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Pronouns constitute a word class that differs syntactically only slightly from contentives. Unlike contentives, they ''never'' need to be preceded by the subject particle '''he''' and when appearing as the predicate, they ''always'' need to be preceded by the predicate particle '''hi'''. They also form their genitive case differently, not by gemination of the first consonant but by substituting /h/ for their initial (unwritten and often unpronounced) glottal stop /ʔ/. | Pronouns constitute a word class that differs syntactically only slightly from contentives. Unlike contentives, they ''never'' need to be preceded by the subject particle '''he''' and when appearing as the predicate, they ''always'' need to be preceded by the predicate particle '''hi'''. They also form their genitive case differently, not by gemination of the first consonant but by substituting /h/ for their initial (unwritten and often unpronounced) glottal stop /ʔ/. | ||
Pronouns distinguish first second and third persons. In the third person, a distinction is made between animate and inanimate referents and these are further distinguished by whether they are visible or invisible to the speaker at the time of speaking. | Pronouns distinguish first second and third persons. In the third person, a distinction is made between animate (<small>ANIM</small>) and inanimate (<small>INAN</small>) referents and these are further distinguished by whether they are visible (<small>VIS</small>) or invisible (<small>INVIS</small>) to the speaker at the time of speaking. | ||
Plural pronouns are formed additively by compounding these bases. Generally only two grammatical persons are combined at once grammatical persons together in the order of the following heirarchy: | Plural pronouns are formed additively by compounding these bases. Generally only two grammatical persons are combined at once grammatical persons together in the order of the following heirarchy: | ||
: (1) second person '''ua''' | : (1) second person '''ua''' | ||
: (2) third person animate visible '''aa''' | : (2) third person animate visible '''aa''' (suffixed as '''-xaa''') | ||
: (3) third person animate invisible '''ao''' | : (3) third person animate invisible '''ao''' (suffixed as '''-xao''') | ||
: (4) first person '''ia''' | : (4) first person '''ia''' | ||
: (5) third person inanimate visible '''ii''' | : (5) third person inanimate visible '''ii''' | ||
: (6) third person inanimate invisible '''io''' | : (6) third person inanimate invisible '''io''' | ||
Very long pronoun forms may be used for groups comprising many different persons. For example, a group including more than one addressee, several third persons, both visible and invisible and the speaker will be referred to with '''uauaxaaxaoia''' (glossed as 2+2+3.ANIM.VIS+3.ANIM.INVIS+1). Because combining these can result in hundreds of available forms, the following tables are limited to forms that combine two bases | Very long pronoun forms may be used for groups comprising many different persons. For example, a group including more than one addressee, several third persons, both visible and invisible and the speaker will be referred to with '''uauaxaaxaoia''' (glossed as 2+2+3.ANIM.VIS+3.ANIM.INVIS+1). Because combining these can result in hundreds of available forms, the following tables are limited to forms that combine two bases. | ||
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Many of these combinations are rarely used. For example, it is not often that one wishes to refer to the addressee(s) plus (an) invisible third person inanimate object(s) (ie. "you and it", "you and those things") but on the rare occasions that this happens, the pronoun is '''uaio'''. | Many of these combinations are rarely used. For example, it is not often that one wishes to refer to the addressee(s) plus (an) invisible third person inanimate object(s) (ie. "you and it", "you and those things") but on the rare occasions that this happens, the pronoun is '''uaio'''. | ||
The choice between '''iaia''' and '''aaia''' is a subtle one. '''Iaia''' is used to speak on behalf of a group | As with many languages, there is a distinction between the inclusive "we" '''uaia''', which includes any addressees (as "you and I"), and exclusive "we"s, '''iaia''', '''aaia''', '''aoia'''. The choice between '''iaia''' and '''aaia''' is a subtle one. '''Iaia''' is used to speak on behalf of a group. '''Aaia''' is the same but does not carry this connotation and also indicates that the referents other than the speaker are present or potentially visible to the speaker at the time of speaking. '''Aoia''' is used when not all members of the group are present. | ||
The following table, included for the sake of completeness, shows the genitive forms of these pronouns which are all regularly formed by prefixing /h/ (which substitutes the initial underlying glottal stop in all of the subject forms). | The following table, included for the sake of completeness, shows the genitive forms of these pronouns which are all regularly formed by prefixing /h/ (which substitutes the initial underlying glottal stop in all of the subject forms). | ||