PRONOUNS.
The personal pronouns are í, I—ní, thou—o, he, she, or it; their plurals are nan, we—num, ye—ofk, they.
The demonstrative pronouns are, proximate, dá, this—plural dáfk, these; and remote, e, that—plural efk, those.
They are declined as follows:—
Personal Pronouns.
Examples—Urá kaná mur are, my house is far off—oná tuman khurk e, his village is near—húlík numá aráng arer? where are your horses?—iragh oftyán hallak, take the bread from them—nane dír hatbo, bring us water.
The demonstrative pronouns are similarly declined.
| Singular. | Plural. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. & Acc. | dá | this. | Nom. & Acc. | dáfk | these. |
| Gen. | dáná | of this. | Gen. | dáftá | of these. |
| Dat. | dáde | to this. | Dat. | dáfte | to these. |
| Abl. | dádán | from this. | Abl. | dáftyán | from these. |
| Singular. | Plural. | ||||
| Nom. & Acc. | e | that. | Nom. & Acc. | efk | those. |
| Gen. | ená | of that. | Gen. | eftá | of those. |
| Dat. | ede | to that. | Dat. | efte | to those. |
| Abl. | edán | from that. | Abl. | eftyán | from those. |
Examples—Dá masar ená areghas ír e, this girl is that man’s sister—(the word areghas is here an inflected form of are, a man. In composition, where the nominative ends in a vowel, the particle ghas, and where in a consonant, the particle as, is added to distinguish the oblique case, or the accusative only)—dáfk darakhták eftyán burzo asitur, these trees are taller than those.
The possessive pronoun is expressed by the adjective ten or tenat, own, self, added to the several personal pronouns, and is regularly declined, singular and plural being the same, as í ten, I myself, nan ten, we ourselves, ní ten, thou thyself, num ten, you yourselves, o ten, he himself, ofk ten, they themselves.
| Singular. | Plural. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. & Acc. | í ten | myself. | Nom. & Acc. | nan ten | ourselves. |
| Gen. | í tenná | of myself. | Gen. | nan tenná | of ourselves. |
| Dat. | í tene | to myself. | Dat. | nan tene | to ourselves. |
| Abl. | í tenyán | from myself. | Abl. | nan tenyán | from ourselves. |
And so on with the other personal pronouns above mentioned.
Examples—Ílum kaná tenat kárem kare, my brother did the work himself—í tenná zaghm are, it is my own sword—efk bandaghák ten-pa-ten jang kerá, those men are quarrelling amongst themselves.
The interrogative pronouns are der, who?, the same in the singular and plural, and applied only to animate objects, and ant, which? and ará, what? used in both numbers, but only applied to inanimate objects. The first is declined regularly. The others are indeclinable.
| Singular and Plural. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Nom. & Acc. | der | who? whom? |
| Gen. | dinná | of whom? whose? |
| Dat. | dere | to whom? |
| Abl. | deryán | from whom? |
Examples—Dá bandagh der are? who is this man?—dinná már are? whose son is he?—ní ant cóm asitus? of which tribe are you?—dá kasar ará tuman te káek? to which camp does this road go? Ará is also used as a relative pronoun, with hamo as its correlative, as ará ki sharo e hamo halbo, ará ki gando e hamo gum kar, whichever is good, that bring; whichever is bad, that throw away.
There are besides a number of adjective pronouns. Those in common use are the following:—Pen, another, har pen, every other, ant pen, which other. Example—kaná ílum afas pen bandagh asite, he is not my brother, he is some other man. Ákhadr, as much as, hamo khadr, so much, dá khadr, this much. Example—ákhadr ki darkár e hamo khadr haltak, as much as is necessary, so much take. Hamdún, like as—so. Example—hamdún ní us hamdún í ut, like as thou art so am I. Hamro, what sort, as dá hamro húlí are, what sort of horse is this?