[Lingtyp] Plural markers on (already) plural pronouns

[Johanna Laakso]

The Hungarian case is a bit different: the -nk element in "mink" ‘we’ is, as Edith writes, a possessor or subject-person 1PL marker. But the use of general common-noun plural markers on plural pronouns actually does occur in some Uralic languages (and also independently of contacts with Turkic). In quite a few Finnic varieties, we have nominative plural markers (Proto-Finnic -t or its reflexes) on the plural personal (and sometimes also demonstrative) pronouns, as in Far North Finnish dialects (also Kven and Meänkieli) met, tet, het ‘we, you.PL, they’ (~ Standard Finnish me, te, he). In the inflection of Finnic plural pronouns, the plural element occurs regularly, as in Standard Finnish me-i-lle we-PL-ADESSIVE ‘to us’ (cf. talo-i-lle ‘to the houses’). Komi dialects have (as opposed to Standard Komi najö ‘they’) also ‘they’ pronouns carrying the regular (a Permic innovation) plural marker -jas: najöjas or najas ‘they’.

And, in fact, coming back to Hungarian, it regularly builds the plural forms of third-person and demonstrative pronouns with the general common-noun plural marker -k: ők ‘they’ (ő ‘s/he’), eze-k ‘these’ (ez ‘this’), azo-k ‘those’ (az ‘that’).

Best
Johanna 

--
Univ.Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL)
Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7
A-1090 Wien
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at • http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/
Project ELDIA: http://www.eldia-project.org/ 


> Edith A Moravcsik <edith at uwm.edu> kirjoitti 15.11.2019 kello 19.52:
> 
> Hello Ponrawee,
>  
> In Hungarian, the first person plural pronoun is monomorphemic mi. However, in some colloquial versions,
> the form mink also occurs. The ending -nk is a first person plural suffix on verbs and on possessions, e.g.:
> 
> usz-unk ‘we are swimming’
> csodá-nk ‘our  miracle’’
> 
> Best,
>  
> Edith M.
>  
> From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> On Behalf Of Ponrawee Prasertsom
> Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 10:01 AM
> To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> Subject: [Lingtyp] Plural markers on (already) plural pronouns
>  
> Dear all,
>  
> I have been looking at a number of Tai languages and found that in some of these languages, plural pronouns can optionally take a plural marker normally used on common nouns. For instance, in Shan (Southwestern Tai), the third person plural pronoun khau can optionally take the plural marker cɯ(nai), viz. khau cɯ(nai)--at least according to Cushing 1871.
>  
> Assuming this analysis is correct (if it's not please kindly inform me), I'm wondering how rare this is for pronouns? A quick lookup revealed that a similar phenomenon called "double plural marking" is found in some languages, but seems to be restricted to common nouns only. Does anyone know of any other instances like this for pronouns in other languages?
>  
> Sources: Cushing, Josiah Nelson. Grammar of the Shan Language. Rangoon: American Mission Press, 1871.
>  
> Best regards,
>  
> -- 
> Ponrawee Prasertsom
>  
> Graduate Student
> Department of Linguistics
> Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
> Bangkok, Thailand
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