Tsakxa pronouns

Pronouns in Tsakxa decline irregularly. Personal pronouns decline for three persons, three numbers and may take case suffixes and other clitics. Demonstrative pronouns decline by number and case. There are no relative pronouns.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns do not change for gender, but have emphatic and vocative forms, in addition to taking the same case clitics as nouns.

Basic forms

These forms are used in all contexts in which the other pronouns cannot be used. They are used when the pronoun is an argument of a verb, except when the pronoun is serving as topic or focus:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
First person	su	su-f	su-wa
Second person	uʔ	uʔ-ef	u-wa
Third person	aʔ	aʔ-ef	aʔ-uwa

These pronouns can then have the case suffixes applicable to Tsakxa nouns attached to them, as in u-wa-kxa (we deliberately), u-wa-ta (with us).

Emphatic pronouns

These pronouns are used in topical (i.e. initial) position:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
First person	a-su	a-s-ef	as-wa
Second person	as-uʔ	as-uf	a-wa
Third person	as-aʔ	as-af	as-wa

For example:

A-su-ø se-pesh-as - if I were a rich man

A-swa tas-tas-el ta-ma - he's definitely looking at us

Vocative forms

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Second person	et-uʔ	et-uf	et-wa

The vocative forms are used to call attention to the speaker. For example:

Et-uf! - You two!

Demonstrative pronouns

		Distance from speaker
		this	that	yonder
Case	Ergative	nxu	ep	e
	Absolutive	nxa	a	ate
	Adverbial	(s-)u-	(s-)a-	(s-)e-

The ergative and absolutive demonstratives are used as would be expected, whilst the adverbial demonstratives are used as a base for locative and other case markings. Dual is expressed regularly by the suffix -f, plural likewise by -t.

Ep - That thing

U-atqe - Under that thing

The prefix s- + adverbial + locative suffix creates pronouns with the meaning of 'the thing (preposition) that thing':

S-u-atqe - the thing under that thing

Interrogative pronouns

		Distance from speaker
		Animate	Inanimate
Case	Ergative	fu	fe
	Absolutive	fam	fa
	Adverbial	fu-	fa-

The interrogative pronouns are divided into animate and inanimate pronouns. The inanimates roughly equate to 'what' or 'which' and the animates to 'who'. The ergative and absolutive are used as the typical cases, the adverbials take the normal adverbial case suffixes.

Nxa fu se-sha-nxa-l? - Who did this? (this.ABS who.ERG ABS^-3-do⁰-PERF¹-DUB²)

Interrogative pronouns are not fronted except where focussed:

Fa uʔ wa-wa ut-ak? - Where are you coming from? (what 2ps go⁰~IMPERF¹ ABL³-go⁰)

In non-focus contexts, they may be deleted:

Nxa se-sha-nxa-l? - Who/what did this? (this.ABS ABS^-3-do⁰-PERF¹-DUB²)