4 Pronouns
Note: Using the pronoun məzəi in this way is a frequent pattern which implies that an object marked by it is familiar to all participants of the conversation. The familiar tone, however, does not apply so much to the object itself as to the shared knowledge about it. Ex. 4: məz-ə-i ňimʁa-f gəɹ gia-kie. Lit.: 1pl.(incl.) fish-ACC. still take-VOL. Let us take the (our) fish too. Note: From a conversation that occurred among several elderly women at the end of a funeral banquet, wondering whether they should take the leftover food home. The utterance was strongly humorous, because the participants in the conversation were aware of a certain inadequacy of what they were about to do, and the use of the pronoun mezei stressed the conspiratorial slant of the sentence. Ex. 5: ər bait məz-ə-t daɹ j-aqů. Lit.: This matter 1pl.(incl.)-DL. relation-NEG. This does not concern us. 2) The 3rd person singular pronoun
Whereas in written Manchu the third person pronouns i ‘he, she’ and ce ‘they’ are present, colloquial Sibe has apparently lost these pronouns and in the paradigm they are replaced by the demonstrative pronouns. This resembles the situation in Mongolian, including the fact that the demonstrative pronouns in this function, especially the singular forms ər ‘this’ and tər ‘that’, are rarely used alone. In most cases they are combined with the word nan ‘person’, which makes the expression more polite. In colloquial Sibe another expression, the addition of the word jaq ‘thing’, has became so widespread, that it has nearly lost its somewhat derogatory tone,2 and is used almost as a regular 3rd person singular pronoun. The constricted forms, əjaq <ər jaq ‘this thing’ and təjaq < tər jaq ‘that thing’, are used in common speech instead of the personal pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ for people of the same age or younger. However, when talking about elder people, as well as in any situation that requires a certain degree of politeness, the forms ər/tər nan ‘this/that person’ are used. Ex. 1: ər nan-əi sə ňi mi-maq əm durun. Lit.: This person-GEN. age POSS. 1sg.-IS. one from. He is as old as me. Ex. 2: tər nan śien ba ňi gəɹ bi. Lit.: That person good place POSS. still is. He has strong points too. Ex. 3: əjaq gizun ňi hən laft. Lit.: This thing word POSS. very much. She is too talkative. 2
In Mongolian an analogical expression ene/ter yum ‘this/that thing’, as generally using the word yum ‘thing’ for people, has a pronounced derogatory connotation and is most often used to express slight displeasure.
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Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS191783