The demonstratives in Ao
are formed by adding the demonstrative marker to the pronouns of
human masculine, human feminine and non-human gender. The
demonstrative markers are /ya/ and /ci/. The former refers to
persons or things which are very near to the participants during
the speech act or known to the listener even if he or she is not
present during the speech act. The latter refers to persons or
things that are far away. The former can be called the proximate
demonstrative and the latter remote demonstrative.
Proximate
Remote
pá-ya
‘this is he’
pá-ci
‘that is he’
he this
he that
lá-ya
‘this is she’
lá-ci
‘that is she’
she this
she that
ipá-ya
‘this is it’
ipá-ci
‘that is it’
it this
it that
panok-ya
‘they are
panok-ci
‘they are
they this
(hum)’
they that
(hum)’
item-ya
‘they are
item-ci
‘they are
they this
(non-hum)’
they that
(non-hum)’
The demonstrative
adjective is formed by adding the demonstrative marker after the
head noun. The pronoun preceding the head noun gives the
gender-number of the head noun. Thus each demonstrative
adjective phrase is marked for the gender-number of the head
noun.
pá nisó
ci
‘that person’
ipá áz
ya
‘this dog’
ipá kí ci
‘that house’
item kí ci
‘those houses’
item ló
ya
‘these stones’
The demonstrative
adverbs of place and time are as follows :
yai
‘here’
yáci
‘there’
tá
‘now’
itakci
itaci
‘then’
2.2.6.
Interrogative Pronouns :
The interrogative
pronouns found in Ao are :
sipa
‘who ?’
siyenok
‘who (pl.)?’
kci
‘what?’
kuta
‘how?’
kuma
kupa
‘which?’
ko~ku
‘where?’
kuta
‘when?’
kcipa
‘why?’
It is possible to
segment /ku/ in the above forms as the interrogative marker.
However, /k/
occurs with /kci/
‘what’ and /si/ with /sipa/ ‘who’.
2.2.6.1.
The Article :
There are two articles, /ci/ the definite article equivalent
to the English ‘the’ and /ká/ the indefinite article equivalent
to the English ‘a’ in Ao. The definite article is the same as
the remote demonstrative and the indefinite article is same
as the numeral one. They are free forms. They follow the noun
like the adjective. It is the last item in the surface order
of the noun phrase.
nok-ya
ci 
ya 
nok
