Aratasa

Overview

Yivrian pronouns have distinct nominative and oblique stems. The first and second person have dedicated nominative forms, while the third person uses demonstrative pronouns for nominative reference. There are no genitive pronouns; instead, a set of possessive suffixes is attached directly to the possessed noun (see Yivrian nouns).

In the oblique cases (ablative, dative, malefactive), the pronouns are formed from the oblique prefix ei- followed by a consonant that is unique to each person, then the regular case endings and pronominal gender/number suffixes. The person consonants are:

Person	Consonant
First person	v
Second person	s
Third person animate	l
Third person inanimate	t
Reflexive	p

First person pronouns

Nominative

The first person nominative pronouns are ao (singular) and ava (plural). First person pronouns do not distinguish gender.

Oblique

The oblique stem is eiv-, formed from the oblique prefix ei- and the first person consonant v. Case endings and number suffixes are applied regularly:

Case	Singular	Plural
Ablative	eivon	eivona
Dative	eivos	eivosa
Malefactive	rueivos	rueivosa

Second person pronouns

Nominative

The second person nominative pronouns distinguish gender and number:

            Singular        Plural
            --------        ------

Masculine tos tosa Feminine tose toso

These are formed from the prefix to-, a presumed extinct vocative element, combined with the second person oblique consonant s and the regular pronominal gender/number endings.

Oblique

The oblique stem is eis-, formed from the oblique prefix ei- and the second person consonant s. Note the haplology in the dative: the expected form *eis-os is reduced to eios, since the s of the stem and the s of the case ending collapse by regular consonant haplology.

Case	Masculine sg	Feminine sg	Masculine pl	Feminine pl
Ablative	eison	eisone *	eisona* *	eisono*
Dative	eios	eiose *	eiosa* *	eioso*
Malefactive	rueios	rueiose *	rueiosa* *	rueioso*

Third person

Yivrian does not have dedicated third person nominative pronouns. Instead, third person reference in the nominative uses demonstrative pronouns (see below).

In non-nominative positions, the third person oblique forms remain available for anaphoric reference. The third person animate oblique stem is eil-, and the third person inanimate oblique stem is eit-:

Third person animate:

Case	Masculine sg	Feminine sg	Masculine pl	Feminine pl
Ablative	eilon	eilonei	eilona	eilono
Dative	eilos	eilosei	eilosa	eiloso
Malefactive	rueilos	rueilosei	rueilosa	rueiloso

Third person inanimate:

Case	Singular	Plural
Ablative	eiton	eitona
Dative	eitos	eitosa
Malefactive	rueitos	rueitosa

Demonstrative pronouns

Formation

The third person nominative is expressed by demonstrative pronouns, formed by combining a determiner prefix with the third person consonants (l for animate, t for inanimate) and the pronominal gender/number endings. The five determiner prefixes used with personal pronouns are ni- (proximal), na- (distal), he- (anaphoric), pe- (alterative), and pa- (indefinite).

The form of the resulting demonstrative depends on the final vowel of the prefix:

• After ni-, the prefix vowel lengthens: niila, niita.
• After na- and pa-, the clitic consonant geminates after the short a: nalla, natta, palla, patta.
• After he- and pe-, the prefix vowel and i form the diphthong ei: heila, heita, peila, peita.

The full set of demonstrative pronouns is:

Prefix	Gloss	Anim msg	fsg	mpl	fpl	Inan sg	pl
ni-	this	niila	niile	niili	niilo	niita	niiti
na-	that	nalla	nalle	nalli	nallo	natta	natti
he-	the same	heila	heile	heili	heilo	heita	heiti
pe-	another	peila	peile	peili	peilo	peita	peiti
pa-	some	palla	palle	palli	pallo	patta	patti

The forms palla, patta etc. are equivalent in meaning to the indefinite pronouns pakel, pakul. The latter forms (built from the interrogative pronouns) are generally preferred.

Declension

The demonstrative pronouns all end in a vowel and are declined as regular V-class nouns. The genitive is formed with the nominal prefix a-, not with a pronominal suffix.

Case	niila “this (man)”
Nominative	niila
Genitive	aniila
Ablative	niilona
Dative	niilosa
Malefactive	runiilosa

Quantifier prefixes

The quantifier prefixes may also be used with pronouns to limit their number or sense. Unlike the determiner prefixes, this usage is not restricted to the third person. The four quantifier prefixes are ke- (all/each), kuna- (most/several), kuva- (a little/a few), and keiva- (none). With the first and second person, the quantifier prefix is attached to the nominative form of the pronoun. With the third person, the prefix combines with the person consonants following the same rules as the demonstrative prefixes.

The following table illustrates the quantifier forms (showing masculine forms for the second and third person):

                *ke-*           *kuna-*         *kuva-*         *keiva-*
                ----------      --------------  --------------  ------

Meaning (all/each) (most/several) (a little/few) (none) First sg keao kunao kuvao keivao First pl keava kunava kuvava keivava Second m.sg ketos kunatos kuvatos keivatos Second m.pl ketosa kunatosa kuvatosa keivatosa Third anim m.sg keila kunalla kuvalla keivalla Third anim m.pl keili kunalli kuvalli keivalli Third inan sg keita kunatta kuvatta keivatta Third inan pl keiti kunatti kuvatti keivatti

In all of these, the pronominal root is inflected as usual, except that the genitive is formed in the regular nominal fashion and not with a pronominal suffix.

Emphatic pronouns

Yivrian has a special class of emphatic pronouns that are used when one wishes to give special emphasis to the person involved, equivalent to English “I myself,” “you yourself,” etc. Morphologically, these are formed by applying the possessive suffixes to the nominative forms of the pronouns, with some additional simplifications.

