| 4.7.0. Pronouns |
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Pronouns form a separate class since they can be expanded by a prior attribute of the same class, i.e., with personal pronouns only in restricted semantic domains. In the example ma:wo:r it means ‘my husband’ literally meaning ‘they or our people’. The pronous are personal, exclusive, demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite, relative and reflexive.
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| 4.7.1. Personal Pronouns |
In the first and second persons there is no formal distinction of gender. Gender distinction is made only in the third person, both in singular and plural numbers. The first person singular form is nanna: with a variant nana:. The socond person singular form is nimma: with a variant nima:. The first person plural is ma: and the second person plural is mi:.
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Person |
| First |
Second |
| Singualr |
nanna:/nana: |
nimma:/nima: |
| Oblique |
na:- |
ni:- |
| Plural |
ma: |
mi: |
| Oblique |
ma:- |
mi:- |
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The above forms are segmented as follows:
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Person |
| First |
Second |
| Singular: Base |
nan-/na- |
nim-/-ni |
| Suffix |
na- |
ma: |
| Plural : Base |
ma:- |
mi:- |
| Suffix |
- |
- |
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In the Gondi dialect as spoken in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh the same forms of personal pronouns are found with a change in the phonemic shape in second person, i.e., nimme:. The plural morphemes of personal pronouns are different in that veriety, i.e., mara: first person plural and mira: second person plural. Regarding their analysis Subrahmaniam (1968 : 46) stated as follows:
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“Comparison of these forms with me one another will show that the initial n- and m- denote singular and plural respectively. The vowel in the first syllable also has a morphemic valur. Thus -a- is the marker for the first person and -i- for second person. In the independent forms the phonemic material in the first and second plural form is the discontinuous sequence m..ra:”.
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