Ok, so this is kinda random, but I decided to try and do this fun sorta language about words of mesoamerica, mostly Aztec and Mayan.
First, starting with the term "Aztec" itself. Aztec is a kinda fun term. It's an exonym that was given to the Natives by the Spanish, tho still in the native Nahuatl language.
(Also, btw, if a word in Nahuatl ends in "tl" the l is silent)
Aztec is a combination of "Aztlan" and the suffix "-teca" which translates to "the people of Aztlan"
Aztlan is a mythical or pseudo-mythical land that's supposedly where the Nahuatl peoples came from, according to their mythology, before eventually the group who'd eventually found Tenochtitlan would be lead their by Huitzilopochtli.
People have tried to find potential candidates for where Aztlan could be, were it to be a real place.
Technically, given the mythology relating to Aztlan, any Nahuatl speaking people such as the Tolteca could also be considered Aztec, tho the term is only ever applied to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan (and maybe the other people of the triple alliance?)
Ok, I think that's all for now, hope you guys found this informative!
Jë class, today we will be talking about pronouns in Old Jalo. This probably the hardest part of the language so if you figure this out you will be well on your way to acquiring a completely useless skill.
Basics
Pronouns are divided into 8 genders: pɒ́t (black), tà (blue), tlo (orange), càp (green), mɔ (yellow), po (red), tlɔ (purple), Tlóc (white). Each correspond to a class of words defined by a certain societal job. Black = retired people/ old things, white = children with no job/ young things, blue = any aquatic job, orange = urban jobs, green = foraging/farming, yellow = mining, red = violent jobs, and purple = science jobs. (In this post I will be using pink to represent special pronouns)
"But Hana, how do I form a sentence if there are no person distinctions!!!".
It's easy (most of the time), watch this:
I enchant the weapon
Xana tìm sónc-tsɒ.
"but how's that an application of a pronoun Hana, you just used your name?"
well if later we want to say:
I kill the fish with the weapon
It would translate as:
tlɔ tlupfocúp ónèf-tsɒ po-ús
What happened?
Nouns have unwritten (but mostly obvious) genders so it would probably be more helpful if the sentences were notated like this:
Xana tìm sónc-tsɒ
Tlɔ tlupfocúp ónèf-tsɒ po-ús
The pronouns replace the element of the same gender which can include a person's name. This system can be used to express the ideas that pronouns with person distinctions can express.
Relative Clauses
To create a relative clause in Jallo you simply create a normal clause then nominalize the verb using the nominalizing suffix -me then add a case ending. For example:
Questions are asked by replacing the thing you are asking about with the with the question pronoun, tse. For example:
tse tlupfocúp ónèf-tsɒ po-ús?
Who kills the fish with the weapon?
Tlɔ tlupfocúp tse-tsɒ po-ús?
What does Hana kill with the weapon?
Tlɔ tlupfocúp ónèf-tsɒ tse-ús?
What does Hana kill the fish with?
After You've Already Used a Pronoun and Pfɒ
Let's say I want to continue the conversation after talking about my violent fish-murder. What if I wanted to say "I eat the fish"? You would think I would say:
Tlɔ lúcá tà-tsɒ
But actually we don't need to mention tlɔ or tà again because you have already specified what those pronouns mean and you don't need to include them anymore. To do so would imply that you are talking about a different purple and blue thing that you have already mentioned. But we're not done yet. if we just say "Lúcá." then we are saying I eat the fish with the weapon". This is because "with the weapon" was also mentioned before as a pronoun and is implied by the sentence. To remove is we need to use a handy pronoun called pfɒ. This pronoun indicates that there is no previously stated implicit pronoun in its case in the sentence. Therefore what we actually want to say is:
Lúcá pfɒ-ús
This pronoun can also be used to approximate grammatical voices:
The passive:
Pfɒ tlupfocúp ónèf-tsɒ po-ús
The fish was killed with the weapon
The antipassive:
Tlɔ tlupfocúp pfɒ-tsɒ po-ús
Hana kills something with the weapon
And whatever this is:
Tlɔ tlupfocúp ónèf-tsɒ pfɒ-ús
Hana kills the fish with something
The Context Particle
As I said above, an implied pronoun can have a different value from an explicit pronoun of the same gender. To change the explicit pronoun we simply mention a thing of the same gender in a sentence but what if we want to change the implicit pronoun without also changing the explicit pronoun? Allow me to introduce the context particle, ɒtlij! Attaching this particle to your sentence with a word changes the implicit pronoun of that gender. For example, if you want to say "I eat the food with a tongue" you would say:
Lúcá ɒtlij ípfitsùpɒ̀
In this sentence ípfitsùpɒ̀ replaces sónc as the implicit red noun.
