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!.
