> >I am not
> >certain about German, but I have an inkling that
> >"Johann" might be dative even there; it might not be
> >clear with a personal name, but I think (correct me if
> >I am wrong) that "I asked him a question" would be
> >"Ich habe ihm eine Frage gemacht", not "ihn", thus
> >dative, while "Frage" would be accusative. Is that
> >correct?

Essentially yes, except that the idiom is 'eine Frage stellen' (to put a
question), not 'eine Frage machen'.

> --Sace maya.m aayasmanta.m Revata.m pañha.m
> pucchisaama: Wenn wir den ehrwürdigen Revata eine
> Frage fragen. If we were to ask the honorable
> Revata a question.
>
> This last example looks like a clearcut case of
> double acc in von Hinüber's German. Of course,
> he's using an awkward kind of German to reflect
> the Pali, so I don't know how much value that
> example has.

Very awkward German, because one would again expect 'eine Frage stellen' here:
'Wenn wir dem ehrwürdigen Revata eine Frage stellen'. 'Eine Frage fragen' is
not impossible, but tautological, and sounds somewhat pretentious. Usually,
one would say 'etwas fragen', and then the person addressed is indeed also in
the accusative. 'Wenn wir den ehrwürdigen Revata etwas fragen...'

'Darf ich Sie etwas fragen?' (May I ask you something?) is a phrase you hear
very often.

Lothar