User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/1-6

Lesson 6| Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Pronouns are nouns which are used instead of another noun ('pro', in place of 'noun', noun.)

There are three categories of pronouns which are divided up into persons: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. In addition, pronouns can be singular or plural. They are declined like all other nouns.

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	I	we
2nd	you	y'all
3rd	he/she/it	they

Table of Personal Pronouns in all of their cases: I, you, he/she/it, we, y'all, they

Note: you is the singular of the plural y'all, itself a contraction of you all - it is a perfectly grammatically correct second person plural pronoun in English, useful for distinguishing you (singular) from you (plural). After spending time working with folks who spoke the Southern U.S. English regional dialect, the versatility and usefulness of the pronoun y'all became abundantly clear, as the second person plural pronoun is rarely used in the local dialect.

High Valyrian has two third person personal pronouns: ziry, for lunar and solar nouns and ūja, for terrestrial and aquatic nouns. Generally, ziry is used for animates and ūja for inanimates. However, there is flexibility and ūja may be used for animates as well. This linguistic feature is useful for sentences where you are keeping track of two generic participants like the following example of one who had something stolen and a thief:

English: Should he steal something from him, his punishment is death.

High Valyrian: Ūja hen zirȳ mirros laodios, jāhon qilōnarion morghon kesos.

In English, who is being executed? The thief or the one who had something stolen? Your brain knows even though the sentence doesn't! If there was a passage written like this, you would likely be confused. In High Valyrian, it is clear ūja is the thief to be executed.

	Singular								Plural
Case	1st Person		2nd Person		3nd Person		3nd Person		1st Person		2nd Person		2nd Person
Nominative	nyke	I	ao	you	ziry	he/she/it	ūja	he/she/it	īlon	we	jeme	y'all	pōnta	they
Accusative	yne	me	avy	you	ziry	he/she/it	ūī	he/she/it	īlōn	us	jemī	y'all	pōnte	them
Genitive	yno	of me	aō	of you	zijo	of him/her/it	ūō	of him/her/it	īlo	of us	jemo	of y'all	pōnto	of them
Dative	ynot	for me	aōt	for you	zijot	for him/her/it	ūjōt	for him/her/it	īlot	for us	jemot	for y'all	pōntot	for them
Locative	nykē	on me	aō	on you	zirȳ	on him/her/it	ūjā	on him/her/it	īlō	on us	jemē	on y'all	pōntā	on them
Instrumental	ynoma	with me	aōma	with you	zijosy	with him/her/it	josa	with him/her/it	īloma	with us	jemme	with y'all	pōntosa	with them
Comitative	ynoma	with me	aōma	with you	zijomy	with him/her/it	joma	with him/her/it	īloma	with us	jemme	with y'all	pōntoma	with them
Vocative	nykys	me	aōs	you	zirys	him/her/it	ūjus	him/her/it	īlos	us	jemys	y'all	pōntus	them

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives indicate possession of a participant in a sentence like 'my sister' or 'your bicycle.' These modify nouns; they take the gender of the noun which they modify and agree in case and number.

High Valyrian	English
ñuh-a ys on or	my
aōh-a ys on or	your
zȳh-a ys on or	his/hers, its
jāh-a ys on or	his/hers, its
īlv-a ys on or	our
jev-a ys on or	y'alls
pōj-a ys on or	their

Reflexive

	Singular								Plural
Case	1st Person		2nd Person		3nd Person		3nd Person		1st Person		2nd Person		2nd Person
Reflexive	nykēla	myself	aōla	youself	zirȳla	himself/herself/itself	jāla	himself/herself/itself	īlōnda	ourselves	jemēla	y'alls self	pōntāla	themselves

The reflexive means something like 'myself, yourself, your own' and is used to provide added emphasis to a sentence participant. It declines and is used like like a typical first lunar noun; it may be either a subject or an object per the following examples:

High Valyrian	English
Hēzīr, brōza jevi jemēle iderēbilātās.	From this day forward, you will choose your own names.
Jemēla zȳhys perzī ondurilāt?	Will you take up her flames yourselves?
Nykēla avy ossēninna.	I will kill you myself.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns indicate location relative to the speaker; in English are 'this', for that which is near (proximal), and 'that' for that which is far (distal). In High Valyrian, these words are class I adjectives that also distinguish the animacy of a modified noun. Like possessive adjectives they take the gender of the modified noun and agree in case and number like a typical adjective.

For animate nouns (like 'this mother' or 'that father') we have:

High Valyrian	English
bis-a ys on or	this
bon-a ys on or	that

Note that the animacy of animals is up to the speaker.

For inanimate nouns (like 'this table' or 'that sword') we have:

High Valyrian	English
kes-a ys on or	this
kon-a ys on or	that

Substantive Form

The substantive form is a noun and occurs when no noun is explicitly stated for an adjective to modify; thusly, the adjective must become a noun. Like the adjectival forms above, they distinguish animacy and also abstraction. All adjectives may be transformed into nouns via substantive forms; this will be covered later. For now, recognize that type I substantives convey concrete, countable items and type II substantives convey abstract uncountable items. Type I looks like -y and -ir; type II looks like -os and -ion.

Note that these substantives do not take the gender of a noun, as they are nouns themselves.

For animates:

High Valyrian	English
bisy (2lun. subst. I)	this (concrete)
bisir (5aq. subst. II)	this (abstract)
bony (2lun. subst. I)	that (concrete)
bonir (5aq. subst. II)	that (abstract)

For inanimates:

High Valyrian	English
kesy (2lun. subst. I)	this (concrete)
kesir (2lun. subst. II)	this (abstract)
kony (2lun. subst. I)	that (concrete)
konir (2lun. subst. II)	that (abstract)