3.2 Questions

There are three ways of asking questions in Ayola, namely, using interrogative pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs; using the head word ye; and using the tail phrases ye ya and ye now. Unlike in English and in many other languages, the verb and the subject of an affirmative sentence in Ayola are not inverted to form a question.

3.2.1 Questions with Interrogative Pronouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs

The interrogative pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs in Ayola are elementary words. They are used either by themselves or as part of a sentence. Though some of the interrogative words appear to have roots which take different parts of speech endings, they are actually all elementary words which are indivisible and which take no other forms than those shown below.

Table 3.2.-1 Interrogative Pronouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs

Pronouns
hwando	what time?
hwervo	what place?
hwo	what?
hyo	who?
Adjectives
hwa	which?
hya	what kind of?
Adverbs
hwe	how (to what degree)?
hye	how ( in what manner)?
hwande	when?
hwerve	where?
hworde	how (by what method)?
hworfe	why?

Fromu hwa zamo vu instruktintats?	Since when (since what time) have you taught?
Alu hwa lwoko dyay ganuts?	Where (to what place) are they going?
Hwo estats vuza namo?	What is your name?
Hyo estats vuza favorita awtoro?	Who is your favorite author?
Hwa filmo vu vidits?	Which movie did you see?
Hya filmo estits dwa?	What kind of movie was it?
Hwe vyela estats dya?	How old is he?
Hye dya cantats la ario?	How did she sing the aria?
Hwande voy mariyuts?	When are you getting married?
Hwerve dya ganuts dumu dyaza someray vakaconajo?	Where is she going for her summer vacation?
Hworde vu reparits la komputero?	How did you fix the computer?
Hworfe moy no departats enu tidjurno?	Why don’t we leave today?

In the all of the above sentences, the interrogative words occur initially or following an initial preposition. In special cases where a question is posed by a speaker to emphasize a word or phrase which he/she did not understand or was surprised at in a previous statement by another speaker, the interrogative words may occur medially or terminally, substituting for the noun, adjective, or adverb in the same position it occurred in that previous statement. See the examples:

Using hwe with multa and mutca

A very common use of the interrogative adverb hwe is with the two quantifiers multa (many) and mutca (much) to form questions about countable and uncountable quantities, respectively.

Hwe multa membroy enats la komiteo?	How many members are on the committee?
Hwe mutca vodo vu povats bibare?	How much water can you drink?

Using hya and hye

Questions beginning with both the interrogative adjective hya and interrogative adverb hye have two kinds of replies: one using a specific word of the same part of speech (adjective for hya and adverb for hye) and the other using a word which is a subordinate category of the modified part of speech (noun for hya and adjective for hye).

Thus if the question is

Hya animalo estats tato?

What kind of animal is that?

Some possible answers use a specific modifying adjective:

Vilda animalo.	A wild animal.
Domestica animalo.	A domestic animal.
Licamika animalo.	A friendly animal.

Other possible answers use a noun which is a subordinate category of the noun animalo (animal):

Hundo.	A dog.
Katso.	A cat.
Kugaro.	A cougar.

In some cases the question may involve an abstract word such as koloro (color) or formo (shape). In these cases, the question uses the verb havare instead of estare because a property is something that an object has rather than is.

Hya koloro havats la floro?

What color is the flower?(Which color does the flower have?)

However, possible answers use the verb estare together with an adjective:

Dwa estats ruja.	It is red.
Dwa estats orandja.	It is orange.
Dwa estats flava.	It is yellow.
Dwa estats hela.	It is brightly colored.

3.2.2 Questions with the Head Word ye

The second way to form questions in Ayola is by placing the head word ye before a declarative sentence to form an interrogative one. The head word ye always begins a question that anticipates a yes/no answer.

3.2.3 Questions with Tail Phrases

Tail phrases can be used to convert a statement or request into a question by asking the speaker to commit to it. There are two tail phrases, namely, ye now and ye ya. ye now is used to convert an affirmative statement into an interrogative statement. ye ya converts a negative statement into an interrogative one.

Dyay syedits enu la parko, ye now? They sat in the park, didn’t they?

Voy no darfats bibare le vino, ye ya? You don’t drink wine, do you?

Dyay besantits, ye now? They were kissing, weren’t they?

If the declarative statement is negative, ye ya should be used; if the declarative statement is affirmative, ye now should be used.

3.2.4 Choice Questions

Often in natural languages we encounter choice questions, i.e. those which refer to a choice between several items. Some examples in English are as follows:

Do you want coffee or tea?

Do you like to study or to dance?

Is Bruce working in the house or in the garage?

Suppose that we attempted to translate these sentences into Ayola by using the interrogative word ye introduced in the Section 3.2.2.

*Ye vu vwelats kafo caw teho?

*Ye vu fondats studare caw dansare?

*Ye Brus pracantats enu la hawso caw enu la garadjo?