A Word of Warning About the Context Particle
While there will be another grammar note on politeness later, it is worth noting that ɒtlij has to be used carefully. It is considered impolite to use it when refer to a pronoun that is already being used as an explicit pronoun. Make sure to keep track of what each pronoun refers to so you don't piss someone off.
this is for indigenous folks, specifically Abenaki individuals: kwai! i want to let you all know that ndakinna education center has online western Abenaki lessons that you can sign up for! there's beginner, intermediate and expert lessons, as well as a game night! Abenaki is a beautiful language and i hope to guide abenaki/indigenous folks to resources that help with reclamation/revitalization/rematriation!
Ok so we are starting with the fun stuff! Grammar! Almost 80% of the language contains pronouns (பிரதிப் பெயர்ச் சொல்) so I’ll divide the pronoun lessons into 3 parts to get a thorough understanding of them. Firstly, let’s start off with 3rd person pronouns.
அவன் (அவ·) - he (casual)
அவள் (அவ) - she (casual)
அவர் (அவரு [avarï] (honorific neutral / he)
அவர்கள் (அவுங்க [avïnga]) - they-human (both singular neutral and plural)
அது - it
அவை (அதுங்க) - it- plural
Basically when talking, you can use அவுங்க for any person regardless of gender as it is considered the polite form or to a group of people i.e plural form. When writing substitute that with அவர்கள். You can use அவன் and அவள் with friends or close ones.
Are they (plural) coming?
(அவுங்க வராங்கலா?)
(ஆமா, அவுங்க வராங்க) - “yes, they are coming”
Is that person (he, she, they) coming?
(அவுங்க வராங்கலா?)
ஆமா, அவுங்க வராங்க - “yes, that person (respectful) is coming”
Is your older sister coming?
(உன்னொட அக்கா வராங்கலா?)
(இல்ல, அவுங்க வரல) - “no, she (respectful) is not coming.”
For men you can use both interchangeably. Notice the highlighted portions of the question sentences and the pronoun endings in the answers.
Eg:
Is your brother coming?
(உனோட அன்னா வராங்கலா?)
(உனோட அன்னா வராரா?)
I don’t know if he (respectful) will come or not.
(அவுங்க வருவாங்கலா மாட்டாங்கலா நு தெரில)
(அவர் வருவாரா மாட்டாரா நு தெரில)
Now அவர் needs a little bit of a history lesson. Ok so basically in classical Tamil அவர் was the plural form but we have a tendency to make the plural also a respectful form so then it became the respectful suffix but because we are incredibly polite and started using அவர் for everyone we needed a new plural form so we added the suffix -கள் to it (this is a universal plural suffix, attach it to anything and it becomes plural) அவர்கள் and that is now used for everyone to show respect 😂. So technically அவர் is also a neutral pronoun and in a lot of written works you’ll find it used as a respectful term regardless of gender but in the colloquial form it is now usually used to refer to men with respect.
Eg: the word Avvaiyar ( ஔவை + ஆர் -> ஔவையார்; literally 'Respectable Woman').
Or திருனர் -> transgender (notice the அர் ending)
Ok so this above info is important not just because it’s a fun fact but also cos it’s important later for nouns and verbs!
So anytime you want to replace ஆன் or ஆள் with a neutral form you can just use ஆர். This is also a perfect segue for determiners and terminals.
We learnt above that அவன் was he, but the more accurate translation would be “that man”. “This man” would then be இவன் and “which man?” எவன்.
Notice the particles அ, இ and எ. These are determiners and refer to the notions of far (அ), near (இ) and interrogation or questioning (எ) respectively. This rule has no exceptions so if I want to say there, here and where for example; it is அங்க, இங்க, எங்க. The table below shows this for all the pronouns.
Each of the 6 pronouns have their corresponding terminal.Above we saw that the ending of questions and the pronouns have the same terminals, this is because verbs have (root + tense + terminal)
வா + ந்த (past tense marker) + pronoun terminal
ஆன், -ஆள், -ஆர், -ஆர்கள், -அது and -ன
வந்த (after Sandhi rules) + any of the above terminals
அவன் வந்தான் ( he came )
அவள் வந்தாள் ( she came )
அவர் வந்தார் (they (sing)/ he honorific came)
அவர்கள் வந்தார்கள் (they (pl)/sing honorific came)
அது வந்தது (it came)
அவை வந்தன (it (pl) came)
This rule is what is referred to when it is said that there is grammatical gender in this language. There is gender but not in the abstract sense, it’s that verbs will agree with the type of gender a being belongs to.
Note: Do let me know if there are any errors in spelling or if there are any other issues, I’m still learning and this is just my way of comprehending all the info!
