Deictic Words

Lesson 9

Have you ever noticed that "that" and "what," "there" and "where," "then" and "when" are all only one letter off from each other? In Numo the deictic words and their corresponding question words follow a very familiar pattern:

• Dat - "That, This"           Wat - "What"        Ewat - "Something"

• Dac - "There"                 Wac - "Where"     Ewac - "Somewhere"

• Dan - "Then"                  Wan - "When"        Ewan - "Sometime"

• Dau - "That person"     Wau - "Who"          Ewau - "Someone"

• Dar - "Because"            War - "Why            Ewar - "For some reason"

• Dam - "In that way"      Wam - "How"         Ewam - "Somehow"

Most of these words are pronouns and thus behave identically to nouns, but they can be used as adjectives and adverbs as well.

• Dat es apel rod. - "That is a red apple."

• Apel dat rod. - "That apple is red."

When used as nouns, question words are NOT fronted, but rather the word order is the same as a statement. This is different from English and other languages you may be familiar with, but matches the grammar of Chinese and many other languages.

• Dat es wat? - "What is that?"

• Anu domes in dac. Tu domes in wac? - "I live there. Where do you live?

Wan, war, and wam are the three question words usually used as adverbs. In these cases, it's common to place them at the front of the sentence.

• Wan dukan kaies? - "When does the store open?"

• War tu feste dat? - "Why did you do that?"

• Wam ewau uses dat? - "How does someone use this?"

While dat, can mean both "this" and "that," dac and dan both have proximal versions you need to know:

• Iki - "Here"

• Alan - "Now"

You can also use iki and dac after dat to be specific about "this" and "that," but it's usually not necessary.

• Dat iki - "This here"

• Dat dac - "That there"

Many of these words are also used as conjunctions, but that will be covered in a later lesson.

Practice 9

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate deictic words.

• Wici ___ es ___? - "Where is this place?"

• ___ tu komeste al ___? - "How did you get here?"

• ___ awes ___ in ___. - "That person has something in there."

Vocabulary 9

Domes - Reside, Live

Kaies - Open, Start

Fes - Do

Uses - Use

Wici - Place