Khangaþyagon Pronouns

Khangaþyagon has few true pronouns, as the role of relative and interrogative pronouns is taken by nouns marked with modsegunakar. However, they have some important syntactical features.

As the direct object is not morphologically marked, the subject of a finite clause must always be explicitly represented, ie Khangaþyagon is not pro-drop.

Personal pronouns and obviation

Khangaþyagon's personal pronouns are

ya

1st person

ye

2nd person

yi

3rd person proximate

de

3rd person obviate

The third person proximate pronoun yi normally refers to the most discourse prominent 3rd person referent, which in most circumstances is the most recently stated subject. When it is necessary to refer to a different entity from the one to which yi would most obviously refer, the third person obviate pronoun de is used. When de is used as a subject, the verb is marked for the 3rd person, the same as for yi.

yubing rik poh, beb skushing de yi

yub-	i-	ng	rik	poh	beb	skush-	i-	ng	de	yi
marry	3p	PT	man	woman	and	kiss	3p	PT	OBV	PROX

The man married the woman, and she kissed him.

Obviation is only used to disambiguate references when they are both of the same grammatical number.

Reflexive pronoun

The pronoun ansidi (oneself) is used to refer back to the subject of the same clause, when it recurrs in a role other than the direct object. It can refer to subjects of any person.

aping khangaþgevont brakht ansidiung

ap-	i-	ng	khangaþ-	ge-	v-	ont	brakht	ansidi-	ung
make	3p	PT	magic	true	know	PrP	wand	REFL	BEN

The wizard made a wand for himself.

sabegrelt ye snaugar sur shosh snaugar ansidiuz

sabegr-

e

lt

ye

snaug-

ar

su-

r

shosh

snaug-

ar

ansidi-

uz

tolerate

2p

IMP

2p

fault

PL

all

PL

but

fault

PL

REFL

POSS

Tolerate all faults but your own.

ansidi is rarely used in the unmarked form, and never as a direct object. However, it may be used as an emphatic pronoun to stress the identity of the speaker.

rafkakh ansidi khorrhassass

rafk-	a-	kh	ansidi	khorr-	hassass
kill	1p	FT	REFL	fire	serpent

I myself will slay the dragon

Pronouns as phrase heads

Pronouns may be qualified by relative clauses and nouns marked with local segunakar, but not by adjectives or nouns marked with abstract segunakar.

Back	Up	Next
Basic Word Order	Syntax	Subordinate Clauses and Reported Speech