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on 4/1/02 6:46 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: > Rex May - Baloo wrote: >> >> on 4/1/02 12:23 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: > [...] >>> But I just realized that "kyu" is a *sentence-initial* question >>> particle. That's interesting. Are there any other languages that have this? >> Esperanto and Loglan, and I think Polish. Well, French does in effect with >> Est-ce que. >> >> I want kyu to be a tad more moveable than that, thus. >> >> Kuy zi ten hon. do you have a book. > > Not, "Is it you that has a book?"? Like: > > Kyu zi ten to hon, kyu da? Is it you that has the book, or is it her? That's a good point. No, I intended the initial Kyu to simply turn the statement into a question. Then I realized it could be used later in the sentence to questionize the object, or verb, or whatever. Now, in English, such things are simply done by stressing the word to be questioned. Do YOU have a book. Do you HAVE a book? Do you have a BOOK? Which is actually a better system. So how about do Kyu this way. It always appears at the beginning of sentences: Kyu zi ten hon. Except occasionally as an afterthought. Zi ten hon, kyu? And of course it can appear when other words are left out: Go bon, kyu zi? I'm fine ? and you? And shall we emphasize words as natural languages do, by stress indicated in writing by caps or italics, or shall we have a particle like Loglan does? > >> Zi ten hon, kyu? You have a book, do you? >> >> Zi ten kyu hon? Is it a book that you have? > > And maybe: > > Zi kyu ten hon, kyu bu ten? Is it that you *have* a book, or don't you? > > I'm assuming that "kyu" makes the following word the focus of a > question, except, obviously, when it's at the end of the sentence. > > Does Ceqli also use Mandarin-style choice-type questions? I'd say no, tho they'd easily be understood. -- >PLEASE NOTE MY NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: rmay@hidden.email > Rex F. May (Baloo) > Daily cartoon at: http://www.cnsnews.com/cartoon/baloo.asp > Buy my book at: http://www.kiva.net/~jonabook/gdummy.htm > Language site at: http://www.geocities.com/ceqli/Uploadexp.htm >Discuss my auxiliary language at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/txeqli/