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Pronouns

Pronouns may be considered a subgroup of nouns, because both fill the same functions in a sentence (subject, object, and so on) and bear case endings. Pronouns, essentially, replace nouns or noun phrases to avoid repreating them. The main distinction between pronouns and regular nouns is that pronouns are never modified by adjectives, prepositional phrases, or relative clauses, as nouns frequently are. There are eight personal pronouns, representing the first, second and third persons.

Personal Pronouns

First and Second Persons

I thou you we you (pl.)
Nom ío nós uós
Gen mín tín ín nosom uosom
Dat méy tuy yuy nofyo uofyo
Acc nosa uosa
Ins mevi tevi yevi nofi uofi
Loc í nossu uossu

Third Person

he, she they he, she, it, they, -self
Nom ci cís -
Gen ços çom sín
Dat civyo suy
Acc cim cin
Ins çé civi sevi
Loc cichu

In Çomyopregi, neither the nominative nor genitive forms are encountered often. Concerning the genitive: unlike nouns, the genitive is not usually used for possession. Instead, possessive adjectives are used. (Cf. Adjectives and Numerals.) Concerning the nominative, in Çomyopregi, as in most European languages, personal endings on the verb already indicate who the verb's subject is, so the subject pronouns are not needed except for emphasis. , the reflexive pronoun, only has non-nominative forms anyway. This is a third person pronoun used to refer back to the subject of the sentence — if the regular third person were used again instead, it would imply that there was another person involved:

Çomyopregi third-person pronouns are limited to actual persons (this sometimes includes animals, too) — there is no "it." Instead, when "it" is meant, it is up to the personal endings to indicate the subject. In fact, "it" need not even be mentioned when it is the direct object, because if the verb is transitive and there is no explicit direct object, then it is implied that the direct object is "it." However, on those occasions when "it" absolutely must be said, then a demonstrative pronoun is used, which brings us to another table . . .

Interrogative, Relative, and Demonstrative Pronouns

what, which who who, which, that who, which, that that, it those, they
Nom quo qui yo yós so, to tós
Gen quosyo quisyo yosyo yóm tosyo tóm
Dat quóy quí yóy yovyo tóy tovyo
Acc quom quim yom yon tom ton
Ins quové quivé yové yovi tové tovi
Loc quoy quí yoy yochu toy tochu

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions, like "who?" or "what?" They do not distinguish number, but use only singular forms, even if more than one thing is in question. There are also relative pronouns, which join clauses to the rest of the sentence, like "the man who ran to work today". In English, the relative pronouns are "which", "who", and "that." In Çomyopregi, there is a separate set of relative pronouns, but they do not distinguish personal and impersonal (or animate and inanimate) like the interrogative and demonstrative. The demonstrative pronouns are used to "point things out", such as "this" or "that". The demonstrative pronouns by default are distal; that is, they mean "that", referring to more distant things. The proximal ("this") demonstratives are created by prefixing oy-: oyto, "this", oytós, "these".

The interrogative pronoun is the basis of other types of pronouns. The indefinite pronoun, sinqui, "somebody", is formed by prefixing sin- to the interrogative pronoun. Likewise, prefixing pan- gives panqui, "everybody," the universal pronoun, and prefixing ne- gives nequi, "noone," the negative pronoun. This parallelism holds up for all kinds of demonstrative, interrogative, etc., forms, and can be represented in the great "Table of Correlatives," which if you studied Esperanto, has probably already been beaten into your head.

Table of Correlatives

Demonstrative Interrogative Relative Indefinite Universal Negative
Personal ci qui yo sinqui panqui nequi
Impersonal to quo sinquo panquo nequo
Quality táli quáli ti quáli sinquáli panquáli nequáli
Motive pro tóy pro quóy pro yóy, ti pro quó pro sinquó pro panquó pro nequó
Manner tové quové yové, ti quové sinquové panquové nequové
Time tondo quondo ti quondo sinquondo panquondo nequondo
Location tér quér ti quér sinquér panquér nequér
Direction toward téra quéra ti quéra sinquéra panquéra nequéra
Direction away from téret quéret ti quéret sinquéret panquéret nequéret
Quantity totyo quotyo ti quotyo sinquotyo panquotyo nequotyo

In the above table, please note that the words indicating manner are merely the instrumental of the impersonal forms, and the words for reason or cause are the corresponding dative with pro-, "for," prefixed. The oddballs in this table are the relative forms, which are sometimes based on the stem yo-, and sometimes on the interrogative form, preceded by ti.

One final pronoun of importance which does not fit into any of the systems above is monu, "one," sometimes called a "fourth-person pronoun." It is used in speaking of a person in a generalized, hypothetical way. It is declined like a regular u-stem noun.

Now, with the pronouns, we have concluded the so-called nominal parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, and pronouns), and move onto verbs.

Reguándóy domum
© 2005 by Damátir Ando
Updated May 2, 2010