Marking of intermediate grammatical number on personal pronouns (Surgut Khanty)

SyntPP: PPs have a synthetic stem (i.e., the morphological expression of number and person occurs simultaneously), and the expression of different numbers within the same person does not display internal flexion. (As always, languages should be considered from a synchronic perspective.)


Sg Du Pl

1. mīn məŋ

2. nüŋ nīn nəŋ

3. ʌüw ʌīn ʌəɣ


In Surgut Khanty, all three numbers (Sg. Du. Pl.) and all three persons (first person, second person, and third person) are expressed by different personal pronouns. There is some regularity in the word form of personal pronouns (e.g. the initial consonant is the same for each). There are historical reasons for this phenomenon, but in the synchronic language system it is not relevant, since these forms cannot be regarded as the inflectional variants of a single stem, or as the compounds of two separate morphemes.

Author: 

Márta Csepregi