Cenyani grammar reference

In EnglishPå svenskaMobile phonePrinter

Indefinite pronouns

These correspond to a whole host of different but somehow vaguely related English pronouns, including “anyone/-thing”, “someone/-thing”, “everyone/-thing”, “no-one/-thing”, “(an)other” and a few others.

As in English, most of these double as determiners – where “anyone/-thing” becomes “any” and so on – which are placed in front of nouns or noun phrases, e.g. “I saw some guy yesterday” vs. “He wanted something”. See right below for more details.


Inflection

Being Cenyani and all that, indefinite pronouns of course have to inflect in a manner of interesting ways. When not used as determiners, indefinite pronouns behave more or less like nouns: they inflect for case just like nouns, but not for number (which is usually implied by the pronoun itself or implicitly unspecified) or for definiteness (see previous parenthesis; though most of the time, indefinite pronouns are, well, indefinite). Another difference is that non-determinative indefinite pronouns require any adpositions that may be attached to them to be detached. See more under adpositions for information about detachment.

Almost all indefinite pronouns belong to the same group of inflection and follow a pattern known as the ayin-pattern (so called because the indefinite pronoun ayin inflects this way). Perhaps curiously, some other words inflect just like ayin as well, despite not being indefinite pronouns – words such as the equative determiner (rhrayin “same”).

Non-determinative indefinite pronouns also make a distinction between animate and inanimate (cf. “anyone” vs. “anything”). The basic inflection pattern is as follows:

nom.acc.dat.exp.gen.
anim. ayinayimayiŋayirayiš
inanim. ayitayidayiðayirayiš

Note that the inanimate pattern here differs from other inanimate patterns (which tend to look mostly like indefinite singluar noun inflection, cf. the inflection of ta vs. sen): the pattern here is a remnant of the second noun gender Cenyani had long ago (within the context of its fictional world), the inanimate gender – which of course stood in contrast to the animate gender.

When ayin-like indefinite pronouns are used as determiners, however, they behave very differently. They are placed before the noun they modify, and there is only a single form used for all cases, animate and inanimate alike: ayi. In the example with the guy in the second paragraph on the page, both “some guy” and “something” would be in the accusative case – but while the latter pronoun actually shows a case (by becoming ayid), the former is simply ayi; the case is instead left up to the noun to express.


Actual pronouns

Some pronouns change meaning very subtly depending on the grammatical number with which they are associated. (A grammatical number can actually be associated with some of the indefinite pronouns: for example, an indefinite pronoun can be made implicitly singular by using a singular pronoun or noun of some kind to refer back to it; and when used as a determiner with a noun, the noun determines the number of the determiner – cf. “all people” vs. “each person”.) Unless otherwise specified below, any number can be used with an indefinite pronoun: ayin, for example, can refer both to a single unspecified entity or several.

Pronouns which are marked with an asterisk (*) below do not follow the ayin-pattern.

This list is not complete and will get expanded in the future to include words for “much”, “most”, “less/fewer” and a few others.

