Gothic/2/Pronouns

Gothic Pronouns This section will deal with personal pronouns (including reflexive pronouns for each of the three grammatical persons), possessive pronouns, demonstratives, and relative pronouns. Each follows a particular pattern of inflection, partially mirroring the noun declension. In Gothic there exist pronouns for the dual number, referring to two people or things; the plural was used only for quantities greater than two. Thus, "the two of us" and "we" for numbers greater than two were expressed with the dual pronouns wit and weis respectively. Personal Pronouns Gothic is unique among Germanic languages, insofar as it is a pro-drop language, i.e subject pronouns may be omitted entirely. This is similar to languages like Latin or modern Spanish. Therefore, subject pronouns can be used for emphasis, example: Ik tawida þata (I did that) instead of tawida þata (I did that). Here are the Gothic personal pronouns. Case First person Singular Dual Plural Nominative ik wit weis Accusative mik ugkis uns, unsis Genitive meina ugkara unsara Dative mis ugkis unsis, uns Case Second person Singular Dual Plural Nominative þu jut jus Accusative þuk igqis izwis Genitive þeina igqara izwara Dative þus igqis izwis Case Third person Singular Plural Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative is ita si eis ija ijōs Accusative ina ija ins Genitive is izōs izē izō Dative imma izai im The reflexive pronouns (English: myself, yourself, ourselves, themselves, etc.) in Gothic sik, seina, and sis were used for both numbers and all genders. Accusative sik Genitive seina Dative sis Possessive Pronouns Gothic possessive pronouns (English: mine, yours, its, etc) decline like strong adjectives such as the adjective blinds (blind). The basic pronouns are: meins (mine); þeins (your); seins (his/her/their). Case Possessive Pronouns Singular Plural Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative seins sein(ata) seina seinai seina seinōs Accusative seinana seinans Genitive seinis seinaizōs seinaizē seinaizō Dative seinamma seinai seinaim Seins is used only when it relates back to the subject of the sentence. Otherwise, the genitive forms of the personal pronoun are used: is (his); izōs (her); izē (their [masc]); izō (their [fem]). The plural possessive pronouns are: unsar (our); izwar (your [pl]); ugkar (our [1st person dual]); igqar (your [2nd person dual]). They decline the same as seins, but without the -ata forms. Case Possessive Pronouns Singular Plural Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative unsar unsar unsara unsarai unsara unsarōs Accusative unsarana unsarans Genitive unsaris unsaraizōs unsaraizē unsaraizō Dative unsaramma unsarai unsaraim Demonstrative Pronouns The simple demonstrative pronouns sa, sō, and þata were used as pronouns for this, that, and sometimes functioned as definite articles the. It should be stressed that Gothic did not have definite articles. Case Demonstrative Pronouns Singular Plural Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative sa þata sō þai þō þōs Accusative þana þans Genitive þis þizōs þizē þizō Dative þamma þizai þaim In addition to the above forms, there existed compound demonstrative articles formed with the above pronouns + -uh. They decline the same, but where the above pronouns end in -s, it changes to -z in the compound demonstrative pronouns: therefore, þis becomes þizuh and þōs becomes þōzuh respectively. An instrumental neuter þē has been preserved in the phrase ni þē haldis (none the more). Relative Pronouns Relative pronouns are formed with the demonstrative pronouns + ei. Case Relative Pronouns Singular Plural Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative saei þatei sōei/sei þaiei þōei þōzei Accusative þanei þanzei Genitive þizei þizōzei þizēei *þizōei Dative þammei þizaiei þaimei Interrogative Pronouns Interrogative pronouns are used to ask a question, such as what, who, whom, whose. The neuter ƕa is used as what and sometimes why. Case Interrogative: Who/What Singular Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative ƕas ƕa ƕō Accusative ƕana Genitive ƕis *ƕizōs Dative ƕamma ƕizai The plural form *ƕans (masculine accusative) occurs once as part of the indefinite pronoun ƕanzuh "each, every". An instrumental neuter ƕē is attested. References Joseph Wright, Grammar of the Gothic language, 2nd edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1966