The Ngəmba interrogative verb ghě ‘to what?’

Abstract

While interrogative pronouns, adverbials, and determiners seem to constitute universal word categories (Ultan 1978), interrogative verbs are rather rare worldwide (Hagège 2008). One of the languages to attest this rare category is Ngəmba, a Ghomala’ variety of the Eastern Grassfields Bantu group in Cameroon. This article provides a first descriptive outline of the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of the Ngəmba interrogative verb ghě ‘do what?’. Based on comparative evidence from micro-variation across closely related neighbouring Ghomala’ varieties, it fleshes out a historical model that traces the Ngəmba interrogative verb back to a fusion of a prior verb meaning ‘do’ with an interrogative element.