Re: Pronounlessly

Gustavo wrote:

>        Are there languages that don't have personal pronouns? Or
>that use demonstratives instead? I know some languages do it in the
>third person, but, what about languages that don't have specific
>pronouns for the other persons?
I read somewhere in the net that the secret men's language of
Australia's Lardil tribe had a pronoun system quite unlike what
you'd normally expect to find in a language. Its a binary system of
'ego' versus 'other'. So you could say that this language does not
have specific pronouns for other persons in the sense that I would
refer to both you and him/her by 'other'. When refering to myself,
its of course 'ego'.

I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but there is suppose to be a
dispute as to whether this secret Lardil language is in fact a
natural language. Some call it a language game (or constructed
language) played (or constructed) by men in the Lardil tribe. The
pronoun system isn't the only thing that is unusual. It has clicks
in its phonology, which is quite unique for an Australian language
(or any language outside Africa for that matter).

-Kristian- 8-)