Alternative Questions

Alternative questions are semantically distinct from content questions and yes/no questions. They present the addressee with a choice , and there is a presupposition that exactly one of the alternatives is true. Syntactically, alternative questions contain a disjunction doodago or doodaii’ (both meaning ‘or’) and a yes/no question particle (-ísh or daats’í). Each of the conjoined constituents can be marked by -ísh (the yes/no question particle) or by daats’í:

(1)
’Atsį́’ísh ’éí doodaii’ łóó’ísh nínízin?
meat-Q or fish-Q 3-2-want.NI
Do you want meat or fish?
(2)
Nádí daats’í ’éí doodaii’ nideezhí daats’í bááh ’íidoolííł?
older.sister perhaps or younger.sister perhaps bread 3-make.F
Is your older sister or your younger sister going to make bread? / Maybe your older sister or your younger sister is going to make bread.

It is also grammatical to mark one alternative with -ísh and the other with daats’í:

(3)
Kin Łánídi daats’í ’éí doodago Bee’eldííldahsinildiísh naniná?
Flagstaff-at perhaps or Albuquerque-at-Q 2-go.around.CI
Are you at Flagstaff or at Albuquerque?
(4)
’Atsį́’ daats’í ’éí doodaii’ łóó’ísh nínízin?
meat perhaps or fish-Q 3-2-want.NI
Do you want meat or fish?