Appendix A — Question Particle `po`
`po` is the **interrogative pro-form**. It stands in for an unknown participant or circumstance and, fused with postpositions, produces a full set of question words. `po` occupies whatever syntactic slot the unknown would occupy in a declarative clause — word order is identical to non-interrogative sentences.
Section 9
`po` is the **interrogative pro-form**. It stands in for an unknown participant or circumstance and, fused with postpositions, produces a full set of question words. `po` occupies whatever syntactic slot the unknown would occupy in a declarative clause — word order is identical to non-interrogative sentences.
### Overview `po` is the **interrogative pro-form**. It stands in for an unknown participant or circumstance and, fused with postpositions, produces a full set of question words. `po` occupies whatever syntactic slot the unknown would occupy in a declarative clause — word order is identical to non-interrogative sentences. **Disambiguation from Scale particle `po`:** see [§8](#8-disambiguation-master-reference). **Etymology:** Gr *pou* (where) / *pōs* (how), narrowed to a general interrogative pro-form. > **Rule:** `po`-questions do **not** take the yes/no marker `kas`. ### Base Form | Form | Gloss | Example | Translation | |------|------------|------------------|---------------------| | `po` | who / what | `po taku?` | Who is coming? | | | | `tu po daku-pa?` | What did you carry? | ### Fused Forms Fusion is simple concatenation; no phonological changes at the boundary. | Fused form | Postposition | Role | Example | Translation | |------------|--------------|---------------------------------|---------------------|-------------------------------| | `pono` | `no` | whose / about what | `pono makubi suru?` | Whose book is this? | | `pone` | `ne` | where (static, spatial) | `tu pone suru?` | Where are you? |