Livonian

2.2. Gramatik / Grammar

Personal pronouns

Livonian personal pronouns have three singular and three plural persons. The case forms of the personal pronouns are shown in the table below.

Case	sg. 1^st pers.	sg. 2^nd pers.	sg. 3^rd pers.	pl. 1^st pers.	pl. 2^nd pers.	pl. 3^rdpers.
Nominative	minā, ma	sinā, sa	tämā, ta	mēg (meg)	tēg (teg)	nämād, ne
Genitive	mi’n	si’n	tä’m	mä’d	tä’d	nänt
Dative	mi’nnõn ~ mi’n	si’nnõn ~ si’n	tä’mmõn	mä’ddõn ~ mä’n	tä’ddõn ~ tä’n	näntõn
Partitive	mīnda	sīnda	tǟnda	mēḑi	tēḑi	nēḑi
Instrumental	mi’nkõks	si’nkõks	tä’mkõks	mä’dkõks	tä’dkõks	näntkõks
Illative	mi’nnõ ~ mi’nnõz	si’nnõ ~ si’nnõz	tä’mmõ ~ tä’mmõz	mē’ži	tē’ži	nē’ži
Inessive	mi’nsõ	si’nsõ	tä’msõ	mēši	tēši	nēši
Elative	mi’nstõ	si’nstõ	tä’mstõ	mēšti	tēšti	nēšti

Personal pronoun case forms

Nominative and dative pronouns generally have both a long and short form. In the nominative case, the long form of the pronoun is used primarily in stressed positions within a sentence, where it has a contrasting or emphatic function. The short form is usually unstressed.

The 1st and 2nd person nominative plural forms are given in parentheses, because they can be considered forms characteristic of quick speech.

The pronoun ne is not a short form of nämād, but is instead a plural demonstrative pronoun (cf. Estonian need), which has entered the personal pronoun paradigm. Starting with the genitive form, the forms of nämād and ne are identical.