D'ni/Pronouns

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Personal Pronouns[edit | edit source]

Personal Pronouns appear in 2 kinds: independent words (in accusative, like 'me, him, her' etc.) or suffixes (subjects to verbs or possessors).

Nominative Genitive Dative/Accusative
1st – (I) -et (we) -ó (my) -ot (our) zú (me) set (us)
2nd -em (thou) -tí (you) -om (thy) -omí (your) šem (thee) šemtí (you)
3rd -en (he/she) -ít (they) -on (his/her) -os (their) ze/ta (him/her) íst (them)

Nominative[edit | edit source]

The nominative forms are suffixed to the verbs as subjects. e.g. to say 'he finds' we add suffix –en 'he' to verb stem húr- 'to find' to form húren.

There is no 1st person in nominative, and we use the bare verb stem. E.g. tégan to form 'I love'

Genitive[edit | edit source]

Genitive forms are suffixed to nouns to indicate possessors of that noun. E.g. korom ‘thy book’, navaot ‘our master’, únrétíos ‘their lords’.

The 3rd plural genitive form –os is irregular.

Accusative/Dative[edit | edit source]

Accusative is used when a pronoun is the direct object of a verb. English examples are 'I love him', 'I choose you'. Dative is when the pronoun is the indirect object, ex: 'I talk to you', 'You work for him'. Accusative/Dative pronouns unlike the others, are independent words. E.g. çev šem ‘I thank you’, tagema b’zú ‘give to me!’ (Note: Most examples of these pronouns occur in the dative case (i.e., as indirect objects) -- the case for the accusative is less strong.)

It is hypothetically assumed therefore that the accusative of 3rd person singular and plural can be sen and sít respectively.

Other pronouns[edit | edit source]

There are also other pronouns:

  • met 'this'. Indicative pronoun which follows the noun. E.g. bacana met, 'this map' but it is also prefixed to the noun e.g. a met m'la, 'this lizard' (a- is a "direct object indicator". The rules for using it are not quite clear, in translations it can be omitted.)
  • mot 'that, which'. Relative pronoun. E.g. rem'la sexen poant, mot tornen, ‘the lizard has saliva, which it spits’, also used with the element gor ‘time’ and forms gormot ‘then’