Lesson 5 – Singular Pronouns
Let’s learn how to say ‘I, you, he, she and it’ and ‘mine, yours, his, hers and its’ in Adnyamathanha.
Singular pronouns refer to one person. Singular pronouns in English include ‘I, me, you, he, she, it’. In Adnyamathanha the singular pronouns change form depending on how they are used in a sentence, so you’ll need to learn the different forms and how to pick the right one for your sentence.
Let’s learn four different forms of the singular pronouns in Adnyamathanha: nominative, ergative, accusative and possessive.
Nominative pronouns
Nominative pronouns are used in sentences which have a subject (a person or thing which is doing the action of the sentence) and a verb (the action of the sentence), or a subject and an adjective (describing word).
Adnyamathanha also uses short form pronouns sometimes, so instead of putting the full pronoun in you can add the short verb pronoun to the end of a verb.
Sentence examples: Remember to pay attention to the short form pronouns!
Ergative pronouns
Ergative pronouns are used in sentences which have a subject (a person or thing doing the action), a verb (the action of the sentence) and an object (a person or thing that is receiving the action of the sentence). The Ergative is used as the subject of this type of sentence.
Here are some sentence examples:
Wadna means boomerang and ngutha- means to make/prepare and nda means it’s happening now
kiki means cake, amba- means to cook and da means it’s happening now
ngutha- means prepare, aka walka means blood pudding and -angga means it happened in the past
Accusative pronouns
Accusative pronouns are used in sentences which have a subject (a person or thing doing the action), a verb (the action of the sentence) and an object (a person or thing that is receiving the action of the sentence). The Accusative is used as the object of this type of sentence.
Here are some sentence examples:
urnda- means to hit and anggu shows that it happened in the past
Coffee means coffee, nhungku- means give, and the idla is for emphasis
Nhanga means how
yakii means to burn and ng shows that something might happen
andyi- means to bring/take, anggu shows something happened in the past and busanga means on the bus
Posessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are used to show that something belongs to someone/something
NOTE: Some words like body parts, shadows, footprints and family members will not necessarily use the possessive pronoun, instead they might take one of the other pronouns such as the nominative as they are obviously possessed by the speaker.
Here are some example sentences:
vilhali means younger brother/sister, aldhaaldha means happy and yakarti means child
Mutuka means car and inhaadi means this
Yarta means country/land, -nga means on, ivi means sheep, andyi- means to have, -angga means it happened in the past and -lu means he/she/it