Person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically the distinction is between the speaker, the addressee, and others. Hilinqwo denotes person through the pronominal bases.
The personal pronouns in Hilinqwo are as follows:
| Person | Root | Etymology | Masculine | Feminine | Collective | Distributive ("each of…") |
Totalitive ("all of…") |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First inclusive | eq* ("me, I, we") | IE *eg- | eqir* | eqiß* | eqar* | qeeq* | fraeqar* |
| First exclusive | we* ("you but not me") | IE *we- | |||||
| Second general | ju* ("you") | IE *yu- | juir* | juiß* | juar* | qeju* | frajuar* |
| Third | j* ("it") | IE *i- | jir* | jiß* | jar* | qej* | frajar* |
| Demonstrative proximate | þ* ("this") | IE *to- | þir* | þiß* | þar* | qeþ* | fraþar* |
| Demonstrative obviative | l* ("that, the other, another") | IE *al- | lir* | liß* | lar* | qel* | fralar* |
| Definite | h* | IE *ko- | hir* | hiß* | har* | qeh* | frahar* |
| Reflexive | sw* ("oneself") | IE *swo- | swir* ("himself") | swiß* ("herself") | swar* ("themselves") | qesw* ("each themselves") | fraswar* ("all of themselves") |
| Hypothetical | w* | IE *oi-no |
Hilinqwo makes the following distinctions:
- Person of reference (the speaker, the addressee, third parties).
- Gender (optional).
- Clusivity (inclusive versus exclusive "we").
- Salience (proximate versus obviative).
- Level of politeness or formality.
Hilinqwo ignores the following distinctions:
- Number, unless explicitly referenced by using the collective suffix. This is the case for all Hilinqwo bases.
- Animacy (people versus other animals or inanimate objects).
- Whether third persons are present or not.
