II. TEONAHT PARTS OF SPEECH

B. PRONOUNS

This chapter on pronouns contains information on the following topics:

Remember: I am using the terms "agent" (A) and "experiencer" (E) to refer to volitional and non-volitional subjects--not transitive and intransitive subjects. Teonaht, as I've said, is an accusative language with some active tendencies. This is explained in my opening comments on T. ("What Teonaht Is"), and later, if I ever get it loaded, in the Section on Sentence Syntax. I have a great deal of replicative description, but there it is.

1. Personal Pronouns

This chart on the main pronouns is repeated, for clarity's sake, in the section on verbs. These prefix to verbs except for broffyn, brossyn, and brottwav. Inclusive and exclusive "we" makes a distinction between an addressee (or addressees) who is included from or excluded in a group with the speaker. The difference between fy and sy is (familiar and formal "you") is not one of number, as in most of the Indo-European languages, but of intimacy and formality, closeness and distance. Teonaht has an indefinite pronoun much like the German man in õn/bõn/mim. Also like the Germanic languages, Teonaht has a dual formation. Closeness and distance and one-on-one are important in expressing relationships.

a. Nominative (Agentive and Experiential)
Singular Dual Plural
y, ry, "I" brõ, "we two" (inclusive)
broys, "we two" (exclusive)		 tsõ "we" (inclusive)
soys, "we" (exclusive)
fy, "thou" broffyn, "you two" (familiar) fyn, "you" (familiar)
sy, "you" brossyn, "you two" (formal) syn, "you" (formal)
lo, "he"
ly, "she"
ai, "it"		 brottwav, "those two," "both" twav, "they"
on, "one" brõn, "a couple" mim, "some"

b. Emphasized nominative or subject.

Very often one may want the nominative pronoun to lead the sentence, as in the French moi of Moi, je suis arrivé etc. The following paradigm for the emphasized subject is the only form of the pronoun to make a distinction between subject and participant. Ordinarily, this distinction is ignored, the absolute form being used for both cases, but in some instances the agentive (which takes the suffix -i (pronounced like a schwa) is useful in some contexts, especially when you are formally addressing someone whom you don't wish to offend by putting his pronoun in the "non-volitional" (universally conceived in T. as the weaker case): Syryi, Hmeo, krekinvand tyr nuarsy bado, "You, Sir, had a bad dream too." This is of course a compromise; nuarsy bado exhibits non-volitional morphology (used of actions like dreaming, or enduring dreams), but at least some agency is returned to the important man in the emphatic pronoun at the beginning. Pronounced, incidentally, exactly like "Syria."

b. Emphasized Subject
Singular Dual Plural
yry, ryry, "I" (participatory)
yryi, ryryi, "I" (agentive)		 brõry, broysy, "We two" (incl./excl.)(participatory)
broryi, broysyi, "We two" (incl./excl.)(agentive)		 tsõry, soysy, "We" (incl./excl.) (participatory)
tsõryi, soysyi, "We" (incl./excl.)(agentive)
fyry,, "thou" (participatory)
fyryi, "thou" (agentive)		 broffynry, "you two" (participatory)
brofynryi, "you two" (agentive)		 fynry, "you" (familar, (participatory)
fynryi, "you" (agentive)
syry, "you" (formal, participatory)
syryi, "you" (formal, agentive)		 brossynry, "you two" (formal, participatory)
brosynryi, "you two" (formal, agentive)		 synry, "you" (formal participatory)
synryi, "you" (formal, agentive)
loly, "he" (participatory)
loylyi, "he" (agentive)
lyly, "she" (participatory)
lylyi, "she" (agentive)
airy, "it" (participatory)
airyi, "it" (agentive)		 brottwavry, "those two" (participatory)
brotwavryi, "those two" (agentive)		 twavry, "they" (participatory)
twavryi, "they" (agentive)
õnry, "one" (participatory)
õ nryi, "one" (agentive)		 brõnry, "a couple" (participatory)
brõnryi "a couple" (agentive)		 mimry, "some" (participatory)
mimryi, "some" (agentive)

Examples:

Yry ta tohdan kohsan omy maka garne.
"Now me, I like dogs better than cats."

ta, "for, than"; used in comparative constructions;
tohdan, "cats," kohsan, "dogs";
omy, "do I"; habituative particle and pronoun;
maka, adv., "more";
garne, "vt, "like."

These are also used for emphasis in such constructions as yry massela, "I myself sit," but also as a kind of reflexive if you attach the infixed form of the possesseve (see below) to the emphasized pronoun:

Yryel uaja, "I hate myself," a little stronger than saying:
õl ryuuaja, "me I hate."

Heddorla fyryelf olmfy epriko
"For a long time (heddorla) you were (olmfy) deceiving yourself (epriko, fyryelf)."

c. Accusative and Oblique Cases.

