Pronoun Paradigms!

The Classical Slith pronoun was very near in declension to the noun. Most of the oblique (non-nominative) cases were the same as the noun. The pronoun was subject to the regularizing tendency that characterized the entire language in the shift from Archaic Slith to Classical Slith, so the declensional paradigm for pronouns was extremely regular.

There were many different types of pronouns: personal, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, indefinite, and reflexive.

Pronouns, like nouns and adjectives, declined to reflect case (see the description of nouns) and number. The full paradigm resembles the noun declension very nearly.

Unlike most pronouns in English, slith pronouns have gender as well: just as in English one uses he to refer to a male and she to refer to a female, all slith pronouns agree in gender. In other words, if one were speaking to a male, one might say, Thō hessas, meaning It is you (masc.) who is speaking, but to a female, one would say, Thā hessas, meaning It is you (fem.) who is speaking.

All feminine pronouns were formed simply by changing the long final ō to a long final ā. In mixed groups, with both males and females, one would use the masculine form.

Personal pronouns in Classical Slith are the equivalent of I, you, he, and other similar words in English. Like their counterparts in English, they have person and number (I is first-person singular, for example). Like all other pronouns in Classical Slith, they also have gender.

Also, the nominative pronouns were also not in common use (since they were only rarely needed and were not used when not needed). That is, if one wanted to say, I am speaking, one would most likely say hessakham, not mō hessakham (which would translate more nearly as It is I who am speaking). Nominative personal pronouns were essentially only used for emphasis: including mō places strong emphasis on the fact that I and no one else am speaking.

The demonstrative pronouns hō, rhō, and zhō in Classical Slith are the equivalents of this, that, or that (of yours), respectively. Frequently, zhō is used to place blame: if one were to say Rhō hessakhath, meaning That (male slith) is speaking, one might simply be stating a fact, but if one were to say Zhō hessakhath, meaning That (male slith of yours) is speaking, one is probably implying that the man is saying something bad and should be stopped.

The relative pronoun kō in Classical Slith is the equivalent of who, that, or which in English. The man who spoke might be expressed Ksevoss kō hessom. It is notable, however, that a native speaker would be more likely to express simple ideas like that with a simple participle, ksevoss hessothōs, saving relative clauses for more complex ideas.

The interrogative pronoun khō asks a question. One would express Who will speak? with Khō hesseth? For another example, What will he say? would be Khem hesseth?

The indefinite pronoun zō expresses the idea of someone or anyone. Thus, someone speaks would be expressed zō hessath.

The reflexive pronouns in Classical Slith come in two varieties: direct and indirect. The direct reflexive sō is used when the object in a sentence is the same as its subject. The indirect subject reflexive shō is used when the subject or object of a subordinate clause is the same as the subject of the main clause, and the indirect object reflexive pō is used similarly except with the object of the main clause.

This can, obviously, get somewhat complicated. Ksevoss sōthi hessatath means The man speaks to himself. Ksevoss thōm hessakhath kō pōm pefeireth means The man is speaking to you who will destroy you (he will destroy you; kō refers to ksevoss and pōm refers to thōm), whereas Ksevoss thōm hessakhath kō shōm pefeires means The man is speaking to you who will destroy him (you will destroy him; kō refers to thōm and shōm refers to ksevoss).

Order is rather free, as well. Ksevoss thōm hessakhath kō shōm pefeires is acceptable, where kō refers to ksevoss, but one could just as easily say kō shōm pefeires thōm hessakhath, where neither kō nor shōm refer to anything stated in the sentence (assumed to be a male third-person entity already known from context).