576 



BUEEAU OF AMEEICAN" ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 40 



The tabular presentation of the independent personal pronouns is as 

 follows: 



This table shows that the independent pronouns are derived from 

 two stems— ?««. for the first persons, and nix or nixfs for the second per- 

 sons; the first singular and all dual and plural persons being obtained 

 by suffixing the subjective pronouns for these persons (see § 24) to the 

 singular forms. Thus the inclusive and exclusive dual nans and 

 naxun are composed of the first person singular na and of the subjec- 

 tive suffixes -ns and -xu?i. In like manner the inclusive and exclusive 

 plural nanl and na'nxan consist of na+-7il and na + -nxan respectively. 



The second person dual nixHs is abbreviated from an original 

 nl'xtsHs. This abbreviation is due to simplification of double conso- 

 nants (see § 15), causing a phonetic similarity between the pronouns 

 for the second person singular and dual. In order to avoid possible 

 confusion, duality of subject is indicated by suffixing to the verb the 

 subjective pronouns for the second person dual. The second person 

 plural is regular, consisting of the singular form for the second person 

 plus the subjective suffix plural for that person. 



The third persons dual and plural are obtained by adding the 

 subjective pronouns for these persons to the subjective form of the 

 demonstrative pronoun s^a. 



The objective forms of the personal pronouns — that is to say, those 

 forms that are used as objects of a sentence — are formed by adding to 

 the subjective pronouns the local suffix indicating motion -z!c(see § 90). 

 The form for the second person singular is the result of an abbrevia- 

 tion from an original nl'xtsHc caused perhaps by a reduction of the 

 cluster of final consonants. 



§ 113 



