Interrogativity in Baskeet

The present article analyzes the grammatical means of encoding interrogativity in the Omotic language Baskeet. At first, an overview of interrogative marking on verbal and non-verbal predicates is given. Depending on the type of predicate, direct questions are marked by intonation only, or, additionally, by an interrogative morpheme -a, or special interrogative verb forms. Secondly, the forms and functions of the six simplex interrogative pronouns, i.e. PERSON, THING, TIME, QUANTITY, MANNER, PLACE, and SELECTION interrogatives, as well as pronouns derived from them, are discussed. Finally, the article considers the use of interrogatives in non-interrogative contexts. The analysis is primarily based on a corpus of recorded spontaneous speech events.