Pronouns

Pronoun System

The pronominal system in Linomo is fully gender-neutral and operates on a three-tier grammatical number hierarchy: Singular (1 person), Dual (2 people), and Plural (3+ people).

Root pronouns are built using a compounding system where base morphemes stack logically to indicate person and group composition.

Pronominal Paradigm

Morphological Analysis & Clusivity

1. Gender Neutrality: Third-person root ta makes no distinction between grammatical genders, functioning identically for he, she, and gender-neutral they.

2. First-Person Inclusivity (Dual & Plural):

   • oko (o + ko) explicitly combines the 1st person (o) and 2nd person (ko) roots to form an inclusive dual ("you and I").

   • okota (o + ko + ta) extends this compound to include 3rd-person entities, creating an inclusive plural ("me, you, and them").

3. Second-Person Associatives:

   • kota (ko + ta) functions as an associative dual ("you and one other").

   • kotano (ko + ta + -no) adds the plural marker -no to indicate a larger group centered around the addressee ("you and them").

4. Third-Person Number Marking:

   • tano employs the plural suffix -no to mark a dual group of third parties ("them two").

   • tatano uses reduplication of the root (ta-ta) combined with -no to indicate a larger plural group ("them all / 3+").