Person Syncretism in Independent Personal Pronouns (Feature 16)
From Apics
Feature Annotation
In most languages, there are distinct forms for the three persons in both singular and plural (and in the dual as well, if there is one), e.g. French moi, toi, lui/elle, nous, vous, eux/elles (value 1).
But in some languages, there is person syncretism, i.e. there is a form in the paradigm of independent personal pronouns that serves for more than one person. For instance, some languages have the same form in the 1st and 2nd person plural (e.g. Haitian Creole, value 2), and some languages have the same form in the 2nd and 3rd person plural (e.g. Seychelles Creole, value 3). If there are other syncretisms (1st/3rd person syncretism, or syncretism involving dual, or syncretism involving several numbers, such as 2sg/3pl), please choose value 4.
Note that we leave aside pure number syncretism here (e.g. English you for 2sg/2pl).
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | No syncretism | All forms are distinct, e.g. French moi, toi, lui/elle, nous, vous, eux/elles |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1st/2nd person plural syncretism | Haitain Creole nou ‘we; you(pl)’ |
| 3 | 2nd/3rd person plural syncretism | Seychelles Creole zot ‘you(pl); they’ |
| 4 | Other type of syncretism | E.g. 2nd/3rd dual; (Please give details in the “General comments” field.) |
WALS No.
(none)
