Re: Set of basic adpositions

Mark Reed wrote:
>
>I went through a very similar process, but with cases instead of
>adpositions, in what became Okaikiar.  I started with one case to use
>for the answer to each of the basic journalism questions: who
>(nominative), what (accusative), why (dative), where (locative), when
>(temporal), how (instrumental).  It quickly ballooned to include
>whence (ablative), whither (allative), and temporal versions of both
>of those, while the "when" case was reduced to the temporal locative.
This isn't quite the same, but it's always struck me as curious:  In
Indonesian, the "where" question words are compounds of the basic preps.
ke/di/dari (to,at,from) + _mana_, which is also used for "which?"

dimana 'at where?' can also be written separately, di mana
kemana 'to where?'  ..........ditto..........
etc.

"Mana" as 'which' is always relativized IIRC--
mobil yang mana 'which car?' -- i.e. you can't say _mobil mana_ (I think)
mau yang mana? 'which (one) do you want?'

It also occurs in an idiom-- mana lagi (mana + again) '(is there) some/any
more?' usually with reference to food.

Many of the regional languages use the same procedure.

A few languages distinguish "when(past)" vs. "when(future)"