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 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 standard English.

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:

Explanation- Should he steal something from him, his punishment will be death.
High Valyrian:	Ūja	hen	zirȳ	mirros	laodios(1),	jāhon	qilōnarion	morghon	kesos(2).
English:	He	from	him	something	[if, should] [he] steal	his	punishment	death	[will] be.

• ⁽¹⁾ laodigon, to steal (v-fin.). laodios, (3s. prs. subj.).
• ⁽²⁾ sagon, to be. kesos, (3s. fut. subj.).

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.

Zirȳ is in the locative because of the preposition hen; hen zirȳ constitutes a prepositional phrase.

Jāhon is a singular and nominative possessive adjective in agreement with the terrestrial qilōnarion, from which the possessive adjective takes its gender.

The subjunctive will be covered later. For now recognize that it may be translated as 'should' or 'if' and conveys a hypothetical action or an action that may not occur. The future subjunctive can be used in tandem with the present subjunctive to convey a cause → effect (present subjunctive → future subjunctive) flow like this sentence.

	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

Examples

High Valyrian	English
Ñuhe zokle, ñuhi azanti, ñuhon lenton, ñuhor qintrā jorrāelan	I love my wolf, my knight, my house, and my turtle

This sentence shows the first person possessive adjective declined in all four grammatical genders with the coordinative vowel lengthening in the final element of the list to indicate 'and.'

Reflexive Pronouns

A reflexive pronoun means something like 'myself or yourself' 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.

High Valyrian	English
nykēla	myself
aōla	yourself
zirȳla	himself/herself/itself
jemēla	himself/herself/itself
īlōnda	ourselves
jemēla	yourselves
pōntāla	themselves

Examples

High Valyrian	English
Hēzīr, brōza jevi jemēle iderēbilātās.	From this day forward, you will choose your own names.

This example uses a possessive adjective to modify a reflexive pronoun to say 'your own.'

Three additional examples of reflexive pronouns:

High Valyrian	English
Jemēla zȳhys perzī ondurilāt?	Will you take up her flames yourselves?
Nykēla avy ossēninna.	I will kill you myself.
Aōle lykemās, perzītsos.	Calm yourself, little flame.

Demonstrative and Interrogative 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.

interrogative pronouns are question words, like 'who, what, when, where, and why.' In High Valyrian, the interrogative pronouns behave identically to demonstrative pronouns except as class II adjectives; thusly, it makes sense to learn their forms together.

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
spar-e ior	which

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
skor-e ior	which

Examples

High Valyrian	English
bisi vali īlvyz zentyssy issi	these men are our guests

Bisi is a plural and nominative demonstrative pronoun that agrees with vali from which bisi takes both its gender and its animacy.

Īlvyz is plural, nominative, and solar; it taking its solar gender from the solar zentyssy.

High Valyrian	English
Iōnos kono qubo korzoti hakos	Jon is annoyed because of those low-quality swords

Here, the demonstrative pronoun kono is plural, locative, and lunar; it takes its number, case, and gender from qubo korzoti, the poor-quality swords that annoy Jon, to agree.

Korzoti is locative because the verb hakogon is one of the verbs that takes locative arguments. In this case, the locative specifies what is bothering the subject, Jon.

High Valyrian	English
bonys azantys geltose jomīsos daor	that knight is not wearing a helmet

Bonys is a demonstrative adjective taking animacy and gender from azantys. If you recall, jomīsagon, to wear, takes an instrumental, geltose, as the item worn.

This is the first example of a negation thus far. They are formed using the subjunctive followed with daor.

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 also distinguish animacy while adding 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; they only take animacy for agreement.

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)
sparos (3sol. subst. I)	who (concrete)
sparion (3ter. subst. II)	who (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)
skoros (3sol. subst. I)	what (concrete)
skorion (3ter. subst. II)	what (abstract)

Examples

High Valyrian	English
kesy īlva vīlībāzma sīr issa	this is our war now

Kesy is a type I substantive noun that takes its inanimacy and tangibility from vīlībāzma and does not modify another; it stands alone.

Īlva is a possessive adjective declined nominative, lunar, and singular to agree with vīlībāzma.

High Valyrian	English
kesir gīmī	you know this

Kesir is a type II substantive noun that has nothing to base animacy or tangibility on, for it is conveying an abstract concept.

Interrogative Pronouns

High Valyrian	English
sparos (3sol. subst. I)	who (concrete)
sparion (3ter. subst. II)	who (abstract)
skoros (3sol. subst. I)	what (concrete)
skorion (3ter. subst. II)	what (abstract)
skorī (indeclinable)	when
skoriot (3ter. loc.)	where
skoro syt (postp. phrase)	why
skorȳso (3ter. inst.)	why, because
skorkydoso (indeclinable)	how
skorlūs (3sol.)	how
skorverdon (3sol.)	how many → gen.

Relative Pronouns

Essentially, a relative pronoun forms an adjectival phrase that describes the head noun. For examples in English:

The man(1) that(2) spoke to the queen(3) went to the market.

notice how 'spoke to the queen' serves as an adjective to 'the man.'

The knight(1) who(2) defends the kingdom(3) is resting at the inn.

notice how 'defends the kingdom' serves as an adjective to 'the knight.'

• ⁽¹⁾ head noun.
• ⁽²⁾ relative pronominal adjective.
• ⁽³⁾ relative clause.

Relative clauses in High Valyrian use the relative pronominal adjective, lua, and follow an order opposite of English. See the below diagram.

High Valyrian:

clause

lua

head noun

Explanation- The man who encouraged the woman is a friend.
High Valyrian:	Ābre	kustittas(1)	lua	vala	raqiros(2)	issa.
English:	[the, a] woman	[she] was encouraged	who	[the, a] man	[a, the] friend	is.

• ⁽¹⁾ kustikagon, to encourage, strengthen (c-fin.). kustittas, (3s. pfv. ind.).
• ⁽²⁾ raquiros, friend.

Like other pronominal adjectives, lua agrees with the head noun in case, gender, and number.

		nom.	acc.	gen.	dat.	loc.	inst.	com.	voc.
lun.	sg.	lua	lue	luo	luo	luā	luos	luon	lūs
	pl.	lī	lī	luo	luo	luo	luos	luon	lis
sol.	sg.	lȳs	lī	luo	luo	lȳ	luos	luon	lȳs
	pl.	lȳz	lī	luo	luo	lī	luos	luon	lȳz
ter.	sg.	luon	luon	luo	luo	luo	luos	luon	luos
	pl.	lua	lua	luo	luo	luo	luos	luon	luas
aq.	sg.	luor	luor	luro	luro	luro	luros	luron	luos
	pl.	lura	lura	luro	luro	luro	luros	luron	luas

Bold in the table indicates an irregularity from a typical class I adjective. For the plural solar, the form is lȳz before a vowel or a voiced consonant. Italics represents a spelling change that requires a '-t' added before a consonant. For the comitative, the form is '-om' before a vowel or a labial consonant.