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Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that refers either to the participants in the discourse at hand (eg. I, you) or to someone or something mentioned in that discourse (eg., he, they, those). In Romániço, there are six different types of pronoun: personal, reflexive, possessive, demonstrative, relative, and indefinite.

Personal Pronouns

Strictly speaking, there are only six personal pronouns in Romániço:

mi I/me nos we/us
vi you vos you all
li he/she/it los they/them

In English, one makes no distinction between the singular and plural forms of you, except in the somewhat dialectical expression you all (or y’all); in Romániço, one says vi only when addressing a single person, vos when addressing a group. Those wishing to express a higher degree of familiarity or antiquarian flavor when addressing a single person (eg., to family and very close friends) can use the secondary pronoun ti (“thou/thee”).

Note that li refers to any third person entity, regardless of gender or animation:

Chi la postalisto consignin la paco? Sic, li consignin li hodie matine. Did the mailcarrier deliver the package? Yes, they delivered it this morning.

Other languages divide the third person according to gender, animation, etc. This division is not necessary in Romániço, but may be translated by the secondary pronouns il / ilos (he / they), el / elos (she / they), ol / olos (it* / they), and ul / ulos (they):

Chi la postalisto consignin la paco? Sic, ul consignin ol hodie matine. Did the mailcarrier deliver the package? Yes, they delivered it this morning.
Dicin il, dicin el... He said, she said...

* “It” in Romániço includes non-human entities only; humans of indeterminate sex are indicated by ul.

All these pronouns refer to specific entities, but there are also two pronouns in Romániço for referring to different types of non-specific entities. The first of these is homi, used to refer to an unspecified person or people in general:

Cua dicin ecuilo ad vi? ‘Homi’. ‘Homi’ multe paraulan, chi no? Certe sic. Who told you that? ‘They’. ‘They’ talk a lot, don’t they? They certainly do.
Homi no aplausan la tenoro pro clarifer sua voço. One does not applaud the tenor for clearing his throat.
Homi potan gluter una pinto de sánguino ante le malatecer. You can swallow a pint of blood before you get sick.

The second is lo, used to refer to a situation or circumstance, like the weather, or to the contents of the previous sentence:

Lo pluvan. It’s raining.
Vi desíderan ecuila focilo, chi no, Zed? Abanties et prendes ol. Mi volitionan lo. You want that gun, don’t you Zed? Go ahead and pick it up. I want you to.
Lo importanta es no parecifer che nos pánican. The important thing is to not make it look like we’re panicking.

Reflexive Pronouns

A pronoun that refers back to the subject of a clause (eg., English myself, themselves) is called a reflexive pronoun. In Romániço, this is identical to the personal pronouns — except for those in the “third person” (he, she, they, etc.), all of which use si:

Mi vúlnerin mi hodie. I hurt myself today.
Vi vúlnerin vi hodie. You hurt yourself today.
Nos vúlnerin nos hodie. We hurt ourselves today.
El vúlnerin si hodie. She hurt herself today.
Los vúlnerin si hodie. They hurt themselves today.

If one were to use a pronoun other than si in the last two examples, it would mean that the subjects hurt someone else, not themselves:

El vúlnerin el hodie. She hurt her today.
Los vúlnerin los hodie. They hurt them today.

Bear in mind that si refers only to the subject of the clause that it’s in, which may or may not be the main clause of the sentence.

El vidin che il vúlnerin il. She saw that he hurt him.
El vidin che il vúlnerin si. She saw that he hurt himself.
El vidin il vulnerer si.* She saw him hurt himself.
El vidin il vulneranta je si.* She saw him hurting himself.

* An infinitive verb or a participle with a complement counts as a separate clause.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns show what belongs to whom, and in Romániço are as follows:

mea my/mine nostra our/ours
vua your/yours vostra your/yours
luya his/her/hers/its lora their/theirs

The reflexive is sua, and one can use iluya, eluya, oluya, and uluya for a more gender-specific “his”, “hers”, “its”, and “their”. The indefinite is homuya. “Thy” is tua.

