what, what kind of · a certain, some; some kind of · what kind of; used for emphasis in a rhetorical question.
eş: 어떤, 무엇
köken: First attested as Late Old Korean 沒審 in the Jīlín lèishì (鷄林類事 / 계림유사), 1103. In the hangul script, first attested in the Gwonyyeom yorok (勸念要錄 / 권념요록), 1637, as Early Modern Korean 므슨 (Yale: musun), probably a hypercorrection of Middle Korean 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) that was motivated by the adnominal suffix -은 (-eun) common in determiners. Variants of 므슴〮 (Yale: mùsúm) with final ㅁ (m), e.g. 무슴…
introduces a question about a trait; what, what... like · introduces a question asking which something is of a series; what · introduces a relative clause where the relative clause shares the same traits and qualities as the previously mentioned noun; that
eş: który
köken: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ís Proto-Balto-Slavic *is Proto-Slavic *jь Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Balto-Slavic *-kas Proto-Slavic *-kъ Proto-Slavic *jakъ Old Polish jaki Polish jaki Inherited from Old Polish jaki.
köken: By assimilation from dialectal minlainen, from min(kä) (“of which”) + -lainen (“kind of”). Cognate with Estonian milline (“what, what kind of”) and Ingrian millain, miltain, milläin (“what kind of”).
what?, what kind of? · what … like? · to what extent?, how?, how much?
köken: From the pronoun mely (“which”), patterned after the pronouns ilyen (“this kind of”), olyan (“that kind of”). Its form may have been influenced also by the interrogative pronoun mi (“what”). Its original form was probably melyen, this is perhaps mely (interrogative pronoun) + -n (pronoun suffix). First attested in 1748.
aile: akármilyen, amilyen, bármilyen, emilyen, másmilyen, semmilyen, valamilyen