76 DAKOTA GRAMMAR lMKMO fvo^xxui, 



§§ 71-99. THE PRONOUN 

 § 71. Subjective and Objective Forms 



Dakota has pronouns only for I, thou, I and thou. The first person is designated by a labial 

 sound, the second by a dental or palatal, the inclusive dual by a nasalized vowel. 



Subjective pronouns designate activities for both, transitive and intransitive verbs; objective 

 pronouns express the object of an action or the subject of a condition or state. 



There is no pronoun of the third person (p. 78). The plural object for human and 

 animate beings is expressed by vric'a'. This is not a pronoun but signifies person, as is 

 evidenced by the terms wic'a' male, wic'a' sa man. 



Plurality is expressed by the suffix pi which pluralizes the whole phrase. (See p. 66.) 

 Examples are: 



wat'i' I dwell, yat'i' thou dwellest, i'i' he dwells, \t'i' thou and I dwell; 'nt'i'pi he and I or several of us 



(more than two) dwell, yat'i'pi ye dwell, tH'pi they dwell 

 masi'ca I am bad, nisi'ca thou art bad, si'ca he is bad; \si'ca thou and I are bad, \si'capi he and I or 

 several of us (more than two) are bad, nisi'capi ye are bad; si'capi they are bad 



§ 72. Transitive Verbs 



Transitive verbs with pronominal subject and object form combined pronominal forms in 

 which the object always precedes the subject, except in the form we-thee. It might also be said, 

 that in true pronominal combinations the first person always precedes the second. Since the 

 dual \f, has other peculiarities of position the formulation of order object-subject seems better. 

 The object wic'a' them, is always in first position. The combination I-thee is expressed by c'i 

 which cannot be reduced to other pronominal elements. 



1 Exclusive dual and plural. 



c'ikte' I kill thee, maya'kte thou killest me, 'y,ya'ktepi thou killest him and me (exclusive dual) 

 or several of us, wic'a' wakte I kill them, wakte' I kill him, nikte he kills thee 



As in static verbs the ending pi pluralizes the whole phrase. 



§ 73. Verbs With Initial y. 



These verbs form the first and second person subjects with b.l I, I thou. The dual has the 

 usual prefix '%. 



b.luhi'ta, luhi'la, yuh%'ta, ,, nyu'h\ta to rake 

 b.lapta ', lapta' , yapta' , 'y,ya'pta to bite off 



I 



