A Practical Grammar of the PŒli Language
Chapter 9

Pronouns, Pronominal Adjectives, and Pronominal Derivatives

288. (I) Personal Pronouns

289. Declension of Ahaµ, I

Remarks.
(a) The singular base of ahaµ is mad according to Sanskrit commentators; it is properly ma and mam. Pronominal derivatives are, however, formed from the three bases: mad, mam and ma, the latter sometimes with the a lengthened: mŒ (See Pronominal Derivation at the end of the present chapter.)
(b) The form me, of the Gen., Dat., Ins., Abl., Sing., is enclitic; it is never used at the beginning of a sentence.
(c) The form no, of the same cases in the plural is also enclitic, and never used at the beginning of a sentence.
(d) The plural base is amha, or amhad.

290. Declension of Tvaµ, Thou

Remarks.
(a) The bases are tad and ta (sometimes lengthened to tŒ, in the singular).
(b) tumha (tumhad), is the plural base.
(c) te like me of ahaµ, is an enclitic form and never begins a sentence; so is vo for the plural.
(d) vo is also found in the Nom. plural.
(e) lt will be remarked that Pronouns have no forms for the Vocative case.

291. (II) Demonstrative Personal Pronouns

Declension of So, SŒ, Taµ: This, That, He, She, It

292. Masculine: So, he, this, that

293. Feminine: SŒ, she, this, that

294. Neuter: Taµ, it, this, that

Remarks.
(a) In the Gen., Dat., Abl., and Loc. singular for the Masc, and Neut, a form from pronominal stem: a, is also used: assa, asmŒ, asmiµ in the Feminine too, for the Gen., Dat. and Loc. singular: assŒ, assaµ (Loc.).
(b) ln the Neuter, the form tad is used mostly in compound words, as:
tad (=taµ) karo=takkaro, "doing this", and also before a vowel.
(c) It will have been remarked that the stem ta, 3rd personal pronoun (so, sŒ, taµ), is also used as a demonstrative.
(d) ta is the base or stem of so, sŒ, taµ; as above said (Note b), the form tad of the base is also used.
(e) Very often, the above pronoun may be translated as the Definite Pronoun.
(f) It is, too, often used pleonastically with the pronouns ahaµ and tvaµ, as are, in fact, most Demonstrative Pronouns; for instance:
so'haµ = this I, viz., I.
tassa me (Dat.) = to this me, viz., to me.
sŒ'yam (=sŒ ayaµ) taöhŒ = This longing.
(g) attΠself; own (154), is, in its oblique cases, very much used in a reflexive sense, instead of the three Personal Pronouns.

295. There is a common substitute of so, sŒ, taµ, obtained by replacing t wherever it occurs, by n, for the three genders. Thus we have:

296. The forms with n as above given are generally used when a noun which has been already mentioned, is referred to; as,
taµ khŒdŒpessŒmi nan 'ti, I'll make you eat him (viz., a monkey previously mentioned).

297. Demonstrative Pronouns

298. Declension of Eso, EsŒ, Etaµ: This

299. The student will readily perceive that the above Demonstratives are formed simply by prefixing e to so, sŒ and taµ. They are declined exactly like so, sŒ, taµ.

300. As in the case of so, sŒ and taµ, so also with eso, esŒ and etaµ, the t may be replaced all through by n, so that we obtain the forms: enena, enaµ, enŒya, etc., whose declension presents no difficulty whatever. These forms are also used in referring to a noun aleady mentioned.

301. eso, esŒ, etaµ may be translated by "that" sometimes.

302. The Neuter etad (=etaµ) is used in composition before a vowel.

303. This Pronoun is also used pleonastically with a Personal Pronoun (294, f).

304. e, is considered as the base of Pronouns ena, eta etc. It is much used in derivation.

Declension of Ayaµ: This; This here

305. Masculine

306. Feminine

307. Neuter

Remarks.
(a) The student will remark that the declension of ayaµ is based on two stems: a and i.
(b) Ayaµ is used substantively as well as pronominally.

