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2.6.2 Demonstrative pronouns
quickinfo

Demonstrative pronouns (or rather: determiners) are inflected for gender, number and case. Only the masculine pronouns show a difference between nominative and oblique forms.

Table 1
m. f. n. pl.
dusse (nom.) dusse dut dusse
dussen (obl.)
die (nom) ju dät do
dän (obl.)

The distal paradigm is homophonous to the definite articles and relative pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns cannot be reduced, unlike definite articles and the personal pronoun.

The forms ju and dät are homophonous to the feminine and neuter personal pronouns (which can in many cases be shortened to -ze and t).

Distal demonstrative pronouns can be strengthened by a prefixed element k- (from kiek ‘look’): (m.) krie, krän (< ke-die, ke-dän), (f.) kju, (n.) krät, (pl) kro.

The demonstrative pronoun juns ‘yonder’ is indeclinable: juns bunte Flinnerke ‘that multicoloured butterfly over there’.

Demonstratives are also used as prenominal (attributive) determiners: die Mon ‘that man’. They can also be nominalized and function as real pronouns: die deer! ‘that one over there’, do deer ‘those one over there’.

Nominalised demonstrative pronouns can be used in several ways.

Table 2
Anaphorical use Uus Naber häd jüüst so een Disk. Kope him dän ou un tuuske him juun dän uur Disk uut. ‘Our neighbour has a quite similar table. Buy that from him and exchange it for the other table.’
Cataphorical use Ju Seke is ju. ‘The matter is as follows.’
Resumptive use Die ze sik ansponget, die kon fljoge. ‘Whoever puts them (i.e. those artificial wings) on, that person can fly.’

Demonstrative pronouns can also be integrated into other words and expressions: düt un dät ‘this or that’, dätsälge ‘that same thing’. The complex predicates dussiede (fon) ‘this side (of)’, juunsiede (fon) ‘on the other side of’ are indeclinable.

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