The interrogative pronouns in Classical Arabic are man ‘who?’ and mā ‘what?’, which are indeclinable (Wright 1964:I, 274–275; II, 311–315; Fleisch 1979:74–78); the interrogative adjective is ʾayyun ‘which?’, which has a feminine form ʾayyatun and is declined (Wright 1964:I, 275–276; II, 315–317; Fleisch 1979:78–81). In combination with prepositions, mā is often shortened (bima, lima, etc.); before verbs, it is usually strengthened by ḏā: mā ḏā ṣanaʿta ‘what have you done?’.

According to Rabin (1951:189), the pronoun man was inflected in the pre-Islamic dialect of the Ḥi…