Re: CHAT: Unconventional pronoun systemsshow us yours!

Steven Williams <feurieaux@...> wrote:

> My personal pride and joy, Gi-an-nain, has only four
> true pronouns (i.e., only two words that function as
> pronouns in and of themselves; everything else is a
> full noun, even though it is being used in a
> pronominal function), split between antecedents that
> are participating in the discourse, and those that are
> not.
> /ar/ [A4] discourse participant, singular
So "I" or "you", depending on context, right?

> /arà/ [a.4A] discourse participant, paucal
Again: "we" or "y'all" according to context?

> Other factors, like number, are matters of using the
> right particles. There is no plain 'plural' marker,
Is there any word or particle for "several"?

> but one may use the numbers two /din/ and three /nàra/
> for the dual and trial, as well as the word for 'all'
> /tamà/ for a general plural (i.e. all women).
> Reduplication of the pronominal stem gives the phrase
> the meaning of referring to all members of a given
> group; i.e., 'those women'. I call this number the
> 'paucal', although I'm probably using the wrong term
> (again! :-o).
I think "paucal" is in contrast to "plural" form
in languages where the former refers to "a few"
of something and the latter refers to "many".
So e.g. you might find an inflection paradigm like

kyna   dog
kynu   a few dogs
kyni   many dogs

and say that -u is the ending for the paucal number,
-i is the ending for the plural number.
I'm not sure if all languages with a paucal noun
inflection have paucal pronoun inflection as well.

> /ar-s'a isà-ikkài-na-ta/
> [A4.s'a i.sa.ik.kai.na.da]
> DPsg.PAT very.pretty.COPULA.but
> 'You're really very pretty.'
> or
> 'She's really very pretty.' (provided she's standing
> right there, involved in the conversation)
Or possibly "I am really very pretty"?

> Anyone have an unconventional pronoun system to share,
> or criticism of my own system?
gjax-zym-byn uses five basic personal pronouns, all clicks:
kq (velar click) - 1st person singular
tq (dental click) - 2nd person
pq (bilabial click) - 3d person already mentioned
mq (nasal bilabial click) - 3d person not yet mentioned
lq (lateral click) - roughly equivalent to French "on" or Esperanto "oni"

kq-tq   inclusive "we"
kq-pq or kq-mq  exclusive "we"

Gender, number, and other disambiguation
can be specified with modifiers, much as
in your Gi-an-nain.

pq-sxy   she
pq-sroq  they
pq-haxn  the old one

In my 20-word language, there was only one
root pronoun, for 1st-person.  2nd-person was
derived as "un-me" and 3d person as "not-me".
I don't recall the phonological words I used.


- Jim Henry
http://www.mindspring.com/~jimhenry/conlang.htm