Dal'qörian pronouns

Pronouns are words used in place of nouns. They are usually divided into the following categories:


Personal pronouns	I, you, he, she
Reflexive pronouns	himself, themselves, ourselves
Demonstrative pronouns	that, those, this
Possessive pronouns	mine, yours, his, hers
Relative pronouns	that, which, who
Interrogative pronouns	who?, when?, what?
Reciprocal Pronouns	each other, one another
Indefinite pronouns	some, few, a little

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to people or things. This saves repetitive use of a noun.

Nominative (subject) pronouns

The Dalcurian nominative personal pronouns (the subject of the sentence or clause) are:


binä	I/I am
diö	you/you are
mæ	he/he is
sia	she/she is
éren	they/they are
tiÞ	it/it is
ména	we/we are

There are also two impersonal pronouns: minä-you/one and minäla-they, and these are used when referring to people in general, the subjunctive mood, and to equate the use of the English (passive tense (see Verbs):

Am iáda, minä näocr nörasägrax Dal'qörian! One cannot learn Dalcurian in a day!

Minäla gä’escanostr di abödä,, qösra tiÞ gé’stæméras. The house was demolished because it was dangerous. (lit: They demolished the house, because it was unsafe).

As you can see, the subject pronouns can also carry the present tense inflections of the verb to be: am, are, is. In Dalcurian, one can assume that am/are/is can always be taken as read when a noun or pronoun is:

Followed by a present participle (a verb with the ia inflection)

Followed by an 'uninflected' adjective (including modifying words such as very/extremely)

am/are/is are not to be taken as read when a noun or pronoun is:

Followed by a modal verb (see Verbs-Modals)

Followed by the infinitive

Followed by the imperfect and perfect past tense

Followed by an inflected adjective

examples:

Binä göria nöra. I am going now.

Di gadörajel tädø. The dogs are tired.

Dörac iáda, ména gä’vecsár! We argued all day!

Öcra tirimiÞ, sia gé’námaroqu disiri. She was very depressed for a long time.

Iáda, Garé recévria ni Bemöa. Gary is getting a BMW today.

Stæ’irønet, vonéri sol, eviár binä abödä. I rarely get home before 6.

Éren voltir ni didérämös. They want a drink.

Accusative (direct object) pronouns

The accusative pronoun is the 'object' of the sentence or the thing that is affected by the action of the verb:

I asked him.

She gave her the book.

They told us to go-away!

Dalcurian accusative (or objective) pronouns inflect to show this, but nouns do not:


binöra	me/myself
diöra	you/yourself
mæöra	him/himself
siöra	her/herself
érenöra	them/themselves
tiÞöra	it/itself
ménöra	us/ourselves

Dative (indirect object) pronouns

The Dalcurian dative simply puts the preposition te-to before a nominative pronoun (or noun) as a 'non-static' prefix (prefixes that attach with a high apostrophe). This then means the phrase must follow prepositional word order wherever necessary:

Binä, te'sia, gä’andöcr di lalégraj. I gave her the book/I gave the book to her. Lit: I, to she, gave the book.

Sia, te'binä, gä’ädandöcr. She gave it back to me/She gave me it back. Lit: She, to me, returned it.

Dummy pronoun it

The dummy pronoun it is used in English as follows:

It is raining, it isn't fair

it in this instance doesn't really refer to anything or an object, but is used to make the sentence grammatical. In Dalcurian, tiÞ is never used as a dummy pronoun; the adverb danöÞ idiomatically replaces this:

DanöÞ danpöria. It's raining.

DanöÞ morgér,, taÞ ela qoÞ. It seems that all is ok.

Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns reflect the 'action' of a verb back to the subject or, rarely, the object of a sentence. Dalcurian reflexive pronouns are identical to the accusative. Word order denotes whether an accusative pronoun is truly objective, or whether it is reflexive. If the accusative pronoun is in the subject position, then it's reflexive and will always be followed by a verb:

Mæöra qlasédria. He is washing himself. Lit: Himself (is) washing/himself washes.

