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Questions, Questions

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by OrganettoBoy (U3734614) on Thursday, 7th December 2006

  Why, in English, do many of the question words start with 'wh' (what, where, when, which, who - even how has an h and a w in it)?
  
  Did the words have a common root word? or did the Old Saxons like the alliteration?

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Stoggler (U1647829) on Thursday, 7th December 2006

  All the English interrogative question words are thought to have come from the same root in Proto-Indo-European, namely *qwo- which seems to have been used in different declined forms and these different forms came down to us through Proto-Germanic and into English.
  
  "who" came from Old English hwa which came from Proto-Germanic *khwas/*khwes/*khwo which in turn came from Proto-Indo-European *qwos/*qwes.
  
  "what" came from OE hwaet which came from PG *khwat which came from the PIE neuter singular of *qwos meaning who
  
  "why" came from OE instrumental case of hwaet
  
  "when" came from OE hwaenne/hwenne/hwonne which came from PG *khwa- which came from PIE *qwo.
  
  "where" came from OE hwaer from PG *khwar which came from PIE *qwo
  
  And "how" comes from the same root; it came from OE hu which came from PG *khwo which came from PIE *qwo-

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by Stoggler (U1647829) on Thursday, 7th December 2006

  Incidentally, the Old and Middle English speakers would have pronounced the "h" in the words hwa, hwaet, hwi etc, and it still is pronounced in some accents (Scots generally pronounce it) even though it has disappeared from RP.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by TonyG (U1830405) on Friday, 8th December 2006

  Hadn’t thought about it before, but there are similarities in other languages. Latin – qui, quis, quid, quae, etc. Modern German has "was, warum, wo," (all pronounced as a "v" sound).

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