Demonstrative pronouns
The words ’this, that, these, these, the one’ are demonstrative pronouns. They distinguish nouns that are closer to the speaker (this or these) or more distant (that or those).
This dish (the one close to me) is old.
That dish (the one away from me) is new.Mahican demonstrative pronouns match the gender of the nouns to which they refer. There are animate pronouns for use with animate nouns and inanimate pronouns for use with inanimate nouns.
There are singular and plural versions of these pronouns for both genders of nouns.
Inanimate nouns correspond to ‘it’ in English, whereas animate nouns are glossed as ‘he’ or a ‘she’.
When there are multiple animate noun in a phrase, the first mentioned noun is called the proximate noun. All others are called obviative and an obviative ending is added. This obviative ending can be singular or plural in Mahican. This system clearly identifies which ‘he’ or ‘him’ one is talking about when multiple 3rd person animate people or nouns are involved.
English examples:
The boy. (Him the boy)
The chair. (It the chair)
The boy's chair. ( The chair (inanimate) of the boy (inanimate))
The boy's father. Him the father (obviative) of him the boy (proximate)Obviation is marked in Mahican using:
(noun)-an for obviative singular nouns
(noun)-ah for obviative plural nouns
Poosiis. He, a cat.
Poosiisan. He (obviative), a cat.
Niimanaaw. He, a man.
Niimanaan. He (obviative), a man.
Obviative markers are used on possessed nouns in the 3rd person and in noun verb phrases that have more than one third person participant.
Obviative nouns will be discussed more fully when we discuss possession of nouns (mine, yours, his etc).
There are obviative versions of the demonstrative pronouns for use with nouns in obviative form.
Mahican may use demonstrative pronouns to replace a noun, or can be used with a noun to convey emphasis.
| Animate Demonstrative Pronouns | |
|---|---|
| uwah | this |
| nook | these |
| nah | that |
| niik | those |
| Inanimate Demonstrative Pronouns | |
|---|---|
| noh | this |
| noon | these |
| nih, nun | that |
| niin | those |
noon is expected but not attested.
noh also means ‘here’
nun is also used as an emphatic.
Animate examples:
Nah moonáhkaaw. That one, the groundhog.
Niik moonahkaak. Those ones, the groundhogs.
Uwah moonáhkaaw. This one, the groundhog.
Nook moonahkaak. These ones, the groundhogs.
Inanimate Examples
Nun xíikan. That one, the knife.
Niin xíikanan. Those ones, the knives.
Nih xíikan. This one, the knife.
Noon xíikanan. These ones, the knives.