Pronouns

Pronouns

Nominatives

Gender

Dublex nouns and pronouns do not have grammatical gender, but logical gender is specified by using the free morphemes mas ("male") and ses ("female"). For instance, un hisan /shee-SAHN/ is "a horse", un mashisan /mas-shee-SAHN/ is "a stallion", and un seshisan /sehs-shee-SAHN/ is "a mare". The gender words may also be treated as adjectives: e.g., un seshisan and un sesa hisan are both acceptable and equivalent for purposes of translation. This is one of the rare cases where a compound is not idiomatic.

Number

Dublex nouns themselves are not marked for number (singular, dual, plural, emphatic), but the article modifying them is. Dublex pronouns do not take an article and therefore are directly marked for number (see below).

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural	Emphatic
Suffix	-	-t	-s	-d
First Person	von, "I, me"	vont, "we two, us two"	vons, "we, us"	vond, "I, me, we, us"
Second Person	nin, "you"	nint, "you two"	nins, "you"	nind, "you"
Third Person	tan, "he, she, him, her"	tant, "they two, them two"	tans, "they, them"	tand, "he, she, him, her, they, them"

The singular pronouns are adapted from Mandarin Chinese's pronouns (wo, ni/nin, ta).

Mnemonic: to remember the singular pronouns, remember the name Juanita (pronounced wa-ni-ta). Repeat to yourself, "Juanita von-nin-tan." (The v is usually pronounced /v/ but can be pronounced /w/ initially.)

The number of pronouns is formed regularly from the suffixes -t (dual), -s (plural), -d (emphatic), which are also used by the article system.

A pronoun by itself may be used anywhere a noun phrase can be used. A pronoun cannot be modified by an adjective, adverb or article (no occurrences as in the English sentence "I think the new me is better than the old me").

Because the pronoun is not used with the article, it is necessary to mark number on the pronoun itself (where it is never necessary or possible to mark number on the noun).

Gender Pronouns

If the gender is known to the writer, then it should be included; i.e., writing mastan is preferable to writing tan when it is known that the person referred to is male. (Incidentally, this is a departure from Mandarin Chinese, which does not distinguish gender in its pronouns.) When translating from Dublex into a target language, this distinction would be omitted if it is not routinely made in the target language. Thus, Dublex masnin and sesnin should both be translated in English as you and in Mandarin Chinese as ni.

Masculine

	Singular	Dual	Plural	Emphatic
First Person	masvon, "I, me"	masvont, "we two, us two"	masvons, "we, us"	masvond, "I, me, we, us"
Second Person	masnin, "you"	masnint, "you two"	masnins, "you"	masnind, "you"
Third Person	mastan, "he, him"	mastant, "they two, them two"	mastans, "they, them"	mastand, "he, him, they, them"

Feminine

	Singular	Dual	Plural	Emphatic
First Person	sesvon, "I, me"	sesvont, "we two, us two"	sesvons, "we, us"	sesvond, "I, me, we, us"
Second Person	sesnin, "you"	sesnint, "you two"	sesnins, "you"	sesnind, "you"
Third Person	sestan, "she, her"	sestant, "they two, them two"	sestans, "they, them"	sestand, "she, her, they, them"

Possessive Pronouns

The possessive of a pronoun is formed by appending -a to the pronoun, converting the pronoun to an adjective.

	Singular	Dual	Plural	Emphatic
First Person	vona, "my"	vonta, "our"	vonsa, "our"	vonda, "my, our"
Second Person	nina, "your"	ninta, "your"	ninsa, "your"	ninda, "your"
Third Person	tana, "his, her"	tanta, "their"	tansa, "their"	tanda, "their"

These pronouns should also have gender indicated gender markers, when gender is known (e.g., sestana, "her"; mastana, "his").

Reflexive Pronouns

Add seb ("self") in front of a regular pronoun or gendered pronoun to make it reflexive.

	Singular	Dual	Plural	Emphatic
First Person	sebvon, "myself"	sebvont, "ourselves"	sebvons, "ourselves"	sebvond, "our"
Second Person	sebnin, "yourself"	sebnint, "yourselves"	sebnins, "your"	sebnind, "your"
Third Person	sebtan, "himself, herself"	sebtant, "themselves"	sebtans, "their"	sebtand, "their"

The tables for gendered pronouns are omitted, but these examples should suffice: massebtan, "himself"; sessebtan, "herself."

Where English sentences uses the reflexive pronoun paired with the regular pronoun, Dublex uses just the reflexive pronoun. So "I did that myself" would more literally be translated "Myself did that"; "He said that himself" would be "Himself said that."

Reciprocal Pronouns

Add conseb ("opposite self" > "other") in front of a regular pronoun or gendered pronoun to make it reciprocal. (A reciprocal pronoun is used in sentences like "We talked to each other," contrasted with the reflexive pronoun in "We talked to ourselves.")

Attitudinal Pronouns

Four common morphemes can be prefixed to a pronoun to indicate the speaker's attitude towards the person or persons referred to. These are:

let - diminutive - "affectionate, familiar" (for addressing family members and loved ones)

ton - augmentative - "respected, superordinate" (for addressing those you respect; subjective respect)

sah - honorific - "honored, respected" (for addressing those with social standing; objective respect)

mal - pejorative - "contemptuous" (for indicating your dissatisfaction with others)

The difference between ton and sah is that sah is used for those you are supposed to respect, regardless of whether you do, while ton is used for those you do respect, regardless of whether their social standing merits it.

Normally, these morphemes are suffixed to a noun; however, since pronouns -- unlike nouns -- take number markers, those number markers are appended to the pronoun itself, preventing pronouns from taking suffixes.

While it would be nice to say that for Mandarin Chinese the Dublex form sahnin corresponds to nin, and for Spanish the Dublex letnin corresponds to tu and Dublex sahnin corresponds to Usted, the cultural issues surrounding proper use of the different registers of second-person singular pronouns are too complex to be neatly summarized in a table or easily handled algorithmically. Because of this, many translation programs from Dublex may ignore these markers altogether for pronouns.

Juxtaposed Pronouns

When talking about "You and I" or "Us and them", pronouns are simply strung together (the conjunction "and" is omitted). The customary order is 1) von, 2) nin, 3) tan.

von nin - me and you

nin tan - you and him

von nins tans - you, me and them

vons tans - us and them

When translating into a natural language, any Dublex series of juxtaposed pronouns should be treated as a single pronoun, if supported by that language (e.g., if the language has an inclusive or exclusive second person).

Pronoun Summary

Personal pronouns are always formed from their constituent parts in this order:

Reflexive/Reciprocal + Attitudinal + Gender + Base + Number + Possessive

seb/conseb + let/ton/sah/mal + ses/mas + von/nin/tan + -t/-s/-d + -a

So pronouns can become quite meaning-laden: e.g., sebmalmastans in Selbmaltoans pasa muva bioro muc les bircuhal. <self-pejorative-male-they-plural past move outside+opposite mouth the/generic/pl. beer.> A rich translation would generate something like "Stupid men that they are, they drank all the beers themselves."; however, since English does not systematically mark pronouns for attitude, a better translation might simply be "They drank all of the beer themselves."

The word sebmalmastans is not a typical example of usage, of course. The most frequently used forms are the basic forms, followed by the basic forms modified by gender and number.