Datapoint Chinese Pidgin Russian/Indefinite pronouns

Words for 'somebody' and 'something' do not behave in the same manner. 'Somebody' is expressed by the construction with the word liudi 'person', while 'something' is often expressed by the reduplicated interrogative pronoun chiwo-chiwo, cho-cho 'what-what'; in some cases the reduplication is omited.

Values

Generic-noun-based indefinites Frequency: 50.0%

Example 65-41:
Давно один люди ходи.
Dawno adin liudi xodi.
Dawno
long.ago
adin
one
liudi
person
xodi.
go
Somebody passed here a long time ago.

Source: Arsen’ev 1949: 26

Confidence:
Very certain

Interrogative-based indefinites Frequency: 50.0%

Example 65-42:
Хэцзю фамили чиво-чиво купила.
Xetsʒu famili ʧiwo-ʧiwo kupila.
Xetsʒu
Xeczu
famili
kin
ʧiwo-ʧiwo
what-what
kupi-la.
buy-pfv
A person by the name Xeczu bought something.

Source: Perekhvalskaya 2008: 221

Confidence:
Very certain