/ (< Fr. comment) occur with roughly equal frequency.
Type:
constructed by linguist
Source:
Own knowledge