Sunday, November 30, 2008

Pronouns

Pronouns are really tricky, and I never feel as though I'm satisfied. The problem is compounded by the additional Greek-derived pronouns that I'd like to have in Vulgare so that users would be better able to access Greek if they study the language. First off, before touching pronouns, I think I'll start with possessives because they are simply adjectives. The Greek-derived adjective is the latter of each pair.

Possessive Adjectives:
mea/o, ema/o - my
tua/o, sa/o - your (s)
nostra/o, hemetera/o - our
vestra/o, hymetera/o - your (p)
sua/o - her, his, its, their own
sphetera/o - their (own)

That was the easy part. Now to personal pronouns. Like the nouns that we've derived, each form will be given as a root and a nominative in parentheses. From the root, one can obtain the genitives. However, for the first and second person, the plural will be irregular and must be memorized. The third person pronouns, however, can be entirely regular.

Personal Pronouns
1st person: me (ego) - plural: nos, hemes; plural genitive: nostri, hemum;
2nd person: te (tu) - plural: vos, hymes; plural genitive: vestri, hymum;
3rd person: ea/o (is, id), auta/o

Reflexive Pronouns
1st person: me, emauta/o - plural: nos, hemes autas/os
2nd person: te, seauta/o - plural: vos, hymes autas/os;
3rd person: se, heauta/o

Greek has a definite article, but Latin does not. In Vulgare, nouns that stand alone may be either definite or indefinite. If the definite nature of a noun is not apparent, one can use the Greek-derived definite article. The following are demonstrative pronouns with their nominative forms in perentheses.

Other Pronouns and Articles
Definite Pronoun, The: ta/to (he, ho)
This: hac/hoc (haec, hic), tuta/o (hauta, huto), tade/tode (hede, hode) - declined like ta/o + de.
That: illa/o (ille, illud), ista/o (iste, istud), eceina/o.
The same: eadem/eodem (idem) - declined like ea/o + dem.
Each other, one another: allelas/os.
Indefinite Pronoun, Some, Any: aliqua/o (aliquis, aliquid), tine (tis, ti).
-Self: ipsa/o, auta/o.
Relative Pronoun, Who, That: qua/o (quae, qui, quod), ha/o (he, hos)
Interrogative Pronoun: quo (quis, quid), tine (tis, ti)

Declining the forms above should be regular. The plural of hac/hoc will be has/hos. The genitives will be haec/hic in the singular and harum, horum in the plural. In the case of tade/tode and eadem/eodem, the final m of the genitive plural will become an n due to consonant harmony: tarum + de = tarunde, earum + dem = earundem.

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