Mea Deo! Ol es plena de stelos! My God! It’s full of stars!
Cua es tua mandationo, mea magistro? What is thy bidding, my master?
Vua féminos, mi desíderan comprer vua féminos. Vendes ad mi vua filiisos! Your women, I want to buy your women. Sell me your daughters!
Nulu moves si aut mi derásculun eluya tota fardo! Nobody move or I scrape off all her makeup!
Il mangin iluya fígato cum fabos et on bona Chianti. He ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Il mangin sua (propria) fígato cum fabos et on bona Chianti. He ate his (own) liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Revolutiono es sempre leġasca en la unésima persono, cuom “nostra revolutiono”. Lo es mere en la triésima persono — lora revolutiono — che li es desleġasca. Revolution is always legal in the first person, such as “our revolution”. It is only in the third person — “their revolution” — that it is illegal.
Ecuilos ec vos sufiçante fortunosa haber incore vostra vivos, prendes los cum vos! Mas laces la membros cua vos perdin; los nun apertinan ad mi. Those of you lucky enough to still have your lives, take them with you! But leave the limbs you have lost; they belong to me now.
Lo no sufiçan succeser; homuya maxim bona amico deban faler. It is not enough to succeed; one’s best friend must fail.

Demonstrative Pronouns and Adjectives

Romániço has three demonstrative adjectives — ecuista (“this”), ecuila (“that”), and tala (“such”) — which are used to indicate a person or thing being referred to in terms of their proximity:

ecuista parva porcucio this little piggy
ecuila parva porcucio that little piggy
tala parva porcucio such a little piggy

All three words can be used without change as pronouns for the nouns they refer to:

Ecce la dua parva porcucios! Ecuista vadin ad mercato. Ecuila restin focare. There are the two little piggies! This one went to market. That one stayed home.

When changed into actual nouns (by adding -o to their roots), they mean not only “this/that thing” but “this/that business or fact”.

Ecuista vadin ad mercato, et ecuisto plaçan ad mi, mas ecuila restin focare, et ecuilo iracifan mi. This one went to market, and this pleases me, but that one stayed home, and that makes me angry.

Relative & Interrogative Pronouns

Relative pronouns refer to an expressed or implied person or thing in another clause; they correspond with English who, what, and which:

Incontres la hómino cua incontrin Andy Griffith! Meet the man who met Andy Griffith!
Incontres la sóriço cua incontrin Andy Griffith! Meet the mouse that/which met Andy Griffith!
Mi no audin cuo la hómino cua incontrin Andy Griffith dicin. I couldn’t hear what the man who met Andy Griffith said.
Mi no audin, cuod perturbin mi. I couldn’t hear, which upset me.

Note that cua is immutable, even when standing in for a plural noun:

Incontres la hóminos cua incontrin Andy Griffith! Meet the men who met Andy Griffith!
Ecce la hóminos je cua Andy Griffith incontrin. Here are the men whom Andy Griffith met.

Like in English, Romániço relative pronouns are also used as interrogative pronouns, that is, pronouns used in questions:

Cua incontrin Andy Griffith? Who (what/which man) met Andy Griffith?
Cua es la hómino cua incontrin Andy Griffith? Who is the man who met Andy Griffith?
Cuo la hómino cua incontrin Andy Griffith dicin? What did the man who met Andy Griffith say?

In this case, the plural of cua, where necessary, is cuos:

Cuos incontrin Andy Griffith? Which ones met Andy Griffith?

Interrogative pronouns generally come first in a sentence, but beyond this the word order of Romániço sentences does not alter when made into questions, as it often does in English sentences:

Cua Andy Griffith insultin? Whom did Andy Griffith insult?
Cua insultin Andy Griffith? Who insulted Andy Griffith?

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns are those that do not refer to any definite entity in particular, corresponding to English someone, something, nobody, nothing, everyone, everything, each (álicu, álico, nulu, nulo, omnu, omno, cascunu):

Ben la unésima veço cuande homi occisan álicu, ecce la maxim difícila. Now the first time you kill somebody, that's the hardest.
Mi desíderan nulo. Mi desíderan nulo. Mi desíderan nula contredono. I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo.
Omnu desíderan mea caro! Everybody wants my baby!