Proto-Indo-European pronouns have been reconstructed by modern linguists, based on similarities found across all Indo-European languages. This article lists and discusses the hypothesised forms.

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) pronouns, especially demonstrative pronouns, are difficult to reconstruct because of their variety in later languages.

Grammatical categories PIE pronouns inflected for case and number, and partly for gender. For more information on these categories, see the article on Proto-Indo-European nominals.

Personal pronouns PIE had personal pronouns in the first and second person, but not the third person, where demonstratives were used instead. They were inflected for case and number (singular, dual, and plural), but not for gender. The personal pronouns had their own unique forms and endings, and some had two distinct stems; this is most obvious in the first person singular, where the two stems are still preserved, as for instance in English I and me. There were also two varieties for the accusative, genitive and dative cases, a stressed and an enclitic form. Many of the special pronominal endings were later borrowed as nominal endings.

The following tables give the paradigms as reconstructed by Beekes and by Sihler.

+ Beekes' reconstruction of PIE personal pronouns First person Second person Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative Accusative stressed enclitic Genitive stressed enclitic Dative stressed enclitic Instrumental Ablative Locative

+ Sihler's reconstruction of PIE personal pronouns First person Second person Singular Dual Plural Singular Dual Plural Nominative Accusative tonic enclitic Genitive tonic enclitic (adj.) (adj.) Dative tonic enclitic Ablative Other reconstructions typically differ only slightly from Beekes and Sihler (see for example Fortson 2004).

Demonstrative pronouns As for demonstratives, Beekes tentatively reconstructs a system with only two pronouns: "this, that" and "the (just named)" (anaphoric, reconstructed as by Fortson). He gives the following paradigms:

Demonstrative pronouns (Beekes) Singular Plural Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative Accusative Genitive Ablative Dative Locative Instrumental Nominative Accusative Genitive Ablative Dative Locative Instrumental

Beekes also postulates three adverbial particles, from which demonstratives were constructed in various later languages: "here" (reconstructed as a demonstrative "this" by Fortson) "there" and "away, again",

Demonstrative pronouns (Sihler) Singular Plural Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative Accusative Genitive Ablative Dative Locative Instrumental Nominative Accusative Genitive Ablative Dative Locative Instrumental

Reflexive pronoun A third-person reflexive pronoun , parallel to the first and second person singular personal pronouns, also existed, though it lacked a nominative form:

Reflexive pronoun (Beekes) Accusative Genitive Dative

Relative pronoun PIE had a relative pronoun with the stem .

Interrogative/indefinite pronoun There was also a pronoun with the stem / (adjectival ) used both as an interrogative and an indefinite pronoun.

+ Interrogative pronoun (Sihler) Pronominal Adjectival Singular Plural Singular Plural Masc./Fem. Neuter Masc./Fem. Neuter Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative Accusative Dative ? ? Genitive ? ? Locative ? ? ?

Pronominal adjectives Proto-Indo-European possessed few adjectives that had a distinct set of endings, identical to those of the demonstrative pronoun above but differing from those of regular adjectives. They included at least "other, another" (or ?).

Reflexes

Reflexes, or descendants of the PIE reconstructed forms in its daughter languages, include the following.

Type Reconstruction Reflexes 1st sg. nom. Hitt. ūk, Ved. ahám, Av. azəm, Gk. , Lat. ego, Goth. ik,

Eng. I, Gm. ich, Du. ik, Alb. u-në, Bulg. аз\az, Russ. я\ja,

Kamviri õc, Carian uk, Osset. æz/æz, Umb. eho, ON ek, Lith. aš, Venet. ego1st sg. oblique Ved. mām, Av. mąm, Gk. , Lat. mē,

Eng. mec/me, Gm. mih/mich, Du. mij,

Osset./Pers. mæn, Umb. mehe, Ir. mé, Welsh mi, Russ. mne, Alb. mua, Lith. mane, Venet. mego 1st pl. nom. Hitt. wēš, Ved. vayám, Av. vaēm, Goth. wit (dual), weis, Toch. was/wes,

Eng. we, Gm. wir, Du. wij,

Pers. vayam/?, ON vér, Lith. vedu 1st pl. oblique Hitt. anzāš, Gk. (dual), Lat. nōs, Goth. uns, Toch. ñäś (sg.),