Teonaht does not make a morphological distinction between accusative and dative/ablative/locative (what I call the "oblique cases"), but prefers to express these other relationships through prepositions. Here's the chart:

c. Accusative and Oblique Cases.
Singular Dual Plural
õl, "me" brõs, "us two" (inclusive)
bros, "us two" (exclusive)		 rrõ, "us" (inclusive)
ros, "us" (exclusive)
fel, "thee" broffend, "you two" (informal) fend, "you"
sed, "you" (formal) brossend, "you two" send, "you"
der, "him"
dam, "her"
ain, "it"		 brad, "those two" ad(we), "them"
on, "one" bron, "a couple" mimin, "some"

d. Genitive Case.
Singular Dual Plural
al, "my" bro, "between us our" (inclusive)
broy "between us our" (exclusive) 		ro, "our" (inclusive)
roy, "our" (exclusive)
fyl, "thy" bryl "thy" fyl, fylin, "thy"
syl, "your" (formal) brossyl, "your" syl, sylin, "your"
lõ, "his"
la, "her"
aid, "its"		 brodwe, "their" twe, "their"

Examples with singular nouns:

my dance, al fanttear.
your foot, fyl ytanney.
her boy, la betõ.
their strength, twe paneht.
the boy of you two, bryl betõ.

Genitive nouns:

of my dance, alid fanttear.
your foot's, fyld ytanney.
her boy's, lad betõ.
of their strengths, twet paneht.
of the boy of you two, brylid betõ.

Examples with plurals suffixed:

my dances, al fanttearn.
your feet, fyl ytanneyn.
her boys, la betõn.
their strengths, twe pannehten
your boys, bryl betõn.

Genitive plurals:

of my dances, alid fanttearn.
of your feet, fyld ytanneyn.
of her boys, lad betõn.
of their strengths,

3. Infixed Possessive Pronouns.

There is a special (more often poetic) form of possessive pronoun that is used only in infixed positions and mainly with the gerund/infinitive: between the gerundive prefix rem- and its gerund, the prepositional prefix and the conjunct verb, and many adverbial prefixes. No dual forms are used:

Infixed Pronoun Forms.
Singular Plural
el, "my" or, "our"
os, "our" (inclus.)
elf, "thy" elt, "your" (fam.)
es, your est, your (formal)
ol, "his"
yl, "her"aid, its		 we, "their"

remelfravõ, "your loving," from remravvõ, "to love" (an inversion of ravvõrem. Sometimes this is written remelf ravvõ. Other examples include:

remest taitaf, "your (formal) laughing"
remolrefod, or remol refod, "his choosing" (note change in phonic emphasis).
hsoveleuan, "my preceding." (Note: with the prepositional verbs, the rem- is often omitted.
prebestlis, "your being promoted."
pomwefen, "their being included."
rempomweffen, "their being included."
remwe pomfen, a variant of the above.
This can make for some interesting puns, to be sure.

3. Demonstrative Pronouns

The demonstrative has two functions: (1) adverbially in combination with the article (the equivalent of our demonstrative adjective), and (2) pronominally; a change of stress sometimes indicates the difference. Likewise in English, the demonstratives function deictically to indicate the speaker's proximity to or distance from the object named, but there is also a qualitative distinction made between an ordinary object and an object that is belittled, condescended to, or scorned.

As in Welsh and Irish, aiba an oba are the old words for "here" and "there," plus another category, hoba, meaning "yonder," or "way over there." Thus:

lebbetõ / ilbbetõ aiba, "this boy"
lebbetõ oba, "that boy"
lebbetõ hoba, "that boy over there."

leggwenda / ilggwenda aista, "this awful girl"
leggwenda osta, "that awful girl"
leggwenda hosta, "that awful girl yonder."

aibba, "this" (one); aibban, "these" (ones).
obba, "that" (one); obban, "those" (ones).
hobba, "that (one) yonder"; hobban, "those yonder."

aistta, "this awful (one)"; aisttan, "these" awful (ones).
ostta, "that awful (one)"; osttan, "those awful (ones).
hostta, "that awful (one) yonder; hosttan, "those awful (ones) yonder.

4. Reiterative Pronouns

Etsa is a pronoun meaning "same," and functions in much the same way as it does in archai English: "I have a book, I gave you same." Listen to the way the King speaks to Anna in The King and I, and you get the gist of etsa, which is actually a kind of demonstrative in that you can say lebbetõ etsa, "that very boy, that same boy."

etsa...ouar. This construction can be used in a sentence with a preponderance of pronouns to disambiguate, as can aibba... obba, with the first referring to the first mentioned:

Le nantry la mesõl ely ke, send etsa il ouar ely tralttrama.
The mother saw her daughter and she greeted her (same greeted other).
Meanwhile, also:
Kyam pomõl, send il etsa essed elry vergo.
"I have a book, and I gave same to you."
Perpwe sy hdar deyhsan? il etsa ry tyr dey.
"You want a fish? (Same) I also do (want)."

5. Relative Pronouns.

See SENTENCE SYNTAX for a fuller expalnation of the relative clause, which employs special relative pronouns in certain cases. Meanwhile:

hai means "the thing or person referred back to." In meaning, it is very similar to etsa, but not in syntax. It is used exclusively in relative clauses. It used to have an old animate form, he, which is sometimes invoked, but for the most part it refers to persons, animals, and things. Its conjugation is very simple:
Relative Pronouns.
CASE Singular Plural
SUBJECT hai, "who" (nominative) nihhai, "whom" (dat./acc.)
OBJECT hain nihhain
GENITIVE dihhai dihhain

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