Iádas, érenöra déatäør. They dress themselves every day. Lit: Daily, themselves dress.

Ädas, mæöra scalaÞr. He shaves every morning. Lit: Mornings, himself shaves.

However, with a real noun, a reflexive pronoun is still required:

Ädas, Mæcal scalaÞr mæöra'. Michael shaves every morning. Lit: Mornings, Michael himself shaves.

Ommiting the reflexive pronoun leaves the sentence incomplete:

Ädas, Mæcal scalaÞr. Lit: Mornings, Michael shaves [shaves what?]

Reflexive pronouns are also used in sentences such as:

Siöra nöacr lenandrax. She can’t help herself. Lit: Herself can help not.

and in sentences where, in English, we use the phrase on ones own meaning by myself/herself etc:

Diöra mösár görax! You mustn't go on your own/by yourself! Lit: Yourself must go not.

Binöra nöacr maquirax siÞ. I can't do it on my own. Lit: Myself can do not this.

Diöra maquirax taÞ! You mustn’t do that by yourself! Lit: Yourself does not that!.

The general rule is: where no other person or object is acted upon by the action of the verb, use the reflexive pronoun.

Possesive pronouns & adjectives

Possessive pronouns are words like: mine, yours, his, hers etc and possessive adjectives my, your, our etc. Typically, possessive pronouns don't require an object whereas the adjectives do. They show possession or to whom or what something belongs. However, in Dalcurian, there are no possessive pronouns/adjectives. There are three ways in which Dalcurian possession is given. For other forms, such as Genitives, see Case

Possession.

Showing possession in Dalcurian is very simple. The equivalent of possessive adjectives and nouns is formed with the preposition qve-of and an accusative pronoun (or noun):

TaÞ di bréj qve binöra. That’s my pint Lit: That is the pint of me.

TiÞ di reliaÞ qve diöra. It’s your turn. Lit: It's the turn of you.

Éren gä’ságr,, taÞ di läbendéj qve mæöra ænÞalas gä’lafildr. They said his heart just gave up. Lit: They said, that the heart of him simply gave up.

TaÞ di vötöj qve binöra. That’s my car. Lit: That is the car of me.

With reference to possessive pronouns, this cannot be literally translated in Dalcurian:

Is that book hers? No, its mine.

Whose is this chocolate? It’s his/hers/ours/theirs.

Whom does this jacket belong to? It's Frank's.

Sentences such as the above are typically styled as: Who belongs with (+ object).

Vehiri?, máséÞa vötöj, gehör. Whose is this car? Lit: Who, with this car, belongs?.
- Binä, mátiÞ, gehör. It’s mine/it belongs to me. Lit: I, with it, belong.

TaÞ di gletéäjel qve diöra, néfaracte? Is that your jewellery?
- Nál, sia, mátiÞ, gehör. No, it’s hers. Lit: No, she, with it, belongs.

Key words you will typically see here are:

máriÞ-with, mátiÞ-with it, mátaÞ-with that, másiÞ-with this, máséÞa-with these, másáÞ-with those-all of which are contractions of máriÞ + the demonstrative pronouns.

Where there is an adjectival comparison, the object being compared must be present:

Ours is bigger than yours! (for example, talking about houses):

Di abödä qve ménöra te’giÞrö nas di abædä qve diöra! Our house is bigger than your house! Lit: The house of us is bigger than the house of you!

Alternitavely, (and more commonly), nataÞ-than that or n'taÞ when written (a contraction of nas+taÞ) will be used as follows:

Di abödä qve ménöra te’giÞrö n'taÞ qve diöra! Lit: The house of us is bigger than that of you!.

Demonstrative pronouns

This; that; these; those; none and neither are demonstrative pronouns that substitute nouns when the nouns they replace can be understood from the context. They also indicate whether they are replacing singular or plural words and give the location of the object:

siÞ-This: singular and near the speaker

taÞ-That: singular and at a distance from the speaker

séÞa-These: plural and near the speaker

sáÞ-Those: plural and at a distance from the speaker

nálöa-neither

nönä-none

Äda'yéras, ména gä'namör siÞ. We bought this last year.

