tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jun 28 07:08:46 1995

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Re: More on "Which?"



>Date: Sat, 24 Jun 1995 12:46:37 -0400
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: David E G Sturm <[email protected]>


>BTW, my impression is that >nuqDIch< would ask a different kind of 
>question, if you follow the old rule that >nuq< replaces what you'd 
>expect there.  I'd expect a number there, so to me

>nuqDIch?

>would ask me in what order something should be placed....  first, second, 
>third, etc.....  or which of a NUMBERED set of things I'd want...

>Do you want the nth one?

This is precisely why I find "*nuqDIch" strange, since "nuq" is not at all
numeric.  For "the whichth one", I'd expect "*'arDIch", which sounds much
more natural for that (I recall "*'arlogh" was proposed also for "how many
times?")

I hasten to point out that there is no more evidence for "*'arDIch" than
"*nuDIch" ('ar may be numeric in meaning, but it doesn't act like a
numeral in general), but to me "*'arDIch" se4ems better than "*nuqDIch".


~mark


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