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Re: Pronoun 'bases'/stems (was Re: stress and accusative in Uusisuom)

From:J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...>
Date:Friday, May 4, 2001, 16:16
Eric Christopherson wrote:

> Hi, all. Just wondering what other (con|nat)langs have a morpheme like this > that is used in all pronouns. I've had the idea to use Semitic-style > possessive pronoun suffixes, and make the actual pronouns out of a fixed > pronoun stem plus the correct pronoun suffix.
I'm rather fond of the pronoun system in Tokana, which has a number of regularities, such as the prefixing of "i-" to all the oblique forms, but also some pleasing irregularities and semi-regularities. Here's the paradigm, for any who are interested: NOTES: The seven cases are absolutive, nominative, instrumental, dative/locative, allative, ablative, and comitative, respectively. The absolutive and nominative each have a stressed 'full' form (e.g. "mai, ami") and an unstressed 'light' form (e.g. "me, ma"). Tokana distinguishes first person plural exclusive and inclusive, "min" and "kim", respectively. The former is rather transparently built from the pronouns "me" and "s/he", while the latter is built from "you" and "me": sing. pl. 1st pers. abs. mai, me min / kim nom. ami, ma mina / kima ins. iman iminna / ikimna dat. ime' imine / ikime all. imen iminne / ikimne abl. imaul iminul / ikimul com. imom iminmo / ikimmo 2nd pers. abs. koi, ke kyin nom. aku, ko kyina ins. ikon ikyinna dat. ikoi ikyine all. ikoin ikyinne abl. ikoul ikyinul com. ikom ikyinmo 3rd pers. abs. nai, ne sai, se animate nom. ani, na asi, sa ins. inan isan dat. ine' ise' all. inen isen abl. inaul isaul com. inom isom 3rd pers. abs. tai, te tsoi, tse inanimate ins. itan itson dat. ite' itsoi all. iten itsoin abl. itaul itsoul com. itom itsom As many of you know, the third person pronouns double as determiners, which match the animacy and number of the noun they determine--e.g., "ne ikei" (the dog), "se ikei" (the dogs); "te uhin" (the song), "tse uhin" (the songs). Note finally that the third person inanimate pronouns lack the nominative form. That's because nominative case-marked noun phrases in Tokana must be volitional, and it is impossible for an inanimate entity to act volitionally. Matt.