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Personal pronouns are closely related to grammatical category of person. In Nûrlâm this connection is even closer than usual. There is a popular belief that Sauron forbids using standalone personal pronouns specially in singular form (Classical Black Speech do not have singular number at all), but they became clitics similar to affixes of person attached to verbs. Most sentences do not have stand-alone pronouns except analytic forms of language used only in modern Debased Black Speech and answering the questions (like “I” in response to “Who did it?”).
Not only pronouns taking the role of subject are joined to verbs but also direct object in accusative case may be attached too. However in colloquial speech only 3rd person plural -ul (them) is still added as suffix while others usually used as standalone words. If object pronoun has dependent modifier (usually adjective) then they both are written separately. Subject pronouns rarely have modifiers.
Actually such behavior of pronouns is the calque from Quenya, and not the unique thing of Black Speech and not the result of some imaginary Sauron's philosophy. “Cf. Aragorn's exclamation when he found the sapling of the White Tree: Utúvienyes!, “I have found it!” (utúvie-nye-s “have found-I-it”; LotR3/VI ch. 5)” 1)
Similarly to Hurrian, Nûrlâm has complex pronominal system (however more consistent) with different pronouns for subject and object.
Pronouns were heavily modified during the history of Black Speech. Below is the summary table for all features existed in Nûrlâm. See also articles on grammatical category of person and evolution of Black Speech for more historical information.
There is no distinction between singular and plural form except for 3rd person.
Person | Position | English | Nûrlâm | Etymology |
---|---|---|---|---|
1st | standalone | I, we | da | HORN “da”; compare with Urartian ending “-də” of intransitive verb in 1st person singular |
clitic, -4 [1] | da- | |||
clitic, 3 [3] | me, us | -iz | LOS “-izg”, ZB “-ish” (1st person exclusive clitic pronoun in absolutive case) < Hurrian standalone 1st person singular pronoun “ishte” | |
2nd | standalone | you, thou, ye | fi | Gnomish singular “fi” + Hurrian standalone singular “fe” |
clitic, -4 [1] | fi- | |||
clitic, 3 [3] | you, thee | -am | Hurrian absolutive 2nd singular clitic “-m(ma)” | |
3rd sing. | standalone | he, she, it | ta | EL “tak” (they), all major dialects from Etym. “TA” (that), Qenya “ta” (that, it), replaced in later Quenya |
clitic, -4 [1] | ta- | |||
clitic, 2 [2] | -â(t) | Hurrian 3rd person suffix of transitive verb “-a” + LOS 3rd person singular verb suffix “-at”; compare with HORN suffix “-a” with meaning “one who does” |
||
clitic, 3 [3] | him, her, it | -an | Hurrian absolutive 3rd singular clitic “-n(na)” | |
3rd pl. | standalone | they | tak | EL “tak” (they) |
clitic, -4 [1] | tak- | |||
clitic, 2 [2] | -û(t) | rare Svartiska's plural suffix -û + AN 3rd person plural verb ending -ut | ||
clitic, 3 [3] | them | -ul | TK, CBS, RI |
Third person nominal markers -â and -û are used at the end of the word and before consonants of following suffixes and clitics. When following suffixes or clitics starts with vowel (almost every of them), auxiliary suffix -t- is inserted between them (see verb's suffix chain).
Common number becomes singular, adding plural form for 1st and 2nd person pronouns. Position 3 in verb's suffix chain is now used for Accusative/Objective case instead of Absolutive.
Person | Position | English | Nûrlâm | Etymology |
---|---|---|---|---|
1st pl. | standalone | we | dak | HORN “dak”, in analogy with 3rd person “ta” – “tak” |
clitic, -4 [1] | dak- | |||
clitic, 3 [3] | us | -ak | ZB “-ak” (1st person inclusive clitic pronoun in absolutive case) | |
2nd pl. | standalone | you, ye | gi | DS “ki” < Adûnaic “ki” & Qenya “ke” (sing.), DS “gi” (your), Gnomish “gwe” (pl.) |
clitic, -4 [1] | gi- | |||
clitic, 3 [3] | you | -af | Hurrian absolutive 2nd plural clitic “-f(fa)” |
During transition to Modern language 3rd person markers -â and -û occur only with transitive verbs.
All pronouns are written separately from verb with plural forms unified. However some subdialects adopted subject pronouns, while others took object clitics as stand-alone subjects pronouns. 3rd person plural suffix -û becomes common plural suffix for all parts of speech. Adding division in gender for 3rd person pronouns.
Person, number and gender | English | Nûrlâm | Etymology |
---|---|---|---|
1st sing. | I | da | |
izg | LOS | ||
1st pl. | we | dak | |
izgû | LOS “izg” + regular plural suffix “-û” | ||
2nd sing. | you | gi | |
lat | AN, used in majority of other Neo Black Speech dialects; compare with Quenya “-lyë”, “-llë”, “ellë”, “le” |
||
2nd pl. | fi | ||
latû | AN “lat” + regular plural suffix “-û” | ||
3rd sing. m. | he | ta | |
3rd sing. f. | she | na | SV, see also “-an” of Archaic Nûrlâm |
3rd sing. n. | it | za | SV < EL “za” (this), compare with Etym. “SI” (this, here, now) |
3rd pl. | they | tak | |
ulû | TK “ul” + regular plural suffix “-û”, calque from LOS “ulu” |
Positions in verb's suffix chain table:
Person | Number | Gender | English | Clitic | Standalone | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prefix of pronominal person/ subject/ agent | Suffix of person | Suffix of pronominal object/ patient | |||||
1st | general | I/we | da- | -∅ | -iz | da | |
singular | I | da- | -iz | da | |||
— | izg | ||||||
plural | we | dak- | -∅ | -ak | dak | ||
— | izgû | ||||||
2nd | general | you | fi- | -∅ | -am | fi | |
singular | you/thou | fi- | -am | fi | |||
— | lat | ||||||
plural | you/ye | gi- | -∅ | -af | gi | ||
— | latû | ||||||
3rd | general | common | he/she/it | ta- | -â(t) | -an | ta |
3rd | singular | common | he/she/it | ta- | -â(t) | -an | ta |
singular | masculine | he | — | ta | |||
feminine | she | — | na | ||||
neuter | it | — | za | ||||
3rd | plural | they | tak- | -û(t) | -ul | tak | |
— | ulû |