Novial: Pronouns
Personal:
|
Singular |
Plural |
1 |
me |
nus |
2 |
vu |
vus |
3m |
lo |
los |
3f |
la |
las |
3(epicene) |
le |
les |
3n |
lum |
|
The "epicene" pronoun is used for living beings when the sex is not known or
important. Both "le" and "lum" translate "it" in English, but
"lum" is a true neuter and "le" is (as indicated) epicene: a baby
or animal might be "le" but a house is "lum." (this may be
confusing, since neuter nouns usually end in -e. But according to
Jespersen's usage in his translation of "The Emperor's New Clothes" he uses
"lum" for the invisible garment, though the only nouns in -um seem
to be abstracts.
Reflexive: se
Reciprocal: mutu = each other, one another
In the following, the -i forms are actually adjectives but are
grouped with the pronouns because they directly relate to them; so
"that" as an adjective would be "ti" (that man); as a pronoun it takes
all the forms of the 3rd person. Thus "ta" is "that one," if referring to
a female; "tes" means "those": the whole group can be figured out from
this.
Demonstrative: ti (te, to, tes, tum, etc.) = that
disi (dise, disum, etc.) = this
tali (-e, etc.) = such
tanti (-es, -um) = so much, so many
sami = same
self (invariable) = self: les ha self dikte lum = they
have said it themselves.
English speakers may ask: "How does 'self' differ from 'se'?"
The distinction is clearer in other languages such as German; it is about the
same as between "selbst" and "sich" - one is a sign of emphasis,
one of reflexivity.
Interrogative: qui, que, quo, qua, quum
Relative: kel (usually no ending except for genitive kelen
)
Indefinite: nule = none, omne = all, irge =
anyone, kelke = some, sertene = a certain one, chake =
each, altre = another
Note that the English word "that" has many meanings: relative pronoun (kel
in Novial) as in "the man that came to dinner," demonstrative adjective
(ti) as in "I want that book, not this one," demonstrative pronoun
(tum) as in "He sent me that," and even conjunction (ke
) as in "He said that he would come." English speakers must be careful about
that.
For more details, see the web pages that have been put up giving the details
of the chapter in An International Language on pronouns.
Last modified by B. R. Gilson
(brg@netcom.com) May 24, 1997.
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