Sunday, July 12, 2015

What if PIndoEuropean Had Distinct Clusivity Pronouns?

What if ProtoIndoEuropean, or PreProtoIndoEuropean, had seperate pronouns for Inclusive and Exclusive 1st Person, dual and plural, personal pronouns?

If we were to lay out some of the reconstructions, for our example we'll use some enclitic pronouns from the Northwestern IndoEuropean branch for Illustration, it might look like this:
Potential Reconstruction of an Earlier System (Reconstruction and Hypothesis mine).


Proto- Germanic
Common Baltic
Common Slavic
Western IndoEuropean
1st Sing.
Nom.



ja
Acc.


men
men
Gen.


Poss.


moj
moi
Dat.

mi
mi
mi
1st Incl.
Dual
Nom.
wi
Acc.


wy
Gen.






Poss.







Dat.




wa
wa
1st Excl.
Dual
Nom.






Acc.




ny
Gen.








Poss.








Dat.




na
na
1st Incl.
Plur.
Nom.






wos
Acc.






wes
Gen.








Poss.








Dat.








1st Excl.
Plur.
Nom.






nos
Acc.






nes
Gen.








Poss.








Dat.






nas
2nd Sing.
Nom.
þū
ty
Acc.


ten
ten
Gen.
þī


Poss.
þȳ


toj
toi
Dat.
þē
ti
ti
ti
2nd Dual
Nom.
ġi




Acc.





Gen.







Poss.







Dat.






ja
2nd Plur.
Nom.






jos
Acc.






jes
Gen.







Poss.







Dat.






jas
3rd Sing.
Nom.




sy
Acc.


sen
sen
Gen.



Poss.
se
si
si
soi
Dat.






si
3rd Dual
Nom.






Acc.



sy
Gen.






Poss.







Dat.




sa
sa
3rd Plur.
Nom.






Acc.




sy
Gen.








Poss.








Dat.




sa
sa
*At least in some cases, ū is actually reconstructed as ō in Northwest IndoEuropean, but this distinction isn't such that it would have an impact upon the correlations noted above. (And in the case of my own speculative chart specifically, nearly all of them are reconstructible as /ō/)
*plural forms jos reconstructible as jūs/jōs; And may well derive from an adjectival form of this pronoun. Adjectival forms has -w- between the root and the vowel ending.


Any thoughts? Opposing? In favor? Uncertain?

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