Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>]

VC: "What wilt thou" has neither "to," as common for "will" in the sense
"want," 
nor a main verb, as common for "will" as future aux. Thus, the phrase
seems 
to reflect an intermediate sense between "want" and future aux, a
function 
resembling yiqtol mvksh.

SB:
1. "Will" has never required "to" with a complementary verb in any
sense; cf John 1:6 (KJV) "Wilt thou be made whole?" 

2. "Wilt" in this sense *is* the main verb. At the time when "thou wilt"
was still current, "What wilt thou?" (or "What will ye?" or "What will
she?", etc.) was a perfectly regular interrogatory form; cf Mac "Where
got'st thou that goose look?" The same use obtains in German: "Was
willst du?" Since about the middle of the 17th Century English has
abandoned this simple inversion in favor of an inverted periphrastic --
we now say "What do you want?", "What do you see?", "What are you
holding?"

Keep on trying.

Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood, Inc.