Chapter 20: Asking Questions

Starting point#

Ana arrives at the house of ma Kawoq and te Ixk'at in Tecpán; a Tz'ikin has told his parents about Ana but they have not met her. Ana calls out at the doorway, and te Ixk'at answers.

ANA: ¿At k'o, nan?
Are you in, ma'am? (the visitor's call at the door)

IXK'AT: Ja', in k'o. ¿Xape?
Yes, I'm here. You've come? (the host's question back to the visitor)

ANA: Ja', xipe.
Yes, I've come.

IXK'AT: ¿Achike ab'i' rat?
What is your name?

ANA: Ana nub'i'. In rachib'il ri a Tz'ikin.
My name is Ana. I'm a friend of Tz'ikin.

IXK'AT: ¡Ütz! ¿Aj akuchi' rat?
Good! Where are you from?

ANA: Xipe Pa Jotöl. ¿Akuchi' k'o wi ri a Tz'ikin wakami?
I came from the States. Where is Tz'ikin now?

IXK'AT: K'o pa Chiq'a'l, nsamäj pa tijob'äl. ¿Jampe xatoqa pa Iximche'?
He's in Comalapa, he's working at the school. When did you arrive in Tecpán?

ANA: Iwir toq'a'. ¿Achike ramaj ntzolin pe rija'?
Last night. What time does he come back?

IXK'AT: Pa waqi' ramaj. ¿La yatikir yawär wawe'?
At six o'clock. Can you sleep here?

ANA: Ja', matyöx. ¿Achike roma nab'ij ke ri'?
Yes, thank you. Why do you say that?

IXK'AT: Roma xoq'a' yan, man ütz ta yab'e ayon. ¿Achoj ik'in xape wi?
Because it is already night, it isn't good for you to go by yourself. Who did you come with?

ANA: Nuyon xipe.
I came alone.

IXK'AT: ¿Ayon? ¿La man xaxib'ij ta awi'?
By yourself? Weren't you afraid?

ANA: Manäq. Man xinxib'ij ta wi'.
No. I wasn't afraid.

Every question in this dialogue is built with one of the tools below: the particle la, the question words achike, akuchi', jampe, achike ramaj, achike roma, the possessed-question word achoj ik'in, or plain intonation (¿At k'o?, ¿Xape?, ¿Ayon?).

How it works#

Two kinds of questions#

Grammarians divide questions into two types, and the division holds for Kaqchikel exactly as for English.

1. Yes/no questions expect "yes" or "no" (or a hedge) as their answer: "Are you coming?"
2. Question-word questions (also called wh-questions, after English who, what, where) ask for a piece of information: "Where are you going?"

English marks the first kind by inverting an auxiliary and the subject ("Are you ...", "Did he ...") and the second kind by both a question word and inversion. Kaqchikel does neither. The verb complex stays exactly as it would be in a statement. A yes/no question gets either a particle at the front or a question intonation; a question-word question gets the question word at the front and nothing else.

Yes/no questions with la#

The particle la stands at the very beginning of a yes/no question. Everything after it is a normal statement in normal order.

The most famous la question in the language is the greeting ¿La ütz awäch? "How are you?", which is literally "Is your face good?", a yes/no question.

Kaqchikel, like Spanish, writes an inverted question mark at the start of a question. It is a convention of writing, nothing more; but it is a helpful one, because with la questions the written sentence begins exactly like the statement.

Intonation. With la present, the rising "question tune" is optional; many speakers pronounce a la question with the same falling contour as a statement. If you leave la out, intonation has to do the work: the voice rises on the last syllable, or rises and then falls abruptly. Some very short questions are nearly always asked without la, simply by tune:

Negative yes/no questions use the man ... ta frame from Chapter 19 after la:

Answering yes/no questions#

The one-word answers are ja' "yes" and manäq "no" (short form näq). Kaqchikel speakers usually add an echo: they repeat the predicate in the appropriate person. This is the single most useful habit you can acquire, because the echo removes any doubt about what "yes" and "no" refer to, especially after a negative question.

Observe that the echo changes person: yab'e "you go" is answered by yib'e "I go", at k'o by in k'o. Learners often repeat the verb unchanged; make the switch automatic.

Other useful short answers: ütz or ütz k'a "fine, all right" (agreement to a proposal), qitzij "true, really", rik'in jub'a' "maybe", man wetaman ta "I don't know".