            Singular                        Plural
            --------                        ------

First person aiva aivi Second (m) toisa toisi Second (f) toise toiso

These emphatic pronouns are regular in their case forms. Since they all end in a vowel, they are declined as V-class nouns. For example, the cases of aiva are:

Case	Form
Nominative	aiva
Genitive	aaiva
Ablative	aivona
Dative	aivosa
Malefactive	ruaivosa

Reflexive pronouns

Yivrian has a person-invariant reflexive pronoun that is used when one of the arguments in the sentence is coreferent with the subject. Unlike English, the same pronoun is used regardless of the person and gender of the subject, although the pronoun usually agrees in number with its antecedent. The reflexive does not occur in the nominative, and the genitive is given by the pronominal possessive suffix -pa.

The reflexive uses the oblique consonant p with the regular oblique prefix ei-:

Case	Singular	Plural
Ablative	eipon	eipona
Dative	eipos	eiposa
Malefactive	rueipos	rueiposa

The number agreement of the reflexive pronoun is not entirely strict. It is fairly common to use the singular forms even when referring to a plural subject, although the reverse does not occur.

Interrogative pronouns

The Yivrian interrogative pronouns and related interrogative forms are:

Yivrian	Gloss
kel	who
kul	what
kai	where
ku	when
kulai	why
keiton	how (by what means)
kulon	how (in what manner)
kotil	what sort, what kind
koton	in what manner
kosil	how many
koson	how much, to what extent

The forms kel and kul are historically built from the interrogative morpheme k- and the old demonstrative forms. They follow the declension of those demonstratives in the oblique cases except in the genitive, where they take a regular nominal formation. They do not inflect for number or gender, even when the gender or number of the questioned element may be known:

Case	kul “what”	kel “who”
Nominative	kul	kel
Genitive	akul	akel
Ablative	keiton	keilon
Dative	keitos	keilos
Malefactive	rukeitos	rukeilos

From this chart, one can see that “what” in the ablative case gives the form glossed as “how (by what means)” above.

The other question forms are either invariable (kai, ku, kulai) or are regular for their classes (kulon, kotil, kosil). For the declension of kulon, kotil, and kosil, see Yivrian adjectives.

Relative pronouns

Adjunct relatives

Yivrian distinguishes adjunct relatives from independent relatives according to the functions played by the phrases that they compose. The adjunct relatives create what in English we would regard as standard relative clauses – those that modify another element in the sentence which is overtly expressed. There are three adjunct relatives in Yivrian:

Yivrian	Gloss
keth	that, which, who
kai	where
ku	when

The adverbs kai and ku are invariable. Keth, on the other hand, is declined as a U-class noun except in the genitive, where it is expressed by the pronominal suffix -ka. It does not inflect for gender or number:

Case	Form
Nominative	keth
Genitive	(-ka)
Ablative	kathun
Dative	kathus
Malefactive	rukathus

Independent relatives

Yivrian has a larger number of independent relatives, which create clauses that have no overt antecedent:

Yivrian	Gloss
katha	who, what, which
kaiya	where
kua	when
kulaiya	why

All of these are invariable except for katha, which is declined as a regular V-class noun.

Compound relatives

The independent relatives may be used with the determiner prefixes he-, pe-, and pa- to form a special class of compound relatives:

Gloss	he- (same)	pe- (different)	pa- (indefinite)
who/what	hekatha	pekatha	pakatha
where	hekaiya	pekaiya	pakaiya
when	hekua	pekua	pakua
why	hekulaiya	pekulaiya	pakulaiya

The he- forms mean “the same (one/place/time/reason) that,” the pe- forms mean “a different (one/place/time/reason) than,” and the pa- forms are universal relatives meaning “whoever, wherever, whenever, for whatever reason.”

Inclusive and exclusive pronouns

Inclusive pronouns

The inclusive pronouns indicate “all” or “every” of their attribute:

Yivrian	Gloss
kal	everything, all
kalel	everyone
kalku	always
kalkai	everywhere

Kalku and kalkai are invariable. Kal is declined as a regular U-class noun. Kalel is declined like kel and kul, with the ending -el following the pronominal declension pattern:

Case	Form
Nominative	kalel
Genitive	akalel
Ablative	kaleilon
Dative	kaleilos
Malefactive	rukaleilos

Exclusive pronouns

The exclusive pronouns indicate the opposite of the inclusive pronouns:

Yivrian	Gloss
kav	nothing
kavel	nobody
kuva	never
kaiva	nowhere
kavulon	in no way/manner, not at all
kaveiton	by no means
kulaiva	for no reason

Kav is declined as a regular U-class noun. Kavel declines its ending as the pronominal -el with a regularly formed genitive in place of a pronominal suffix.

Indefinite pronouns

There is a class of indefinite pronouns formed by applying the indefinite prefix pa- to the interrogatives. These are preferred to equivalent compounds made from personal pronouns:

Yivrian	Gloss
pakel	someone
pakul	something
pakai	somewhere
paku	sometime
pakulai	for some reason
pakeiton	by some means
pakulon	in some manner

Summary chart

The following chart summarizes the non-personal pronoun system, showing the relationships between the various classes:

Meaning	Adj. relative	Ind. relative	Inclusive	Exclusive	Interrogative	Indefinite
what	keth	katha	kal	kav	kul	pakul
who	keth	katha	kalel	kavel	kel	pakel
when	ku	kua	kalku	kuva	ku	paku
where	kai	kaiya	kalkai	kaiva	kai	pakai
why		kulaiya		kulaiva	kulai	pakulai

How (by what means) = what in the ablative case. How (in what manner) = what with adverbial endings.