[Linganth] First person pronouns

[Ronald Kephart]

Hi Cyndi,

In Garifuna, an Arawakan language that developed through contact between 
Carib and Arawak speakers in the Eastern Caribbean, there are/were 
traditionally two 1st-singular pronouns.  /aw/ comes from Carib and 
is/was used by males, while /nugúya/ comes from Arawakan and is used by 
females.  My consultant told me that typically children, including boys, 
use /nugúya/ until the boys are old enough to spend more time with their 
father and other adult males.  So you have sentences like:

/hiyáru nugúya/  'I am a woman'
/wugúri aw/   'I am a man'

(Stress is marked for convenience; not phonemic.)

Ron


On 8/24/17 11:44 AM, Cynthia Dunn wrote:
> Hello all.  I am writing a piece talking about the use of pronouns in 
> self-representation and I wanted to ask if people are aware of 
> languages besides Japanese which offer speakers a choice of more than 
> one option for singular, first-person pronouns (based on things like 
> gender, situational formality etc).  If you are, I would appreciate a 
> brief grammatical outline of the system and/or direction to an 
> appropriate reference work.  You can contact me directly off the list 
> at: Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu <mailto:Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu>
>
>
> Cyndi Dunn
> Professor of Anthropology
> Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology
> University of Northern Iowa
> Cedar Falls IA 50614-0513 U.S.A.
>
> (319) 273-6251
> Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu <mailto:Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu>
>
>
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