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Personal Pronouns
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Singular
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Dual
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Plural
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Emphatic
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Suffix
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-
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-t
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-s
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-d
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First Person
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von, "I, me"
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vont, "we two, us two"
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vons, "we, us"
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vond, "I, me, we, us"
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Second Person
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nin, "you"
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nint, "you two"
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nins, "you"
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nind, "you"
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Third Person
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tan, "he, she, him, her"
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tant, "they two, them two"
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tans, "they, them"
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tand, "he, she, him, her, they, them"
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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 not 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). Append -men to mark the plural.
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 Novvocu into a target language, this distinction would be omitted if it is not routinely made in the target language. Thus, Novvocu masnin and sesnin should both be translated in English as you and in Mandarin Chinese as ni.
Masculine
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Singular
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Dual
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Plural
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Emphatic
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First Person
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masvon, "I, me"
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masvont, "we two, us two"
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masvons, "we, us"
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masvond, "I, me, we, us"
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Second Person
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masnin, "you"
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masnint, "you two"
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masnins, "you"
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masnind, "you"
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Third Person
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mastan, "he, him"
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mastant, "they two, them two"
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mastans, "they, them"
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mastand, "he, him, they, them"
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Feminine
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Singular
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Dual
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Plural
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Emphatic
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First Person
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sesvon, "I, me"
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sesvont, "we two, us two"
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sesvons, "we, us"
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sesvond, "I, me, we, us"
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Second Person
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sesnin, "you"
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sesnint, "you two"
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sesnins, "you"
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sesnind, "you"
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Third Person
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sestan, "she, her"
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sestant, "they two, them two"
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sestans, "they, them"
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sestand, "she, her, they, them"
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Possessive Pronouns
The possessive of a pronoun is formed by using the genitive particle no.
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Singular
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Dual
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Plural
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Emphatic
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First Person
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von no citab, "my book"
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Second Person
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nin no citab, "your book"
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Third Person
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tan no citab, "his, her book"
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Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns like "myself, himself" aren't needed. Instead use the particle li, which indicates that its noun phrase is both the agent and patient of the verb. "He talked to himself" would be Mastan li muc pu comuni (literally "Male-thirdperson agent/patient mouth instrument communicate"). Where English sentences uses the reflexive pronoun paired with the regular pronoun, Novvocu 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
Recipocal pronouns aren't needed either. A reciprocal pronoun is used in sentences like "We talked to each other," and is accomplished using the particle li, as described for reflexive pronouns.
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 Novvocu form sahnin corresponds to nin, and for Spanish the Novvocu letnin corresponds to tu and Novvocu 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 Novvocu may ignore these markers altogether for pronouns.
Juxtaposed Pronouns
When talking about "You and I" or "Us and them", pronouns are simply strung together using the conjunction et, "and". The customary order is 1) von, 2) nin, 3) tan.
von et nin - me and you
nin et tan - you and him
von et nins et tans - you, me and them
vons et tans - us and them
When translating into a natural language, any Novvocu 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).
Chinese Pronouns
Of the six cardinal languages, Chinese has contributed the fewest words to Novvocu. As a result, Chinese was chosen to be the source of the Novvocu pronouns, which are among the most frequently used words in the language. The Mandarin Chinese forms are:
wo, first-person singular pronoun
ni, second-person singular pronoun; nin, second-person singular pronoun (prestige form)
ta, third-person singular pronoun
wo-men, first-person plural pronoun
ni-men, second-person plural pronoun
ta-men, third-person plural pronoun
Given Novvocu's different sound system and phonotactics (pronouns are nominals and need to begin and end with consonants), only one pronoun is exactly the same form in Chinese and Novvocu: 'nin'. The other forms were given a final /-n/ on analogy with 'nin'. And, since Novvocu doesn't have a /w/ sound (which it borrows as /v/), the first person pronoun changed from wo > won > von.
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.
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