Previously, I learnt that “Ta” and “Cha nel” precede statements confirming or negating the statement. Asking questions of people is stupidly easy as it uses a single word, “vel” as a predicate. This works for both positive and negative questions.
Positive questions seem to just replace “ta” with “vel”.
mee | I | Vel mee gynsaghey? | Am I learning? | |
oo | thou | Vel oo gynsaghey? | Are you learning? | Used when speaking to a single person for politeness |
eh | he | Vel eh gynsaghey? | Is he learning? | |
ee | she | Vel ee gynsaghey? | Is she learning? | |
shin | we | Vel shin gynsaghey? | Are we learning? | |
shiu | you | Vel shiu gynsaghey? | Are you learning? | Used to address more than one person. |
ad | they | Vel ad gynsaghey? | Are they learning? |
Negative questions simple add “nagh”, or sometimes “ny”. I’m sticking to “nagh” for simplicity’s sake. The forms here feel contrived, but are basically “aren’t I?”, “aren’t you?”, etc.
nagh vel mee | Am I not? | Nagh vel mee gynsaghey? | Am I not learning? | |
nagh vel oo | Art thou not? | Nagh vel oo gynsaghey? | Aren’t you learning? | Used when speaking to a single person for politeness |
nagh vel eh | Is he not? | Nagh vel eh gynsaghey? | Is he not learning? | |
nagh vel ee | Is she not? | Nagh vel ee gynsaghey? | Is she not learning? | |
nagh vel shin | Are we not? | Nagh vel shin gynsaghey? | Aren’t we learning? | |
nagh vel shiu | Are you not? | Nagh vel shiu gynsaghey? | Aren’t you learning? | Used to address more than one person. |
nagh vel ad | Are they not? | Nagh vel ad gynsaghey? | Aren’t they learning? |
So to use one of those forms in an actual sentence, we could use the famous quote from the 2000 Gladiator film:
Am I not merciful?
might be:
Nagh vel mee myghin er?
Taking the meaning of “merciful” as “myghin” according to the online dictionary developed by J. F. Craine at http://www.mannin.info/Mannin/fockleyr/e2m.php.