Shshi Pronouns
For additional information on use of pronouns see pages on Shshi Verbs.
Nominative Case
I, we: sho, shsho
you, you (pl.): bei, shbei
it, they (neut. personal): fa, shfa
it, they (things): fai, shfai
he, they (masc.): ma, shma
she, they (fem.): ta, shta
Objective Case (direct object and object of preposition):
Formed by suffixing ’a to the nominative form.
Examples
The Warrior accompanied us: pai’zei|⇆ fa’oibot| ↻ shsho’a| ||
The rocks fell on them [i.e., the Warriors]: shka’zi|⇆ shfai’thivot| da| shfa’a| ||
He touches her: ma’zifo| ↻ ta’a| ||
Genitive (Possessive) Case
Formed by prefixing ki’ to the nominative case. ki actually means “of” but is used mostly for forming the possessive.
Examples
Our Warriors are strong: ki’shsho| shpai’zei| ⇆ shfash|↳ da’lo| ||
I see your beautiful wings [lit., I see wings beautiful your] : sho’teio|↻ shtuk’zi| da’stuv| ki’shbei| ||
At this point I need to acknowledge that I committed a serious omission in constructing the Shshi language. I never worked out a form for expressing the non-possessive English “of”. For example, if I wanted to say, “This fortress is made of stone” or “a fortress of stone is better than a fortress of wood,” I have never set up a Shshi construction for that. I don’t even have a word for “from” in that meaning that I could use. It’s a serious oversight, and one I would have to remedy if I ever encountered a need to use such a construction.
I actually only became aware of the difference when I spent some time studying Hebrew (don’t ask me at this point why I wanted to study Hebrew). For example, in the song “Jerusalem of Gold,” the Romanized words are “Yerushalayim shel zahav,” where “shel” means “of.” For possessives, Hebrew uses something called a “construct state,” where the two nouns simply follow each other (although in many instances the first noun changes its vowels, in several quite complicated ways): “a man’s hand” is expressed “hand man” with “of” implied.
However, I did account for those differences in meaning when I constructed !Ka<tá.
Possessive Pronouns (non-modifying, i.e., used as a predicate nominative):
Add –z to the genitive form.
Examples
The rock is mine: ka’zi| ⇆ she| ↻ ki’shoz| ||
The flowers are theirs: shra| ⇆ shshe| ↻ ki’shfaz| ||
Relative Pronouns (who, which, that, whom)
These are all expressed vi|. “Whom” as a relative pronoun is also expressed vi|.
Example
The Warrior that arrived late confronted the Champion, whom it defeated: (literally, Who arrived late Warrior confronted the Champion, whom it defeated): vi| fa’krovot| naf’il| pai’zei| ⇆ fa’umot| ↻ lo’hi’zei| vi| fa’baot| ||
Reflexive pronouns
When used for emphasis, use the nominative case of the pronoun plus the emphatic marker > and place it before the subject-verb.
Examples
I myself will go: sho|> sho’u’trio| ||
You yourself spoke: bei|> bei’ganot| ||
Ki’shto’ba himself spoke: fa|> ki’shto’ba’ze|⇆ fa’ganot.
For true reflexive, use objective case plus the emphatic marker (without object link):
Example
I see myself: sho’teio| sho’a|>||
The seer named herself: tei’zei| ⇆ ta’loiot| ta’a|>||
A Warrior cannot feed itself. pai’zei| ⇆ fa’paho| wei| ⇅ ruvo| fa’a>| ||
We got lost in the mountains (We lost ourselves in the mountains): shsho’gondot| shsho’a|> i| shkwai’mi| ||