ayin/ayit
someone/-thing: this is probably one of the most generic indefinite pronouns in Cenyani. It is used, typically, when the exact details of something are not known, or at least not known to any great extent. “Something” could be just about anything – the only thing we reveal about the thing is that it is in fact a thing, rather than, say, a person or other living entity (which of course would be “someone”). This pronoun also doubles as “anyone/-thing” in a focusless and more generic way, e.g. “Is there anyone here?” as opposed to “Is there anyone (at all) here?”.
As a determiner, it is very much worth noting that this pronoun must not be used in any way in a meaning similar to “a little”. For example, the expression “Would you like some food?” does not use any indefinite pronoun in Cenyani. Using an indefinite pronoun in this case would give the phrase the meaning “Would you like some sort of food?” or “Would you like some of the food?” depending on context. Rather than specifiying an unspecific amount of general food, the indefinite pronoun would serve instead to suggest food with various unspecified properties where the actual amount is a negligible detail. To assign importance to the amount, the determiner élim “little, small (of amounts)” must be used: the previous sample sentence would be Váni te ss élim ešetöc? – literally “Want you have little food?”. Compare with the very British-sounding expression “Would you care for a spot of tea?”
šayin/šayit
anyone/-thing (at all): this is a more emphatic version of the above. In questions, it often implies that the speaker either wishes or expects there to be something: “Is there anyone out there?” suggests additional thoughts/feelings along the lines of “I really hope so” or “I could have sworn there was” or some variation thereof. Unlike ayin/ayit, this pronoun can also be used as a determiner to emphasise on the amount (or lack thereof): “Don’t we get any food at all?”.
In non-interrogative statements, it strongly emphasises that really anything will do; it doesn’t matter what it looks, smells, tastes or feels like – it’ll still be acceptable. “I’m so hungry I could eat anything!” – I don’t even care if it’s just leftovers or salad or anything; I might even consider eating snails!
nayin/nayit
all/everyone/-thing or each [one/thing]: this pronoun refers to all entities in a group or of a certain kind; it’s a general-purpose, all-inclusive indefinite pronoun. The grammatical number of this pronoun (or its noun when it’s used as a determiner) can change the meaning very subtly:
  • In the singular, the pronoun (or, more commonly, determiner) refers to every entity in a collection of some kind, but not necessarily as a unified group. The meaning is similar to that of “each”. Saying that each member of a party eventually went home means that, indeed, everyone eventually left, but not necessarily all at the same time.
  • In the plural, the pronoun refers to every entitiy in a collection of some kind and implies that they all belong to the same unified group. Using the same example as above, saying that all members of a party eventually went home in Cenyani implies that, indeed, everyone eventually left and they all left at once; they were together as a unified group.
  • In the conceptual, finally, the pronoun (or, far more commonly, determiner) simply refers to the entire amount: “all the food was eaten” means that the entire amount of available edibles was indeed consumed; there was nothing left.
rayin/rayit
no-one/-thing: refers to no entity of any kind (or no entity of a specific kind); it implies total exclusion. In Cenyani, this pronoun always has an implied conceptual number; even when used as a determiner, the noun or noun phrase must be in the conceptual number.
layin/layit
(an)other or someone/-thing else: specifies an unspecific entity which is different from another, or which does not belong to the same logical group as another entity. A good example is the previous sentence: the first “another” refers back to “an unspecific entity” and describes a difference from it; it describes that the first entity and the second one (the other entity) are not in fact the same. In other words (that is, words which are not the same as the ones I just used), it defines that there is a second entity that must be taken into account; it defines an additional variable, etc.
I’m not entirely certain why I went to such length to describe such a fundamentally simple concept. I must be getting tired. Oh yes, it’s because I wanted to mention this: this pronoun must not be used in the meaning “one/several more” or any variation thereof. For example, saying “I want another ice cream” in Cenyani does not mean you want an additional ice cream, but rather means that you want to replace your current one with one of a different sort. To express the former, the word for “more” is used instead: oyli (uncountable) or oyin/oyit (countable).
oyin/oyit and oyli*
more: corresponds to the comparative degree of comparison in adjectives. It (I’m counting all three as the same, because they have the same semantic function) simply expresses the idea of an addition of some kind. The pronoun oyin/oyit is used with countable nouns and quantities – e.g. “more cars” – whereas oyli is uncountable – e.g. “more ice cream”. Cf. “less” vs. “fewer”.
Inflection of oyli
nom.acc.dat.exp.gen.
oylioylicoylitoyliroyliš
The uncountable form oyli looks exactly the same as a determiner. As an indefinite pronoun, it does not follow the ayin-pattern, but rather inflects like an indefinite singular noun. See the adjacent table.
élin/élit and éli*
few, little: expresses a small number or small amount. The pronoun élin/élit is used with countable nouns and quantities – “few people” – while éli is uncountable – “little time”. The uncountable form does not follow the ayin-pattern, but instead inflects exactly like oyli above. As a determiner, the uncountable form is élim.
sen*
one/you/they: generic indefinite pronoun that refers to people in general. It is used exactly like the identical personal pronoun sen. This pronoun cannot be used as a determiner.

Other words with ayin-like inflection

In addition to the indefinite pronouns, there are other words – mainly determiners – which look and behave and taste like ayin-like indefinite pronouns. That is to say, they end in -in and inflect according to the ayin pattern.

These words have been included here mainly for completeness.

This list will get expanded in the future.

rhrayin/rhrayit
same: defines that two entities are the same, or at the very least functionally identical. Note that even though definiteness is implied by this word, if it is used as a determiner, the noun must be in its definite form.