Relative pronouns:
|
The relative pronouns connect
two related clauses. This aspect would be discussed in detail in the
section on clauses. jo is the relative pronoun in this language. It is
invariable. For the nominal relative clauses there is a personal form
viz., jiman ‘whoever’. The use of the relative pronoun, however, is of
low frequency. The most common pattern is to suffix the relative
particle to the verb concerned as in:
|
jo lorak han
kitab harise tayk han klaste bohibo diyan y |
| 1 2
3 4
5 6 7
8 9 10 11 |
| ‘the boys who lost the book
were not allowed to sit in the class’ |
| (lit. who boys book lost they
class in sit will giving not) |
|
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 |
|
OR |
| kitab hara lorak han klaste bohibo diya ny
(H.F.) |
| 1
2 3
4 5 6 7 8
9 |
| (lit. book the losing boys
class in sit will giving not) |
|
1 2
3 4 5 6
7 8 9 |
| jo lorak han
systor bal se k helibo
pare |
| ‘the boys whose health are
good will be allowed to play’ |
| jiman hise partite hibopare |
| 1
2 3 4 5
6 |
| ‘who-ever comes can join the
party’ |
| (lit. who-ever came party in
come can) |
|
1 2
3 4 5
6 |
Interrogative pronouns:
|
There are few interrogative
pronouns in this language. Some of them can take post positions, but
not the number, as in:
|
| tay kod jayse |
‘where did she go ?’ |
| k heli
kod pora hoyse |
‘where was the play?’ |
| |
(lit. play where from
happen past) |
| |
1 2
3 4
5 |
| |
|
|
The interrogative pronouns
have the functions of both the interrogative determiners and
interrogative pronouns; for instance:
|
Interrogative determiners:
|
| kontu jaga |
‘which place?’ (lit.who
specific place) |
| 1 2
3 |
1 2
3 |
| kintu suali |
‘which girl?’ |
| kon suali |
‘whose girl?’ |
| itu kon kitab |
‘whose book is this?’
etc. |
|
Interrogative pronouns:
|
| kon aji jayse |
‘who went today?’ |
| tay ki korise |
‘what did she do?’ |
| tay nam ki se |
‘where can I go?’ |
| tay ki korone jayse |
‘why did she go?’ |
| 1 2
3 4 5 |
(lit. she what reason
go past) etc. |
| |
1 2 3
4 5 |
|
The interrogative pronouns
available in this language are listed below:
|
| kon |
‘who?; ‘whose?’;
‘whom’? |
| ki |
‘what?’ |
| kod |
‘where?’ |
| ketiya |
‘when?’ (lit. what
reason) |
| ki rokom |
‘how?’ |
| kontu |
‘which1
(lit. who specific?) |
|
Demostrative pronouns:
|
The demonstrative in this
language can function both as determiners and pronouns. It might be
pertinent to note here that though both the nouns human being class
and the personal pronouns show opposition in number, the demonstrative
pronouns are indifferent to the grammatical category of number. The
following two demonstrative pronouns available in this language, have
proximate and obviate references2.
|
| Proximate
itu ‘this’ (lit. this specific) |
| Obviate
otu ‘that’ (lit. that specific) |
In this respect this pair
matches the adverbial pair of place, viz., yate ‘here’ and tat ‘there’
as the demonstrative pronouns itu/otu can refer only to nouns
non-human class and not to nouns human being class. The illustrative
examples of this pair both as a determiner and as pronoun are given
below:
|
| itu suali doni |
‘this girl is beautiful |
| 1 2 3
4 |
(lit. this specific girl beautiful) |
| |
1 2
3 4 |
| otu gor horu |
‘that house is small’ |
|
1Whereas the nouns do make a distinction between
nouns human being class and nouns non-human being class
and the third person personal pronoun is co-referent
only for nouns human being class, the interrogative
pronoun kontu ‘which’ refers to both nouns human being
and nouns non-human being classes.
2In the strict sense of the
term, it would be more appropriate to call these demonstratives
as demonstrative adjecives rather than pronouns.
|
