Re: Fifth person? (was Re: (No Subject))

Emaelivpeith Trebor Jung:
> Arthaey írta: "I believe Asha'ille qualifies, with 6 primary distinctions
> (and more possible):
>
> "1. self
> 2. beloveds
> 3. close friends
> 4. good friends
> 5. acquaintances
> 6. strangers
>
> "Each of these categories has its own pronoun and verbal conjugation."
>
> Wow, that's *really* neat! I'd like to see examples, esp. using the first
> person :P Quite some subtle meanings could be portrayed with such
> distinctions.
Thanks! :) So, for an example using the first person (the self,
pronoun "en'i," conjugation "-ni")...

Shavni ne asha'ille.
shav -ni ne asha'ille
speak SELF O: Asha'ille
"I speak Asha'ille."

...where O: means "the following phrase is the object" -- I'm not sure
if a usage that broad can be termed "dative."

Shavni n'ejh.
shav -ni ne ejh
speak SELF O: BELOVED

The translation of the second example sentence is more tricky than the
first example, because the standard Asha'ille pronouns do not mark for
addressee. So, if I were talking to my significant other, the
translation would be, "I speak to you." If I were talking to you (or
some third party) *about* my SO, it would mean in English, "I speak to
him (ie, my SO)."

There is a secondary set of disambiguating pronouns that do mark for
addressee (and gender). If I were talking to both you and my SO, I
could make it clear that I mean "I speak to you" by saying,

Shavni n'ejh aet.
shav -ni ne ejh aet
speak SELF O: BELOVED 2sg
"I speak to you (beloved)."

And I could make it clear that I mean "I speak to him" by saying,

Shavni n'ejh ar.
shav -ni ne ejh ar
speak SELF O: BELOVED 3sg-masc.
"I speak to him (beloved)."

If you wanted to use all the main pronouns in one sentence (and assume
they are all males, not being addressed directly, for maximal
ambiguity in English), you could say:

Tan ashavpeni ejh ne scádhelsa ne dovedá'nimordhsa chirevpishe n'o seith.
"He2 made me1 tell him4 that he3 borrowed something from him6 that
belonged to him5."

-- begin messy interlinear --
tan   ashav -p-  -ni  ejh     ne scádhel     -sa
FORCE tell  PAST SELF BELOVED O: GOOD_FRIEND first_mentioned

ne do-   vedá nimordh  -sa             chirev -p-  -ishe
O: EMBED from STRANGER first_mentioned borrow PAST CLOSE_FRIEND

ne no s-   -eith
O: it POSS ACQUAINTANCE
-- end messy interlinear --

The numbers mark which pronoun is being used, according to the list I
wrote above, numbered 1-6. For constrast, here's the longer,
unambiguous, English translation:

"My SO made me tell a good friend that my close friend borrowed
something from a stranger that belonged to an acquaintance."


--
AA