[YG Conlang Archives] > [romconlang group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >

[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: Silvish scratchpad

On Personal Pronouns and Gender (Part 2)

The first- and second-person pronouns (jou/nou and tu/vou, respectively) have their own behavior with regard to gender. They themselves do not change for the referent's gender, but they do have an effect on agreement targets they govern.

On the masculine-feminine dichotomy, an agreement target governed by a first- or second-person pronoun agrees with the gender of the referent.

On the common-noble dichotomy, though, these pronouns always trigger noble-gender agreement, regardless of the referent's identity. This is most striking in stories with anthropomorphized animal characters, where the narrative gives them common agreement, while they speak about themselves with noble agreement.

Lou lyevrou se santé jweyeu can qu' î retreûva la tortuwa. « Tu simbla jweyeus, » dì la tortuwa.
the hare himself was_feeling happy[M.C] when that he met the tortoise | you seem happy-M.N said the tortoise
The hare was feeling happy when he met the tortoise. "You seem happy," said the tortoise.

In the example above, the adjective jweyeu "happy" takes masculine agreement both times it is used to match the masculine gender of the referent, lyevrou "hare". And when it is directly governed by lyevrou, which is common-gender, the adjective takes common agreement. But when governed by the second-person pronoun, tu, the adjective take noble agreement instead.