Summary: number in personal pronouns

[Steve & Alison Nicolle]

An undertanding of  "teknonymy" (identifying adults by the names of their
children) and/or person underlies forms of address in many African languages
also.

In the language I am most familiar with, Digo (Bantu E.73/North-East Coast),
mothers, and occasionally fathers, are almost always referred to as 'Nine wa
X' (Mother of X) or 'Ise wa X' (Father of X) where X is the name of any of
their children, not necessarily the firstborn or a male. A longer form,
'Ninengbwa X' / 'Isengbwa X' is also common (the -ngbwa suffix appears
elsewhere as a possessive intensifier and also to express closeness or
intimacy between the possessor and the possessed, but in these forms seems
to function as a slightly more polite form of address). Some women are
referred to on different occasions by the names of various of their
children, but others are almost always referred to by reference to a
particular child, especially if he or she is more well-liked or successful
than the other children.

Digo has various words for 'mother' and 'father' depending on the relation
of the addressee to the referent:
Nine - Mother of 3rd person (i.e. his/her/their mother)
Mayo - Mother of 1st person (my/our mother)
Mayoo - Mother of 2nd person singular (the final -o is a possessive affix)
Mayo yenu - Mother of 2nd person plural ('yenu' is a form of 2pl possessive
marker)

Ise - Father of 3rd person
Baba - Father of 1st person, also vocative (Sir) and polite way of referring
to a man (e.g.Baba mmwenga akedza - One gentleman has come)
Sowe - Father of 2nd person singular
Sowe yenu - Father of 2nd person plural

The first person forms 'Mayo' and Baba' also function as vocatives
(Madam/Sir), although when calling a person by name 'Nine/Ise wa X' or
'Ninengbwa X' / 'Isengbwa X' must be used.

I'd be interested to know if other (non-Bantu) languages also use different
kinship terms or other terms for people depending on the relation of the
referent and the ADDRESSEE.

Steve Nicolle
BTL/SIL linguistics consultant, Kenya