Gm. uns, Eng. us, Du. ons,

Skr. nas, Av. nō, Pers. amaxām/?, ON oss, okkr, Old Ir. ni, Welsh ni, OPruss. noūson, Lith. nuodu, Pol., Russ. nas, Alb. ne 2nd sg. Hitt. zīk, Ved. tvám, Av. tū, Gk. , Doric , Lat. tū, Goth. þu, Toch. tu/tuwe, OCS ty

Gm. du, Eng. thou,

Pers. tuva/to, Osset. dy, Kashmiri tsū', Kamviri tü, Umb. tu, tui, Osc. tuvai, ON þú, Ir. tú/thú, Welsh ti, Arm. tu/du, OPruss. toū, Pol. ty, Russ. ty, Lith. tu, Ltv. tu, Alb. ti 2nd pl. nom. Ved. yūyám, Av. yūš, Gk. , Goth. jūs, Toch. yas/yes,

Eng. gē/ye; ēow/you, Gm. ir/ihr, Du. jij / gij,

ON ykkr, yðr, Arm. dzez/dzez/cez, OPruss. ioūs, Lith. jūs, Ltv. jūs, Alb. juve, ju 2nd pl. oblique Lat. vōs,

Skr. vas, Av. vō, Umb. uestra, OPruss. wans, Pol. wy, was, Russ. vy, vas, Alb. u Demonstrative ("this, that") Ved. sá, sā, tád, Av. hō, hā, tat̰, Gk. , Goth. sa, so, þata, Icel. sá, sú, það, TochB. se, sā, te

Old Eng. se, seo, thæt, Russ. tot, ta, to, Lith. tas, ta, tai Demonstrative ("the just named; this") Ved. ay-ám, id-ám, Av. īm "him", Lat. is, ea, id, Alb. aì (he, that), ajò (she, that), Goth. is "he"

Skr. it Demonstrative / adverbial particle Lat. cis, Eng. he, Gm. heute "on this day, today", OCS sĭ, Lith. šìs,

ON hér, Goth. hita, Eng. it, Gm. hier, Russ. sije Reflexive Ved. sva-yám, Av. xᵛāi, Gk. , Lat. sē, sibi, suus, Old Ir. fa(-dessin), Ir. féin, OCS sę,

Gm. sih/sich, sin/sein, Du. zich, zijn

Carian sfes, Lyd. śfa-, Osc. sífeí, Umb. seso, ON sik, sinn, Goth. sik, Arm. ink῾s, OPruss. sien, sin, Lith. savęs, Latv. sevi, Russ. sebe, -sja, Alb. vetë, u, Phryg. ve Relative Ved. yá-, Av. ya-, Gk. , Proto-Celtic *yo- Interrogative pronoun Hitt. kuiš, Luw. kuiš, Gk. , Lat. quis, quid, Ir. cia, Eng. hwī/–, OCS čĭto

Lyc. tike, Lyd. qi-, Osset. či, Pers. čiy/ki, Osc. pisi, Umb. púí, svepis, ON hverr, Welsh pwi, Russ. čto, Alb. çë Interrogative adjective Ved. kás, Av. kō, Gk. "where?", pōs "somehow", Goth. , Lith. kàs, OCS kŭto

Eng. hwā/who; hwæt/what, Gm. hwër/wer, Du. wie / wat,

Carian kuo, Kashmiri kus, Kamviri kâča, Lat. qui, quae, quod; Arm. ov, inč῾, Toch. kus/kŭse, Ltv. kas, Pol. kto, Russ. kto, Alb. ku, kush, Phryg. kos "(an)other" Gk. , Lat. alius, Goth. aljis, Ir. ail/eile, Toch. ālak/alyek,

Gm. eli-lenti "in another land, expelled" / elend "miserable, wretched", Eng. elles/else,

Lyd. aλaś, Skr. araṇa, Osc. allo, ON elligar, Gaul. alla, Arm. ayl

In the following languages, two reflexes separated by a slash means: English: Old English / Modern English German: Old High German / New High German Irish: Old Irish / Modern Irish Persian: Old Persian / Modern Persian Tocharian: Tocharian A / Tocharian B

References

Sources

External links