Declension of Asu, That

308. Masculine

309. Feminine

310. Neuter

Remarks.
(a) Some native grammarians also give amu for the Nom. Sing. in the Masculine and Feminine.
(b) It will be noticed that the stem is amu; in the Neuter, there are a few forms on the stem adu.
(c) To express: such, so and so ka is added to the stem, as, asuka, amuka.
(d) The forms asuka and amuka are often used to express some contempt.
(e) These two forms have in the plural Masc. and Neut acc. asuke, amuke.

311. Relative Pronouns

Declensions of Yo, YŒ, Yaµ

312. Masculine: Yo, who; he who; whoever; what

313. Feminine: YŒ, she; she who; whoever; what

314. Neuter: Yaµ, it; which; that which

Remarks.
(a) For the sake of greater emphasis, the Personal Pronouns, and also so ayaµ and eso are used pleonastically with yo.
(b) Yo is used with koci (323), in the three Genders as yo koci, yena kenaci, yaµ ki–ci, etc., both pronouns together meaning: whosoever, whoever, whatever, anyone, anything, etc.
(c) The form yad of the Neuter singular, is used before vowels and in composition.
(d) The base of yo is ya.

315. Interogative Pronouns

Declension of Ko, KŒ, Kiµ

316. Masculine: Ko, who? what?

317. Feminine: KŒ, who? what?

318. Neuter: kiµ, what?

Remarks.
(a) The base of ko assumes several forms: ka, ku (kud), ki (kid).
(b) kud and kid are used before vowels and in composition.

319. Indefinite Pronouns

320. The Indefinite Pronouns are formed by adding ci (cid), api and cana, to the Interrogative Pronouns.

321. ci, or, before a vowel cid is the suffix most commmonly used to form these pronouns.

322. canaµ=cana, is also found; both are sometimes shortened to ca.

Declension of Koci, KŒci and Ki–ci

323. Masculine: Koci, any, some, anyone

324. Feminine: KŒci, any, some, anyone

325. Neuter: Ki–ci, any, some, anything

The Neuter is declined like the Masculine, except:

326. By placing na, not, before the Indefinite Pronouns we get the meanings: none, no one, nothing, etc.

327. ci, cana may also be placed after adverbs, to give them an indefinite sense, as:

Other Pronouns

328. attŒ, self, own, oneself (154), is very much used as a Reflexive Pronoun; so also are: ŒtumŒ, self, own, etc., which is but another form of attŒ, and very rarely used in Buddhist writings: tuma, having the same meaning, is still less frequent.

329. In composition the bases are: atto, atuma and tuma.

330. sayaµ. oneself, by oneself and sŒmaµ self, both indeclinable, are often used as Reflexive Emphatic Pronouns.

331. attŒ, ŒtumŒ and tuma are properly nouns used pronominally.

332. A few other nouns are thus used pronominally; the following are the most usual.

333. bhavaµ, lord, sir, (166). It is a very respectful term of address, used for the Second Pers. Pronoun; the verb is put in the Third Person.

334. Ayya, lord, master; a Buddhist monk; it is used chiefly in addressing Buddhist monks, and is then often used with bhante (166).

335. Œvuso, friend, brother; is also used as a pronoun sometimes. It is used mostly by senior monks to junior monks, Œvuso is indeclinable.

Pronominal Derivatives

Possessive Pronouns

336. A few Possessive Pronouns are formed from the bases of the first and second Personal Pronouns by means of suffixes: ´ya and aka, the vowel of the bases being sometimes lengthened before aka.

Remarks.
(a) Œmaka, mamaka, as well as tŒvaka, may be derived from the singular genitive form by the addition of ka.
(b) The above Pronouns are declined like deva, ka––Œ and rèpaµ.

