3.2

## 3.2.1 - The Basic Pronouns

The pronouns take the same case endings and number marking prefixes as nouns.

### **3.2.1.1**

In everyday speech, when the first person root **oe** does not occur at the end of the word, its pronunciation changes to **we**, as in **oel** pronounced **wel**, **oeru** as **weru**. However, this pronunciation does not happen to the dual and trial forms, **moe** and **pxoe**, which would result in illegal consonant clusters at the start of a word, such as **\*mwel**. This pronunciation is indicated with the accenting underline on the **e**.

If **oe** occurs after a word ending in **-u**, then **oe** is pronounced like **we**, with, for example, **'efu oe** pronounced like **'efu we**.

### **3.2.1.2**

The non-singular first person pronouns are either exclusive (excluding the person addressed) or inclusive (including the person addressed). The inclusive ending, **-ng**, is from **nga**, which reappears in full when a case ending is added. The agentive of **oeng** is **oengal**, not **\*oengìl**.

### **3.2.1.3**

**Ayoeng** has the short form **awnga**. Both may be used freely with any case ending, though **awnga** is more common.

### **3.2.1.4**

There are separate third person pronouns for animate and inanimate objects. Animals may be referred to with the animate pronoun **po**, but bugs are not. The more important the speaker’s relationship to the animal, the more likely a form of **po** is used.

### **3.2.1.5**

The third person animate **po** does not distinguish gender — it will do for “he” or “she” in English. However, gendered forms do exist, **poan** he and **poe** she, which are declined regularly, though they do not have plural forms. See 6.3.1 for their use.

### **3.2.1.6**

Several pronouns have irregular genitives with a vowel change,

Irregular Genitives

This vowel change occurs in all numbers, **feyä** < **fo**, and in the first person inclusives, **awngeyä** < **awnga**.

Pronouns derived from **po** (**'awpo** *one individual*, **frapo** *everyone*, **lapo** *another one*, **fìpo** *this one*, **tsapo** *that one*) also take the vowel change, so it is **frapeyä**, not \***frapoä**.

### **3.2.1.7**

In informal and clipped military speech the final **ä** may drop from the genitive of pronouns, **ngey ’upxaret**.

### **3.2.1.8**

The third person inanimate, **tsa’u**, is simply the demonstrative pronoun “that,” and has the genitive in **tseyä**. In informal, rapid speech it may take the form **tsaw**, which may be used with postpositions (**tsawfa**), but may not take case marking (there is no **\*tsawl**). However, the stem **tsa-** may be used with the case endings (**tsal**, **tsar**, etc.), or with a postposition (**tsafa**), again in rapid speech.

### **3.2.1.9**

The reflexive pronoun **sno** is not altered for number.

### **3.2.1.10**

The third person animate indefinite pronoun is **fko** (gen. **fkeyä**)

## 3.2.2 - Ceremonial/Honorific Pronouns

### **3.2.2.1**

For the inclusive first person forms, the **oheng** forms are standard. However, using separate pronouns, **ohe ngengasì** with enclitic **sì** *and*, is also available.

## 3.2.3 - Lahe

When used as a pronoun, **lahe** *other* has plural short forms:

Plural Forms of **lahe**

Note that the short form (**ayla**) genitive has the irregular genitive vowel change seen in other pronouns (3.2.1.6).

## Open Questions

* **3.2.2** The genitive of a form like **poho** is uncertain.

1. ↑ About Fmetok and po/fo
2. ↑ http://naviteri.org/2011/08/new-vocabulary-clothing/comment-page-1/#comment-917