Tag questions: peja'? and qupe?#

To turn a statement into a request for confirmation ("..., right?", "..., isn't it?"), add the tag ¿peja'? (also spelled peja) at the end. ¿Qupe? is a regional equivalent with the same meaning. The statement itself is not changed.

English builds a matching negative tag for every sentence ("isn't it?", "didn't you?", "won't they?"). Kaqchikel does not: peja' and qupe never change form, and our sources attest them only after affirmative statements. To check a negative guess, do not reach for a special negative tag; ask a negative yes/no question with la and the frame instead: ¿La man yab'e ta? "Aren't you going?"

Question-word questions: the basic set#

Here are the question words. They go first in the sentence; the rest of the sentence follows in normal order.

Question-word questions have the same falling intonation as statements. Do not let English make you raise your voice at the end of ¿Akuchi' xab'e wi?; Kaqchikel falls.

achike: who, what, which#

Achike covers "who", "what" and, before a noun, "which". The verb tells you whether a person or a thing is meant; context does the rest.

Before a noun, achike asks "which":

To offer choices with "which", Kaqchikel lists the options after the question, each introduced by wi "or", or with no linker at all. The pointing pronouns rere' "this one" and lala' "that one" (Chapter 6) are handy here:

Just as often the choice is simply offered as two small yes/no questions in a row, each with its own la: ¿La nawajo' kape? ¿La nawajo' ya'? "Do you want coffee? Do you want water?" The sequel grammar notes that in questions this doubling is actually the more usual strategy (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 287).

The trap: asking who did something to something#

Here is the one place where a question changes the shape of the verb. When the thing you are questioning is the subject of a transitive verb (the doer), the verb must be put into the antipassive (Chapter 17): the object loses its place in the verb, the stem takes -on (root verbs) or -n (derived verbs), and the verb behaves as an intransitive. When you question the object, nothing changes. Compare:

Here is the contrast taken apart. First the object question, an ordinary transitive verb:

achike x-Ø-u-löq' ri xta Ixchel
what COMPL-3sB-3sA-buy the Ms Ixchel
"what did Ixchel buy?"

Then the doer question, with the antipassive suffix and no Set A prefix at all:

achike x-Ø-loq'-on la chakäch la'
who COMPL-3sB-buy-AP that basket that
"who bought that basket?"

Why does the language insist on this? In a statement, Set A marks the doer and Set B the object, so both are identified. But Kaqchikel treats the single argument of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb as the "plain" argument (Set B), and only that plain argument can be pulled out to the front for questioning or for relative clauses. To question the doer, the doer must first be made the plain argument, which is precisely what the antipassive does. The verb still agrees with the doer in Set B (here zero, third person singular) and the old object appears as a bare noun phrase after the verb.

The same applies to the "it was X who" focus pattern with ja ri': Ja ri ma Kawoq xtikon ri ixim. "It was Kawoq who planted the corn."

This rule is holding firm even as the language changes. You will hear plain statements with the doer in front of an ordinary transitive verb (Ri ma Kawoq xutik ri ixim), an order that once demanded the antipassive and no longer does; but when the doer is questioned, the antipassive remains obligatory. The sequel grammar makes the point twice: fronting an agent in a statement "no longer obligatorily triggers" the antipassive, "questioning the agent does" (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, pp. 227, 288-289).

akuchi' "where" and the trace particle wi#

"Where" questions in Kaqchikel almost always carry the particle wi right after the verb. Think of wi as a marker that says "a place phrase has been taken out of its usual slot after the verb and moved to the front"; the linguists' name for it is a "trace" particle. The location question word at the front is that moved phrase, so wi appears after the verb.

akuchi' x-at-b'e wi
where COMPL-2sB-go TRACE
"where did you go?"

Notice where wi sits: immediately after the verb word, before directionals (wi kan) and before any noun phrase. With simple intransitive verbs of motion and location (-b'e, -pe, -k'oje', -el, the predicate k'o), wi is required. With transitive verbs that have a place complement (-ya' kan "leave", -löq' "buy at", -il "find at"), wi is usual, and you are safe always including it.

The answer to an akuchi' question places the location phrase after the verb and needs no wi, unless the answer also fronts the place for emphasis:

"Where from" is asked with aj "person of" plus akuchi':

jampe and jaru: when, how much, how many#

Jampe (with variants janpe, janipe') originally asked "when"; jaru (or jaru pe) asked "how much, how many". In many towns today jampe has taken over both meanings, so you will hear jampe for prices as often as jaru. Use either for quantity; for "when", jampe is the safe choice.

