Senu Yivokuchi

Grammar \ Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Senu Yivokuchi distinguishes two grammatical persons (first and second) and two numbers (singular and plural) for pronouns, with an additional distinction (inclusive vs. exclusive) for the first person plural:

      sg    pl

1st   e     kai (-), jaokai (+)
2nd   jo    jae

There are, formally speaking, no third person pronouns, but speakers often use substitute demonstratives for third and fourth person pronouns. For objects of prepositions, this also alternates with the use of the resumptive -n, which some speakers employ in a rather generous fashion, leaving the demonstratives for emphatic use.

  Aida gon ede.
  "I love her."

  Aida e gosachde.
  "I love HER."

There's no way to show the gender or biological sex of any of the grammatical persons this way. In general, speakers resort to naming the person explicitly and frequently, first thing in the sentence.

Pronouns can be marked for case, but the results are irregular.

GEN  sg  pl
1st  ye  khai, jhaokhai
2nd  jho jhae

COM  sg   pl
1st  le   likai, liaokai
2nd  lijo lijae

Pronouns have no construct form.


Demonstratives

Demonstratives show three levels of deixis. Level 1 is closest to the speaker; level 2 is closer to the hearer, and level 3 is far from both. Levels 1 and 2 are sometimes used as articles. The position right after the noun is unmarked and preferred for the adjectival deictics.

                     (L1)  (L2)  (L3)
         REL  QUERY  THIS  THAT  YONDER
ADJ           osu    wo	   me    sa
PERSON   je   je     woch  mech  sach
THING    o    o      wao   meo   sao
PLACE    ve   vero   vewo  veme  vesa
TIME     mi   maro   mawo  mime  masa
WAY      ru   ruru   raur
REASON   cet  cetsu  cetuo

         SOME   NO    ALL    SAME  OTHER
ADJ      khu    la    der    ni    rem
PERSON   chu    lach  deri   nich  rebri
THING    khu    lao   dro    niyo  remo
PLACE    khuve  lave  derve  nive  rembe
TIME                         nimi
WAY                          niru  remaru
REASON

Note: The PERSON and THING elements of the OTHER series may be definite or indefinite, so rebri 'another person' but rebrich 'the other person'. The underlying form of rebri- is rem-li-, from li 'person, individual'. Some people use gendered forms, renkach 'the other man' and remeki 'the other woman'.