Re: No pronoun, no article

On Friday, October 17, 2003, at 03:40  PM, Remi Villatel wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> Could you tell me the name of a conlang, where the pronouns are
> replaced by
> another grammatical mechanism? And the same about the articles? Both
> at the
> same time?
>
> I think that there are not much other options than a verbal
> suffix/prefix
> for a pronoun and a noun suffix/prefix for an article but I'm looking
> for
> examples.
I don't know that you could dispense with pronouns altogether, and so
the options you mention seem to be the ones available. In
Miapimoquitch, I have pronouns, but they function like any other
predicate in the language and take third person agreement; a literal
translation of these predicates would something like "the one who is
me/you/etc".

Verbal agreement is different, and I know of at least one language in
which agreement is cued by stem vowel changes, at least in part. The
language is Hua, spoken in Papua New Guinea. Here are some verbs:

      -i root   -o root   -u root

1sg   bau-e     do-e      hu-e
1du   bau-'e    do-'e     hu-'e
1pl   bau-ne    do-ne     nu-ne

2sg   bai-pe    da-pe     ha-pe
2du   bai-'ve   da-'ve    ha-'ve
2pl   bai-ve    da-ve     ha-ve

3sg   bai-ve    de-ve     hi-ve
3du   bai-'ve   da-'ve    ha-'ve
3pl   bai-ve    da-ve     ha-ve

Notice the collapse of some 2nd and 3rd person forms, which I
understand is common in Papuan languages. The person is cued by stem
vowel changes while number is cued by suffixation.

One of the functions of articles is to show (in)definiteness. In
Miapimoquitch predicates have a default definite reading, with the
indefinite being cued by gemination of the medial consonant of the stem:

tukana ['tuGana] 'the thrush'
tukkana ['tukkana] 'a thrush'

Gemination is neither a suffix nor a prefix and does one of the jobs of
articles. Other functions of gemination are to distinguish
perfective/imperfective and old/new information.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

"I believe that phonology is superior to music. It is more variable and
its pecuniary possibilities are far greater." - Erik Satie