A Study of the Phenomenon of Pronominalization in Dangme, Regina Oforiwah Caesar
Found this deep dive to dangme pronouns. I will need to take a few hours to digest this at some point.
(AI created explanation because I am too dumb to understand academic writing. Feel free to ignore if you hate AI. The actual linked study is AI free.)
----AI AI AI AI----- wasting water, hate myself, am dumb af-----
The paper looks at how different kinds of pronouns work in Dangme. It talks about pronouns like:
Subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc. when they do something)
Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, etc. when something is done to them)
Genitive/possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, etc. for showing ownership)
Emphatic pronouns (used for emphasis, like myself or yourself)
The study finds that:
Dangme pronouns are not simple; they have a special structure that includes something like a hidden noun.
The subject pronoun and the possessive pronoun look the same in Dangme. For example, the word for he and his would be the same.
The object pronoun looks different. For example, the word for him is not the same as the word for he/his.
Reflexive pronouns (like myself, yourself) are formed by combining a possessive pronoun with the word he (which means “fresh/skin”) or by combining an emphatic pronoun with the word nitsɛ.
Reflexive and anaphoric pronouns (words that refer back to something already mentioned) both match the subject in terms of person (first, second, third) and number (singular/plural).
In short: Dangme pronouns are special because subject and possessive forms are the same, object forms are different, and reflexive forms are built by combining other words.
