Re: Combined Pronouns

--- You wrote:
Durana has I, you, he/she/it, we, they. But what if... they had pronouns for pairs of
groups. Like I and you (me and you), I and he (me and him), I and they (me and
them), and then we go to You and him, you and her, you and them, you and us.
But having that many pronouns would be convoluted, so I am thinking of limiting
it to the following...

I and you
He and I
she and I
Them and me
You and them

Anyone know a language, con or true, that has a system like this?
--- end of quote ---

Most people have alluded to inclusive/exclusive in answering your question, but I
don't think that's what you had in mind. The kind of pronoun system that I
think you're talking about does exist in some natlangs, in particular certain
West African languages such as Nweh (Ngwe), spoken in Cameroon. Ngwe has the
usual six 'simple' pronouns (two persons, three numbers), but in addition it
has 'compound' pronouns which are derived by combining two of the simple
pronouns, giving forms with meanings just like what you mention in your
message.

Some of the pronouns in my conlang Tokana were 'historically' compound pronouns
that have undergone phonological change and become only partially analyzable.
The simple (animate) pronouns are:

  1st  me
  2nd  ke
  3rd  ne

The first person plural inclusive is "kim", which appears to derive from "ke" +
"me" (you + me). Similarly, the first person plural exclusive is "min", from
"me" + "ne" (me + him/her), and the second person plural is "kyin", from "ke" +
"ne" (you + him/her). [The "yi" in "kyin", which is phonetically /@j/, derives
from the fact that "ke" used to have a rounded vowel. This rounded vowel
survives in certain case forms of the second person singular pronoun, such as
the ergative "ikoi".]

Matt.

Matt Pearson
Department of Linguistics
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
Portland, OR 97202 USA
ph:  503-771-1112 (x 7618)