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Re: No pronoun, no article

From:David Peterson <thatbluecat@...>
Date:Sunday, October 19, 2003, 0:13
Both my conlangs Njaama and Zhyler have no articles at all.   They're not
replaced by anything.   Both have pronouns though (though in Zhyler, they're only
for the first and second person, and they're used sparingly).   Wasn't there
are theory somewhere that said a language couldn't exist *without* pronouns?

Well, I can think of a way, actually.   Since there are already many
languages without a third person pronoun, all you'd need to do is find a way to get
rid of first and second, and to do that, just use names.   Let's do it with
English:

I'm talking to you > David's talking to Erin (or whoever).
Do you want to come outside? > Does Erin want to come outside?
Give me that! > Give David that!

Sounds a little bit like the "caveman" talk you often see when a caveman pops
into the modern age on a TV series (I'm thinking Bubba Duck in Ducktales),
but it works.

-David

Replies

Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>