Diö icaÞr séÞa sacéjel,, ön binä icaÞræ sáÞ. You take these bags and I'll take those.

Binä iqurquas esti taÞ vötöj! I'd really like that car!

Minäla, te'binä, gä'andöcr 2 pescöbrämös; nálöa önestárädn. I've been given 2 perscriptions; neither is correct.

Vitamørämös? qve möj voltir diö. Nönä. How much meat do you want? None.

NOTE: taÞ is also a relative pronoun and a subordinate conjunction which is set off buy a single comma and a double comma respectively:

Di sáj, taÞ ädiáda gä'Þalár dérÞ, di parenöj qve binöra. The man who was here yesterday is my father.

Binä qönér,, taÞ diö æanasiaÞáli. I think that you are beautiful.

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are those such as: who, what, which, where, why and how:

vehiri who
vitrö what
véca which
væl where
várö why
vöes how

When used in an interrogative sense, a question mark is place AFTER the pronoun:

Vitrö? gä'ságr mæ. What did he say?
Væl? göria diö. Where are you going?

These can also act as conjunctions:

Binä qenárax,, vöes tiÞ dérÞ vädenár. I don't know how it got here.
Sia qenár,, væl mæ habitr. She knows where he lives.

However, if the conjunction is part of a question, then it is still followed with a question mark:

Sia qenár,, væl? mæ habitr, yil. Does she know where he lives?

NOTE: The pronoun vehiri is not used to introduce a relative clause, eg: the man who was here is my father. See taÞ in the demonstrative pronouns section.

Indefinate Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns are words which replace nouns without specifying which noun they replace:

all/everything ela

another aÞéna

any éano

anyone/anybody éanörasáb

anything éanöÞa

both déba

each/every yetra

either yilöa

everyone/everybody yetrabödn

few niäni

little nitörieÞ

many véla

much vélas (for more, most, see Adjectives)

neither nálöa

no-one/nobody nabödn

nothing döqu

other andä

others andel

several levárel

some émø

someone/somebody émøbödn

something eÞöa

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns introduce a relative clause. Commonly, that, who, which, whose and whom introduce relative clauses:

The man who was here yesterday is my father.
She has a dog that barks loudly.
The house which we lived in was demolished.
That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted.
I don't know whose car this is.

With the exeption of whose see Cases, relative clauses in Dalcurian are introduced with taÞ, which equates to who, that, which or whom directly. The basic rule is: if you can replace a relative pronoun with that (as you can in the 1st 4 examples above), then taÞ is used:

Di sáj, taÞ ädiáda gä’Þalár dérÞ, di parenöj qve binöra. The man who was here yesterday is my father.
Sia ábra ni gadöraj, taÞ qurehendøni vafr. She has a dog that barks loudly.
Minäla gä'escanostr di abödä, taÞ ména gä'habitr. The house which we lived in was demolished.

With whom, if the pronoun refers to the object of the main clause, taÞ can be used:

TaÞ nörasáb, taÞ binä éagöras qenár, stæcenámeni. That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted.

If the object is an indirect object, then add te to taÞ:

Di sáj, tetaÞ binä gä'andöcr ni lalégraj, di qömpal qve binöra. The man whom I gave a book is my friend.

Punctuation note: Ordinarily, taÞ when introducing a subordinate clause is preceeded by a double comma; only a single comma precedes when introducing a relative clause. A good tip here is to see if taÞ can be replaced by any of the other relative pronouns and still make sense, if not then use a double comma.

NOTE: The relative pronoun is NEVER omitted in Dalcurian, as it can be in English:

The man who was here yesterday... The man here yesterday...

Reciprocal Pronouns

We use reciprocal pronouns to indicate that two people can carry out an action and get the consequences of that action at the same time. There are two reciprocal pronouns: