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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:

I have a weapon that kills people

Tlɔ ɔcekàtsse po-nkó, tlupfocúp-me-nkó ɔ̀pipæ̀tlɒ-pɔ̀-tsɒ

Questions

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.