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

En réponse à Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>:

>
> 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.
>
Well, Azak doesn't have free-standing pronouns. Instead, it uses the root 'n'
that doesn't have a meaning by itself but is used to "lexicalize" a suffix,
which means that the group n+suffix becomes a root by itself, to which can be
added suffixes, and which can behave like a noun or a verb depending on the
suffixes added. Usually the meaning of the root derived from a suffix is pretty
obvious (from -oz: this (adj.) you get n-oz: this (pr.). From the suffixed
numeral, you get free standing numeral by using n), but there are sometimes
idiosyncrasies. For instance, n followed by the ergative personal suffixes is
used to form the personal pronouns, while n followed by the absolutive personal
suffixes is used to form the possessive pronouns. you can use this for every
suffix (even the case suffixes), but then the meaning may not always be obvious.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr