Justin B Rye 1995-2001
glossary sounds numbers nouns adjuncts pronouns verbs phrases syntax coinages examples lexicon

SECTION VI: PRONOUNS

VIa - Personal Pronouns

See IIIb for explanations of the "person" category labels here.

These words function more or less exactly as regular nouns, except that they never form possessive phrases (Vd) or themselves end in pronoun suffixes (below).  Surprisingly, perhaps, they do occur with adjectives; <toar pa> is literally "happy I" (more idiomatically "lucky old me!"), and <ikh·a is> is "ten it" (i.e. "the ten of them").

Don't forget to add appropriate case endings (IVc), distinguishing between <pa> "first-exclusive, subject (= I)" and <pa·da> "first-exclusive, object (= me)", or between <na> "second-familiar, subject (= thou)" and <na·da> "second-familiar, object (= thee)".  The third-neuter <is> follows the usual case-marking pattern for neuter nouns (i.e.: <is/is/is·on>), but all the rest of the pronouns are epicene gender (IVa).

Actually, though, these pronouns are relatively rare, especially in the subject forms, since pronoun-suffixes on verbs and postpositions (see below) tend to make them redundant.  Giving the pronoun as well as the suffix makes the pronoun emphatic:

<desen·an> "you spoke"

<na desen·an> "it was you who spoke"

<thun·an> "beside you"

<na·da thun·an> "beside you"

VIb - Demonstratives

These pronouns form a special class - although they are basically adjectival, they can also function on their own as if they were nouns (either neuter or epicene gender, as circumstances dictate - IVa), and take whatever case-markings are appropriate to their role (IVc/Va).

None of them take pronoun-suffixes themselves, but three of them can appear in suffixed form on other words.  In fact, "pointing at" people by means of the full adjectives is considered rude: don't say <illu ji> "this king", use the suffixed form <ji·ellu>.

Demonstrative "nouns" never form possessive constructions (Vd - <okuth ji> always means "a different king", never "someone else's king"), but they can themselves be accompanied by adjectives such as <lo>, "plural".

The pronoun <e> is also used to translate the correlative, "(the one) who, which", in relative clauses (see IXc) - <¿fe?> is only ever a question form.

VIc - Pronoun Suffixes

These are endings capable of attaching to nouns, postpositions or verbs.  There is one corresponding to each personal pronoun listed above, and a further three corresponding to demonstratives.

EXAMPLES

Noun: <reisen> "eye" --> <reisen·oton> "your eye".

Verb: <sifulu> "die" --> <sifulu·es> "it/they died".

Postposition: <thun> "beside" --> <thun·om> "beside us".

The bracketed vowels in each case are omitted if the suffix is being added after an <e>, <a> or <o> - thus <ji> "king", <ji·an> "thy king" but <aracho> "word", <aracho·n> "thy word".  Other endings can be attached on top of these suffixes, as in:

<jiapa> "my king (oblique case)", i.e. <ji·(a)p·(d)a>

<niamosor> "it ate itself" (reflexive), i.e. <niamo·(e)s·(o)r>

See also VIIIa for the special pronoun-suffixes used in commands.

AMBIGUITIES

Since the Third-Epicene suffix is zero, it can lead to further confusing possibilities:

<aracho>, "word", can mean "his/her/their word(s)".

<sifulu>, "die", can mean "he/she/they died" (with no explicit subject); a one-word sentence.

<thun>, "beside", can mean "beside him/her/them" (with no separate oblique-case noun needed)

If ever there's a serious risk of confusion in the pronoun system, the simplest solution is to revert to using specific nouns - don't say "her words", say "the woman's words".

VId - Adverbials

There are also reduced forms of the demonstrative pronouns, similar to the personal suffixes, which combine with a range of nouns to produce adverbial constructions.  The commonest bases for these compounds are <nu> "place", <uko> "time, occasion", and <dar> "reason":

Note the absence of <·> marks: <nullu> (pronounced "nool-LOO") "here" is a single adverb, whereas <nu·ellu> ("NOO-el-loo") "this place" is a noun with a suffix.

SECTION VII: Verbs