These sentences are starred because in Ayola they do not convey the intended meaning. A sentence beginning with ye in Ayola is always asking the listener to specify the truth or falsity of the embedded declarative sentence, i.e. to reply with an answer of ‘yes’ or ‘no’. A more exact translation of the first of the above Ayola sentences is the following:

Is it true that you want coffee or tea?

In most cases the correct answer to this question is ‘yes’ but the intention of the speaker of the original above English sentences is to elicit from the listener which of the choices is preferred or intended.

In Ayola, such choice questions are based on one the interrogative h- words, most commonly on one of the interrogative pronouns hwo (what/which) or hyo (who?). In English we sometimes phrase choice questions in the following way:

Which do you want, coffee or tea?

Which do you like, to study or to dance?

Where is Bruce working, in the house or in the garage?

However, English usage is not precise about how the connected phrase based on ‘or’ is connected to the rest of the sentence. In Ayola this connection must be made with the choice question preposition kyu, which is best translated as ‘of the choice of.’ Here are the Ayola versions of the original choice questions along with their short as well as longer and more precise English translations:

Kyu functions like any preposition and can be freely moved around within the sentence.

Instead of the interrogative pronouns hwo and hyo, the interrogative adjectives hwa (which?) and hya (what kind of?) may be used preceding a noun.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Translate the underlined words into Ayola or add the appropriate Ayola word.

What is your address? _______________

Who is your favorite singer? _______________

Where is she going for graduate studies? _______________

When are you going to your home country? _______________

Why don’t we all go there? _______________

Do you want to teach French? _______________

Do we sing this one or that one? _______________

Are you studying English or French? _______________

They worked in the same building, didn’t they? _______________

You don’t like mushrooms, do you? _______________

They were stealing, weren’t they? _______________

Exercise 2

Which Ayola h-word(s) would you ask to get the given answer?

1. I leave at ten o’clock.

2. I’m eating your ice cream.

3. I will take a train.

4. She lived in the suburbs.

5. He left because she wasn’t there.

6. We prefer to eat cooked fish.

7. They traveled to Morocco.

8. I found your watch.

9. You only like red flowers.

10. We played a game.

Exercise 3

Answer the questions in English. Use complete sentences.

1. When do you use ye now?

2. When do you use ye ya?

3. What kind of answer are you looking for when you ask a question using ye?

4. What kind of answer are you looking for when you ask a question using hwo … kyu … cay/caw?

Exercise 4

Identify each of the following questions as a yes/no question, a choice question, or one which could be interpreted either way and translate into Ayola.

1. Do you know Susan or Sandra?

2. Do you know how to get to Prague?

3. Does he work in Yokohama or in Nagasaki, or both?

4. Does it rain in Italy in November?

5. Are you coming with us?

6. Are you interested in martial arts or in rugby?

7. Is that your mother’s car?

8. Don’t you live with your brother?

9. Is this your first or second time in Africa?

10. Do you know how to speak Russian?

11. Do you want the one before or the one after?

12. Do you want the books that are on or off the table?

Exercise 5

You doubt everything that your friend says. Follow the model: Change an affirmative statement into a negative one and vice versa while translating into Ayola. Then, add one of the tail phrases ye ya or ye now.

1. I run ten miles per day.  Vu no kurats reytu deca mayloy dwi djurno, ye ya?

2. I like Indian music.

3. I don’t want to go to Japan.

4. I will eat all of this pie.

5. I have not paid the rent.

6. I have never gone to Disney World.

7. I like to smoke cigarettes.

8. I don’t know how to swim.

9. I have a tattoo.

10. I can’t remember where I was born.

Exercise 6

Reply to the questions of the speaker in the affirmative or negative using pronouns in place of nouns in order to avoid repetition.

1. Ye vu fondats lo pianay muziko?  Ya, myo fondats dwa.

2. Ye vu parlits enu Ayola atu vuza tresta djaroy?

3. Ye vu trovits vuza dotro?

4. Ye vu ganintats alu Europa?

5. Ye vu mandjits kunu vuza amikoy?

6. Ye dyay vidits la filmo?

7. Ye dya venuts alu moyza festo?

8. Ye voy vwelats lernare?

9. Ye la kindoy estats felitca?

10. Ye Katya estits trista?

11. Ye vu aportuts la moneo?

Exercise 7

Question each of the statements made by the speaker using interrogative pronouns or adverbs in place of the underlined words or phrases in order to avoid repetition.

1. I ran to Canada.  Vu kurits alu hwervo?

2. I like classical music.

3. I don’t want to see George.

4. I will eat all of this pizza.

5. I will go on September 18.

6. I have never gone to Disney World.

7. I can’t swim because I’m too weak.

8. I traveled to Japan by boat.

9. We saw the president.

10. I have a tattoo.

11. She lives in South America.