Note ajuna', "your years": a Set A (ergative) prefix on juna' "year". Age is asked and told as possessed years: Juwinäq juna' or k'o juwinäq nujuna' "I am twenty."

Why and how: achike roma, achike rub'eyal#

"Why" and "how" are phrases built on achike plus a possessed noun. Roma is the relational noun -oma "because of, cause" with third-person r-; so achike roma is "what (is) its cause". Rub'eyal is "its way, its manner" (from b'ey "road, way"); so achike rub'eyal is "what (is) its manner".

The answer to achike roma begins with roma "because":

Two further notes. The Spanish loan modo is often heard in ¿achike modo? "how, in what way?" among speakers who have not set out to avoid loanwords; you need not use it, but recognize it. And language activists have promoted atuxma as a native "why"; it is understood in some communities but is not the everyday form.

What time, what day, what year#

To ask about a specific unit of time, put the noun after achike:

Answers use pa with clock time (pa waqi' ramaj "at six") and the day words of Chapter 9.

Whose, with whom, because of whom: achoj + relational noun#

Kaqchikel has a special interrogative prefix, achoj (also written and pronounced achoq), which attaches to the bare stem of a relational noun (Chapter 21) in place of a Set A prefix. The result is a single question word meaning "whose", "with whom", "for whom", "because of whom/what", "inside what", and so on. The relational noun decides the meaning. Here is one taken apart:

achoj-ik'in x-at-b'e wi
whose-with COMPL-2sB-go TRACE
"with whom did you go?"

The building blocks are the relational nouns you met in Chapter 21: -ichin "belong to", -ik'in "with", -oma "because of", -pam "inside". The full set:

Two things to watch. First, the trace wi appears again, because "with whom", "inside what" and "to whom" are place-like or direction-like complements that have been moved to the front. Second, some towns use the third-person possessed form instead of the bare stem: ¿Achoj richin lala'? "Whose is that?", ¿Achoq roma xatzolin? "Why did you go back?" Both patterns mean the same; use whichever you hear around you.

Spelling varies: achojichin, achoj ichin, achoqichin, achoq'ichin all occur. This book writes achoj or achoq as a separate word before the stem.

Putting a question inside a sentence#

A question can be reported or embedded ("I don't know where he went"). Kaqchikel handles this in two ways.

(a) Question-word questions keep their question word and simply follow the main verb; the trace wi stays where it was:

(b) Yes/no questions are introduced by wi "whether". This is the same word as wi "if" (Chapter 22). It is the normal linker after negated verbs of knowing, saying and asking, where English uses "whether" or "that". The embedded verb may carry an extra irrealis ta when the outcome is in doubt:

"Whether or not" is wi ..., wi man ... ta:

When the verb of saying or knowing is not negated and the embedded content is a settled fact, the linker is chi "that": Wetaman chi xapon. "I know that it arrived." This pairing (man ... ta wi versus chi) is worth memorizing as a unit. What decides between them is really whether the content is open or settled: if the embedded piece is still a genuine yes/no alternative, wi appears even after an affirmative verb, as in nik'atzin ninwetamaj wi ... "I need to know whether ..." (so attested in the sequel, draft, p. 107). Chi is for what is asserted; wi is for what is still in question.

Common survival questions#

The ¿La yab'iyaj? exchange deserves a note. It is asked of anyone met away from home or work, and the expected answer is ja', even when the person has obviously come on a specific errand. It is a greeting, not a request for information. Likewise the door exchange ¿At k'o? / Ja', in k'o. ¿Xape? / Ja', xipe. is a fixed ritual: the visitor asks whether the host is in, the host asks whether the visitor has come, and each answers yes.

Reading: Ri Ana pa rochoch ri ma Kawoq#

A short text that retells the visit and shows embedded questions in use.

Ri Ana xapon pa rochoch ri ma Kawoq iwir toq'a'. Ri te Ixk'at xuk'utuj chre achike rub'i', aj akuchi', chuqa' achoj ik'in xpe wi. Ri Ana xub'ij chi Ana rub'i', chi aj Pa Jotöl, chuqa' chi nuyon xpe. Ri te Ixk'at man retaman ta wi xtipe ri a Tz'ikin wakami, po retaman chi nsamäj pa Chiq'a'l. Ri Ana xuk'utuj achike ramaj ntzolin pe. "Pa waqi' ramaj," xub'ij ri te Ixk'at. K'a ri' xuk'utuj chre ri Ana: "¿La yatikir yawär wawe'?" "Ja', yitikir. Matyöx," xub'ij ri Ana.

