Friday, June 15, 2012

Trial Pronouns

I'm not going to have pronouns in my language, but I got to thinking about them anyway.  Here they are in English:

sing. pl.
1st I we
2nd you *y'all
3rd anim. he/she them
3rd inanim. it them

Māori has singular and dual, for two of something.  Therefore, plural means 'three of more'.  Māori also distinguishes between 'we' that includes the hearer, and 'we' that excludes the hearer.  In English, we'd have to resort to "you and us", "y'all and us", "you and I", and "y'all and I".  Here's Māori:

Sing. Dual Pl.
1st. excl. Ahau, Au Māua Mātou
1st. incl. - Tāua Tātou
2nd Koe Korua Koutou
3rd Ia Rāua Rātou


Na'vi has the singular, dual and trial numbers.  That means 'plural' means 'four or more'!  Here is the system of pronouns:

Sing. Dual Trial Plural
1st excl. oe moe pxoe ayoe
1st incl. - oeng pxoeng ayoeng, awnga
2nd nga menga pxenga aynga
3rd anim. po mefo pxefo ayfo, fo
3rd inanim. tsa'u, tsaw mesa'u pxesa'u aysa'u, sa'u

But one words seems weird: pxoeng.  It's the #3 prefix -- pxe+ -- plus the root 'I' -- oe -- plus most of the word for you -- ng.  Why doesn't that mean "the three of us and you'?  Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from Na'vi, especially about the trial number.  I hadn't thought clearly about 1st person plural (or dual or trial) personal pronouns before, and the separation into 'exclusive' and 'inclusive' was enlightening.  Translating down the 'dual' column into English would read: "both of us, you and I, both of you, both of them, the two things."  But if we can split the English 'we' into two things in the dual, why can't we split the English 'we' into more things in the trial?  Let me illustrated with another table in *hypothetical Na'vi:

Word Person A Person B Person C English
pxoe Me #1 Me #2 Me #3 "The three of us"
*moeng Me #1 Me #2 You #1 "The two of us and you"
*oemenga Me #1 You #1 You #2 "You two and I"
*moepo Me #1 Me #2 Her #1 "The two of us and her"
*oemepo Me #1 Her #1 Her #2 "Those two and I"
*oengpo Me #1 You #1 Her #1 "You, me and her"
pxenga You #1 You #2 You #3 "The three of you"
*mengapo You #1 You #2 Her #1 "You two and her"
*ngamofo You #1 Her #1 Her #2 "The two of them and you"
pxefo Her #1 Her #2 Her #3 "The three of them"

Now I know this isn't as succinct, but couldn't you imagine that if a language was serious about the trial, it might do this?

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