Of Pronouns

Pronouns are of six kinds—Personal, Possessive, Relative, Demonstrative, Interrogative, and Indefinite.

The Personal pronouns are—me, I, tu thou or you, e or se he, i or si she. They are thus declined—

The possessives are, mo mine, do thine, or your, and a his, hers, its, or theirs. THese are only the genetives of the personal pronouns.

There is an emphatic form belonging to both personal and possessive pronouns - thus me ie I, but the addision of -se, thus mise, creates the emphatic meaning I myself.

This addition is of se ir ise in the 1st person, sa or se in the 2d, and si, sin, or san in the 3d person sing. e in the 1st person, se in the 2d, and san in the 3d person plural.

Example

mise myself
tusa thyself, driṫre to thyself
sésin or ésean, himself isi or sisi herself, dó san t himself
inne or sinne ourselves
siḃse yourselves, diḃse to yourselves
siadsan or iadsan themselves, dóiḃsean to themselves

The emphatic increase, when added to a possessive pronoun, is generally put to the noun that follows it, thus mo laṁ my hand, but a hyphen should properly be used, thus mo laṁ-sa. The increase to pessessives is sa in the sing. and 2d pserson plural, ne in the 1st, and san int he 3d person plural.

Fein is a word expressive of self or own, and is used with possessive pronouns in like manner, e. g. mo laṁ fein, mine own hand

sum or sium occur in some manuscripts, subjoined in the emphatic form to se.

Personal and possessive pronouns are often compounded with prepositions, so as to appear but one word. The learner should become well acquainted with these, as they are almost always used in combination and without any apostrophe, or other mark, to note their being so compounded.

The letters a, i, t, ṫ, or p, are often introduced to connect the words ; the latter, however, only in the 3d person.

Three examples of this mode of combination will serve to illustrate these subjects here.

In possessive pronouns the third person singular, and second and third plural, do not unite with the preposition ; and in the third persons singular and plural they require an n to be prefixed, thus — fo n'a, under his, her or their.

The emphatic increase of the personal compounds is, as in the case of the primitives, thus, agamsa, with myself; but the possessive compounds require that the increase should follow the noun with which they are connected, thus, rem laṁsa, with mine own hand.

The four other kinds of pronouns are indeclinable.

The relative pronouns are a who, which that, all that, whatever; and noċ,noċa, who which: they are indeclinable.

The demonstrative pronouns are so, this, these, here; sin, that, those, there rud and ud, that, those, there, or yon.

Interrogative pronouns are cia, ce ci, who, which; ciḋ creaḋ, cad, what; ca, what, where

These interrogatives combined with adverbs, make the following words which are in very common use —

O'Brien mentions gad, cad, dud, ca, ce, ga, and gé as interrogative adverbials that are indiscriminately used.

Indefinite pronouns are an te, an tí, ke, or the person who or that; caċ, gaċ, all, every; cuid, eigin, some; aile, eile, oile, other; uile, all, neaċ, any one; ce be ciḋ be, giḋ be, whosoever, whatsoever, which are contractions of cia and baḋ, or buiḋ, was, or were.