337. A great number of adjectives and adverbs are derived from pronominal bases by means of suffixes, the principal of which are the following:
(a) di (d´), disa, disaka, risa, tara, tama, ka.
(b) dŒ, dŒni, tra, tha, thŒ, thaµ, ti, to, va (vat), rahi, haµ, ha, hiµ, va, vaµ, di.
The former (a) are used to form adjectives, and the latter, (b), adverbs.

The following are the principal derivatives by means of the above suffixes.

338. Adjectives

339. di (d´), disa, disaka and risa, express likeness, resemblance; the vowel of the stem being lengthened before them.

340. The suffix dikkha, has the same meaning as disa, etc. It is obtained by assimilation from the Sanskrit d¨k·a.

Hence we have also the forms:
tŒdikkha = tŒdisa.
k´dikkha = k´disa,
edikkha = edisa,
´dikkha = ´disa, etc.

341. In edi, edisa, etc., the stem i is strengthened (105), in ´disa, etc., it is merely lengthened (19).

342. Tara and tama, which are used for the comparison of adjectives (238), are also added to the interogative stem to form Pronominal Adjectives which, in meaning, differ but little from the single stem. Hence we have:
katara, which? what?
katama, which? what?

343. Some adjectives assume a rather anomalous form; such are, for instance: kittaka, tattaka, yattaka, ettaka, etc. A glance will suffice to show that they are formed on pronominal bases: ya, eta, ki, (ka), etc. The difficulty is to account (for most of them) for the double tt. It is obvious these adjectives were formed by adding the adjectival suffix ka to the Adverbial Instrumentive in tŒ (from vat, vant: cf., Sansk. tŒvŒtŒ from tŒvat; yŒvatŒ from yŒvat). The PŒli forms are simply contractions from the Sanskrit forms; as: tŒvatŒ+ka=tŒvatŒka: the loss of medial va being compensated by the doubling of the last tŒ; the Œ being shortened before ka, and the Œ of the first tŒ as well, according to euphonic laws. So that:

kittaka, how much? How many? How great?
kittaka=k´vatŒka.
ettako, so great, so much, so many.
ettako=etŒvatŒka.
yattaka, however much; however big or large.
yattaka=yŒvatŒka.
tattaka, as many, as great, as big or large.
tattaka=tŒvatŒka.

But see also such Sansk. forms as: iyattaka (i-yad-ta-ka); kiyattaka (ki-yad-ta-ka).

The form etta=ettaka, may be accounted for by the further dropping of final ka, the adverb etto, thence, is probably a contracted form etato (Abl. of etaµ); in ettavatŒ=etŒvat, the consonant of the base is doubled.

344. (b) Adverbial Derivatives

Adverbial derivatives from pronominal bases constitute a large and useful class of words.

The principal suffixes used to form these adverbs have been given above (337, b). We will give here a few examples of such formation.

345. dŒ, dŒni, rahi express time.

346. to, tra, tha, dha, ha, haµ, hiµ, form adverbs of place. Before a short vowel the t of tha is doubled.

347. thŒ, va, vaµ, thaµ, ti, form adverbs of manner

348. Another suffix va, from vat, (=Sansk. vat), forms adverbs of time and cause from the Pronominal bases ta, ya, ki. The final t of vat is dropped according to the phonetic laws obtaining, in PŒli, which do not suffer any consonant to remain at the end of a word, except µ; before a vowel however, the final t is revived in the form of a d; as for instance: tŒva; but; tŒvad eva.

Remarks. Final a of the base is lengthened before va (vat), which, as we have seen already, (219), forms adjectives from nouns.

The Abl. sing. suffix tŒ, is also added to such forms as the above.

Examples
yŒvatŒ, as far as, because.
tŒvatŒ, so far, to that extent, on that account.

From other pronominal bases we have:

349. It has been seen that by adding ka to these forms we obtain adjectives of cognate meaning.

350. The suffix di, expressing condition, is found only in yadi, if.

351. The suffix ti, is found in: kati, how many? yati, as many, and tati, so many.

Adjectives Declined Pronominally

353. A few adjectives take the pronominal declension. They are: