Azurian pronouns

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1. Personal pronouns

The personal nouns have lost the accusative case just like the nouns, but in contrast to them, pronons that are direct objects take the dative case. The personal pronouns of the standard language are tabulated below:

 123m3f3n
nom.sg.egdyhanhontæd
dat.sg.mægdæghudnåhedne
gen.sg.míntínhansarhednardess
nom.pl.vididaidaidai
dat.sg.ohkdihkdaimdaimdaim
gen.sg.ohkardihkardairadairadaira

The dative pronouns in the 1st and 2nd person singular are inherited from the old accusative pronouns. But many dialects retain the old dative pronouns, mær and tær, and use the accusative pronouns only in the direct object positions. This is allowed as an option in the current standard. The 3rd person singular dative pronouns are inherited from the old dative pronouns. The old accusative 3rd person singular feminine pronoun hæna is found in a very few dialects up north, but is not allowed in the current standard.

In polite addressing, the 2nd person plural pronouns are used.

2. Reflexive pronouns

The reflexive pronouns are parallel to the personal ones, but exist only in the singular 3rd person. They have no gender and also no nominative. The dative and genitive forms are, respectively, sæg and sín. And the situation is further parallel with the personals in that the old dative pronoun sær, which exists in many dialects, is allowed as an option, then confining sæg to the direct object position.

3. Possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns have a more restricted use than the genitives of the personal pronouns in that they refer only to possessed things, whereas the genitive also have a variety of other uses, for example origin, agency of passive actions, as well as being required after certain prepositions. Unlike them, the possessives agree with the thing possessed in gender and number. The actual pronoun used however depends on the person and number of the possessor. Various dialects have the 3rd person plural possessive idar in place of the forms below. Others use ohkar for the 1st person plural possessive.

ownerm.sg.f.sg.n.sg.m.pl.f.pl.n.pl.
1p sg.mínmínmíhtmínemínarmíne
2p sg.díndíndíhtdínedínardíne
3p sg.sínsínsíhtsínesínarsíne
1p pl.várvárvårtvárevárarvár
2p pl.dihkardihkardihkartdihkardihkardihkar
3p pl.dairadairadairadairadairadaira

Just as in Old Norse, the possessive pronoun finds its place after the thing possessed in the sentence, but unlike it, the definite form of the possessed thing is used, with the exception of the most familiar kinship terms.

An important thing to note, especially for speakers of English, is that the 3rd person singular possessive is used only for direct or indirect objects that are possessed by the subject of the sentence. Otherwise, the 3rd person genitive personal pronoun is used, without agreement in gender and number.

4. Demonstrative pronouns

There are four main demonstrative pronouns in Azurian. One general, and a set of proximal, distal and remote demonstratives. They are inflected for number, gender and case, though there are only two cases, nominative and genitive. The dative demonstratives are no longer part of the standard written language, though they exist in dialects. Unlike the continental Scandinavian ones, Azurian demonstratives do not cause following adjectives and/or nouns to take the definite form.

General
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.dandantæd
gen.sg.dessdairardess
nom.pl.dairdærdai
gen.pl.dairadairadaira

The nominative singular masculine and feminine also have a form den, with a more proximal usage.

Proximal
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.hesenhæntahæhta
gen.sg.hesahesarhesa
nom.pl.hæssehæssarhæsse
gen.pl.hæssahæssahæssa

Distal
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.hasenhantahahta
gen.sg.hasahasarhasa
nom.pl.hassehassarhasse
gen.pl.hassahassahassa

Remote
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.hinhinhiht
gen.sg.hinshinarhins
nom.pl.hinehinarhine
gen.pl.hidnahidnahidna

5. Interrogative pronouns

The Azurian interrogative pronouns are kver, “who”, with its dative form kvaim; kvat, “what”, with its dative kví, and kvár, “who of a pair”, with its dative kvårjem, which is one of the few remains of the dual number in Azurian. Genitive forms, produced by adding an s at the end of any of the nominative forms, are sometimes mentioned as part of the standard, but they are not used today.

6. Relative pronouns

The relative pronoun is normally sæm, an uninflectable word. At the start of a relative clause, interrogative pronouns may sometimes be found in its stead.

7. Indefinite pronouns

Like other Scandinavian languages, Azurian uses the nominative form of the neuter general demonstrative as an impersonal subject. For example: Tæd stænder ain lind í gæra (There stands a linden tree in the yard). This word is not inflected.

The numeral ain is used as an impersonal pronoun. Also the 3rd person plural personal pronoun dai may be used as an impersonal pronoun if you want to exclude yourself. They are both uninflected in this usage.

Other indefinite pronouns are inflected. They may be classified as global, individual and exclusive, but the classes have no bearing on their inflection.

Adl, “all”, inflects half like an adjective and half like a noun. It is often used as an adjective, and then it agrees with the noun in case, unlike other adjectives.

Adl—all
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.adladlalt
dat.sg.adlaadlenadlei
nom.pl.adleadleadle
dat.pl.adlemadlemadlem

An accusative form, adlan, is found in dialects. A genitive form, adlar, may be used to augment a superlative.

The interrogative pronouns kver and kvár are used as indefinite pronouns too, and as inflected like this:

Kver—each
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.kverkverkvært
dat.sg.kværjemkverikværju

Kvár—each of two
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.kvárkvárkvårt
dat.sg.kvårjemkvárikvårju

They both have generalising forms made up with the generalising particle -tje:

Kvertjen—any
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.kværtjenkværtjenkværtje
dat.sg.kværtjemkværgarikværtju

Kvårtjen—any of two
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.kvårtjenkvårtjenkvårtje
dat.sg.kvårtjemkvårgarikvårtju

These pronouns are mostly used in the negative sense in the modern language, especially in the east, and also in the east, the dual version is encroaching on the territory of the plural version. They are commonly used in expressions like í kvårgari hand, “in neither hand”.

Ånker and náker are used of old rather like some and any in English. That is, the former preferentially in positive statements and the latter preferentially in negative ones. This distinction however is levelling out and the negative pronoun is taking over. In eastern daily speech, ånker today is all but extinct. They inflect as follows:

Ånker—some
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.ånkerånkaåhkert
dat.sg.ånkraånkriånkrei
nom.pl.ånkreånkreånkre
dat.pl.ånkremånkremånkrem

Náker—any
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.nákernákanákert
dat.sg.nákranákrinákrei
nom.pl.nákrenákrenákre
dat.pl.nákremnákremnákrem

A small number of compounds use the pronoun with a genitive s added to the nominative form, mostly the masculine. For example ånkersvegna, “for some reason”.

Another pronoun with a similar meaning is ainkver, “something”. It is inflected like kver.

The pronoun aintjen has a genitive that finds some use.

aintjen—none
 masc.fem.neut.
nom.sg.aintjenaingaætje
dat.sg.ængaængriæntjei
gen.sg.aintjesængriaintjes
nom.pl.aintjeængaraintje
dat.pl.æntjemæntjemæntjem
gen.pl.ængraængraængra

The genitive is used for example in phrases like koma til aintjes, “fail to work out, come to nothing”.

Other indefinite pronouns are ain, “one”, and annan, “other”, which are inflected as the corresponding numerals, and sum, “some”, which is inflected as an adjective.

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