Shemspreg pronouns and other particles
Pronouns are words which can stand in for other words and phrases. There are several different types of pronouns in Shemspreg which are discussed in this section: personal pronouns, demonstratives, interrogative and relative pronouns, and indefinite pronouns. In addition, I also discuss numerals, conjunctions, and quantifiers.
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns distinguish three persons and two numbers. They are also inflected for case. They are given in the table below.
| nom | gen | obl | |
| 1sing | ej | me | me |
| 2sing | tu | te | te |
| 3sing | so | sos | som |
| 1plur | we | nos | nos |
| 2plur | yu | wos | wos |
| 3plur | to | tos | tom |
Reflexive pronouns are formed by suffixing -swe to the genitive pronoun stems; the plural and third person singular pronouns delete -s before suffixation of -swe.
| 1sing | meswe | 'myself' |
| 2sing | teswe | 'yourself' |
| 3sing | soswe | 'him/her/itself' |
| 1plur | noswe | 'ourselves' |
| 2plur | woswe | 'yourselves' |
| 3plur | toswe | 'themselves' |
In possession, the reflexive pronoun is attached as a clitic to the end of the noun phrase it possesses.
so gwegumi ad domomswe.
| so | gwe- | gum | -i | ad | dom | -om | =swe |
| 3s:NOM | PERF- | come:0 | -PAST | at | house | -OBL | =REFL |
'He arrived at his (own) house.'
When the regular third person possessive pronouns are used, they are understood as not being coreferential with a previously mentioned third person.
so gwegumi ad sos domom.
| so | gwe- | gum | -i | ad | so | -s | dom | -om |
| 3s:NOM | PERF- | come:0 | -PAST | at | 3s | -GEN | house | -OBL |
'He[1] arrived at his[2] house.'
Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns in Shemspreg distinguish between two degrees of deixis corresponding to English 'this' and 'that'. The inflection of the proximal ('this') and distal ('that') demonstratives are given below. Note that the distal demonstrative is identical to the third person pronouns.
| 'this' | sing | plur |
| nom | id | ya |
| gen | is | yas |
| obl | im | yam |
| 'that' | sing | plur |
| nom | so | to |
| gen | sos | tos |
| obl | som | tom |
Interrogative and relative pronouns
The interrogative pronouns are formed from the stem kwi, meaning 'who' or 'what'.
kwi 'who, what'
kwinu 'when' (lit: 'what now')
kwicho 'where' (lit: 'what there')
kwimod 'how' (lit: 'what manner')
kwige 'why' (lit: 'what because')
The interrogative kwi 'who, what' is inflected for case in the same manner as the demonstrative pronouns; i.e., kwi, kwis, kwim. The other interrogatives are not inflected for case. Examples of their use are provided below.
kwi api abelesom?
| kwi | a- | p | -i | abel | -es | -om |
| who | PERF- | pick:0 | -PAST | apple | -PL | -OBL |
'Who picked the apples?'
kwim tu eskwi?
| kwi | -m | tu | e- | skw | -i |
| who | -OBL | 2s | PERF- | see:0 | -PAST |
'Who did you see?'
kwis kwon edi shuum?
| kwi | -s | kwon | e- | d | -i | shuu | -m |
| who | -GEN | dog | PERF- | eat:0 | -PAST | fish | -OBL |
'Whose dog ate the fish?'
kwinu so wiro gweguni?
| kwinu | so | wiro | gwe- | gun | -i |
| when | that | man | PERF- | come:0 | -PAST |
'When did that man arrive?'
kwicho wech es?
| kwicho | wech | es |
| where | village | be:PRES |
'Where is the village?'
kwige Jan woses kwonom?
| kwige | Jan | wos | -es | kwon | -om |
| why | John | sell | -PRES | dog | -OBL |
'Why is John selling the dog?'
kwimod so wiro gweguni?
| kwimod | so | wiro | gwe- | gun | -i |
| How | that | man | PERF- | come:0 | -PAST |
'How did that man arrive?'
The interrogative pronouns are also used as relative pronouns. The case of a relative pronoun is determined by its function in the subordinate clause. In the first of the following two examples, the relative pronoun functions as the subject of the embedded clause and is thus in the nominative case, while in the second example the relative pronoun functions as the object of the embedded clause and is inflected for oblique case.
ej eskwi wirom kwi dodoi patatom ad Sinanom.
| ej | e- | skw | -i | wiro | -m | kwi | do- | do | -i | patat | -om | ad | Sinan | -om |
| 1s | IMPF- | see:0 | -PAST | man | -OBL | REL:NOM | PERF- | give:0 | -PAST | potato | -OBL | to | Sinan | -OBL |
'I saw the man who gave Sinan the potato.'
ej edi patatom kwim dodoi Hasan ad Sinanom.
| ej | e- | d | -i | patat | -om | kwi | -m | do- | do | -i | Hasan | ad | Sinan | -om |
| 1s:NOM | PERF- | eat:0 | -PAST | potato | -OBL | REL | -OBL | PERF- | give:0 | -PAST | Hasan | to | Sinan | -OBL |
'I ate the potato that Hasan gave to Sinan.'
Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns are formed from the stems oi- 'some' and e- 'any'. Indefinite pronouns use many of the same stems as the interrogative/relative pronouns discussed above.
oi 'someone, something'
oinu 'sometime'
oicho 'somewhere'
oimod 'somehow'
e 'anyone, anything'
enu 'anytime'
echo 'anywhere'
emod 'anyhow'
Numerals
The numerals in Shemspreg comprise a relatively small set of roots which are the source for a number of derivational patterns. When the roots are used alone, they are equivalent to ordinary cardinal numbers; there are additional derivational patterns which yield ordinal numbers, numerical adverbs, fractions, and multiplicative verbs. These are discussed in turn below.
Cardinals
The cardinal numbers of Shemspreg are given below. Note that for twenty and its derivatives there are alternate forms. Numerals past the single digits + 10 are formed by compounding for the most part; there are also separate roots for twenty, hundred, thousand, and half.
one oino
two dwo
three tree
four kwetwer
five penkwe
six sweks
seven septim
eight okto
nine newin
ten dechim
eleven dechim-oino
twelve dechim-dwo
thirteen dechim-tree
fourteen dechim-kwetwer
fifteen dechim-penkwe
sixteen dechim-sweks
seventeen dechim-septim
eighteen dechim-okto
nineteen dechim-newin
twenty wichimti (dwodechim)
twenty-one wichimti-oyno (dwodechim-oino)
thirty treedechim
forty kwetwerdechim
fifty penkwedechim
sixty sweksdechim
seventy septimdechim
eighty oktodechim
ninety newindechim
hundred chimtom
thousand sheslo
one half seemi
Ordinals
The ordinals for 'first' and 'second' are irregular and are derived directly from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning 'foremost' (*per-) and 'following' (*sekw-). All other ordinals are formed by suffixing -to to the cardinal numbers (this option is available for 'first' and 'second' and is given in parentheses below).
first peristo (oinoto)
second sekwent (dwoto)
third treeto
fourth kwetwerto
etc.
Numerical adverbs
Numerical adverbs indicating the number of repetitions of a particular action are formed by suffixing -s to the cardinal numbers.
once oinos
twice dwos
three times trees
etc.
Fractions
In Shemspreg, the phrase x apo y is used to express the fraction 'x/y.' Thus, 3/4 is rendered as tree apo kwetwer and 5/19 is rendered as penkwe apo dechim-newin. When the numerator is '1', the fraction may be expressed by simply referring to the denominator as an ordinal.
kwetwerto 'fourth, one fourth'
newinto 'ninth; one ninth'
The only exception to this construction is for seemi 'one half'.
Multiplicative verbs
Shemspreg creates multiplicative verbs by incorporating the cardinal numerals into the verb pel-.
dwopel 'double'
treepel 'triple'
dwopeles 'doubles, is doubling'
dwopli 'was doubling'
dwopepli 'doubled'
dwopelent 'doubling'
dwopeplent 'doubled'
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are particles which serve to join two or more constituents together; these constituents may be single words or whole phrases or sentences. There are two coordinating conjunctions in Shemspreg; =kwe 'and' and =we 'or'. These conjunctions are clitics; when coordinating words in a simple list, the conjunction attaches to the last element of the list.
we seskwi owim, taurom, echwosomkwe.
| we | se- | skw | -i | owi | -m | tauro | -m | echwo | -s | -om | =kwe |
| 1p:NOM | PERF- | see:0 | -PAST | sheep | -OBL | bull | -OBL | horse | -PL | -OBL | =and |
'We saw (a) sheep, (a) bull, and (some) horses.'
ed abelom kirnosomwe!
| ed | abel | -om | kirno | -s | -om | =we |
| eat:IMP | apple | -OBL | cherry | -PL | -OBL | =or |
'Eat (an) apple or (some) cherries!'
When coordinating phrases or clauses, the conjunction attaches to the end of the initial element.
sos gwer wezho-, sos mej gem-deukentom, soskwe oochu shem-ferentom
| so | -s | gwer | wezho- | so | -s | mej | gem- | deuk | -ent | -om | so | -s | =kwe | oochu | shem- | fer | -ent | -om |
| that | -GEN | heavy | wagon- | that | -GEN | large | load- | pull | -PTC | -OBL | that | -GEN | =and | quickly | human- | bear | -PTC | -OBL |
'that (one) pulling a heavy wagon, that (one) a large load; and that (one) bearing a human quickly.'
Quantifiers
Quantifiers are like numerals in that they give information about the number of elements in a noun phrase. Quantifiers can stand alone as noun phrases, much as pronouns can. The most common quantifiers are given below.
all plino
few pau
many pli
some oi
any e
