Nankôre: Difference between revisions

The Irrealis ''-hi'' is suffixed to the copula.  It is obligatory for all Future tenses.  It also surfaces in imperatives, yes-no questions which are marked with the ''-yo'' marker cliticizing to the first or second word of a sentence, as in ''Cire-yo tā'itá'-hi?'' "Did he die?", and in WH-questions when the event actually happening has not yet been established as having occurred; for example, ''Enket cire tā'itá'?'', "Where did he die?" implies that the person's death is a fact, and it is only the location that is being inquired, versus ''Enket cire tā'itá'-hi?'' implies that not only is the location unknown, but the person's actual death happening still remains to be established.  An interesting structure, called the "double interrogative", is a combination of a WH-word followed by a word bearing the ''-yo'' clitic, which also turns the question into yes-no question: ''Enket cire-yo tā'itá'-hi?'', "Did he die, and if so, where?"  The ''-hi'' suffix is believed to be cognate with the Minhast Irrealis clitic ''=š''.