Ana arrived at Kawoq's house last night. Ixk'at asked her what her name was, where she was from, and with whom she had come. Ana said that her name was Ana, that she was from the States, and that she had come alone. Ixk'at does not know whether Tz'ikin will come today, but she knows that he works in Comalapa. Ana asked what time he comes back. "At six o'clock," Ixk'at said. Then she asked Ana: "Can you sleep here?" "Yes, I can. Thank you," Ana said.

Patterns at a glance#

Yes/no questions

Answers

Question words

Embedded questions

Vocabulary#

Usage and dialect notes#

• Do not invert. The subject never moves, and no helper word is added. ¿La xb'e ri a Tojil? is "Did Tojil go?"; the order is the same as Xb'e ri a Tojil.
• Falling tune on question-word questions. English speakers tend to raise the pitch at the end of every question. Keep the rise for yes/no questions without la; let achike and akuchi' questions fall.
• jampe vs jaru. Both are in use for "how much"; jampe for "when" is universal. If you hear janipe' or jaru pe, they are the same words with an extra syllable. The takeover is real and advancing: the sequel to our main source, twenty years newer, asks every "how much / how many" question with jampe (¿Jampe pwäq ...? "how much money", Jampe winaqi' "how many people") and never uses jaru at all. Learn to recognize jaru; expect to hear jampe.
• achoj ~ achoq. These are the same prefix with a regional difference in the final consonant; the glossary of our main source gives both. In some towns you will also hear the possessed form after it (achoj richin).
• Regional question words. Atux "what" is heard in some communities beside achike; axti' "why, what for" is characteristic of San Martín Jilotepeque; atuxma "why" is a revived form promoted by language activists. Understand them; use achike and achike roma yourself.
• Greeting questions are not information questions. ¿La ütz awäch?, ¿La yab'iyaj?, ¿At k'o?, ¿Xape? expect their ritual answers. Answering ¿La yab'iyaj? with a long explanation of your errand sounds odd; say ja' and then state your business.
• Questions are an imposition; soften them. Kaqchikel etiquette treats a question as a demand on another person's free will, so real information questions are readily prefaced with an apology or a courtesy: Takuyu' numak "forgive my fault" (Chapter 2) or, most commonly, Tab'ana' utzil, tab'ij chwe ... "Please tell me ..." before the question itself (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, pp. 296-297). Greeting questions need no softener; a request for someone's time, name of a place, or a price often gets one.
• Keep the trace wi, even if you hear it dropped. The sequel grammar observes that some younger speakers leave wi out of "where" questions, likely because Spanish has nothing like it, but states plainly that all locative questions should have it (draft, p. 284). Supplying it will never be wrong.

Pitfalls for English speakers

1. Leaving out wi in "where" questions: ¿Akuchi' xab'e? marks you as a beginner at once. Say ¿Akuchi' xab'e wi? It also appears with "with whom", "to whom", "inside what" questions, because these too are displaced complements.
2. Asking "who bought it?" with the transitive verb: ¿Achike xulöq' ...? means "what did he buy?" Switch to the antipassive: ¿Achike xloq'on ...? With -b'än "do, make" the antipassive is -b'anon: ¿Achike xb'anon? "Who did it?"
3. Echoing the verb without changing the person: ¿La yab'e? is answered Ja', yib'e, not Ja', yab'e.
4. Answering a negative question with a bare ja' or manäq: after ¿La man yab'e ta? say Yib'e or Man yib'e ta, so that nobody has to guess what "yes" refers to.
5. Using chi "that" after a negated verb of knowing: "I don't know whether he came" is man wetaman ta wi xpe; chi belongs after the affirmative wetaman chi ....
6. Rising intonation on achike and akuchi' questions: they fall, like statements.

Looking back and ahead#

This chapter drew on the negation frame of Chapter 19 for negative questions and answers, on the antipassive of Chapter 17 for "who did it?", and on the trace particle wi first met in Chapter 5. Chapter 21 explains the relational nouns that achoj attaches to (-ichin, -ik'in, -oma, -e, -pam and the rest), and Chapter 22 returns to wi and chi as clause linkers and to the discourse particles that soften and shape questions in real conversation.