Re: Building up a FAQ: Please reply

Bob Greenwade wrote:
>     Here's a thought for some of you building your pronouns: how about a
> separate, distinct sense for 'I and you, but not others'?  :-]
That would be simply dual inclusive.  Uatakassi has that, sort of.
First person pronouns have four numbers, singular, dual, paucal (a few)
and plural.  Dual is used almost entirely as an inclusive.  "I and
someone else" is covered by the paucal.  In later times, paucal became
exclusive plural (2+) and plural became inclusive plural (3+), creating
the somewhat asymmetric system (free pronouns given):

     Singular  Dual       Plural
Incl ---       Suvvai(bi) Sunpaa
Excl Tli/Nli          Sullisi

Free pronouns have gender.  Tli is first person singular feminine, Nli
is masculine.  Others are given in the epicene forms.  Change su- to ti-
for feminine and na- for masculine.  Later stages generalized the
feminine forms for the nonsingulars.

I suspect that since second person and 1st person inclusive both had
dual numbers, that there'd be a tendency to create an exclusive dual,
perhaps _sullisi kabi_ (we two), or some contracted form thereof, like
_sullizbi_, altho verbal inflections and clitics would probably preserve
the lack of dual/plural contrast.

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