Gothic/2/Pronouns

Gothic Pronouns

This section will deal with personal pronouns (including reflexive pronouns for each of the three grammatical persons), possessive pronouns, demonstratives, and relative pronouns. Each follows a particular pattern of inflection, partially mirroring the noun declension. In Gothic there exist pronouns for the dual number, referring to two people or things; the plural was used only for quantities greater than two. Thus, "the two of us" and "we" for numbers greater than two were expressed with the dual pronouns wit and weis respectively.

Personal Pronouns

Gothic is unique among Germanic languages, insofar as it is a pro-drop language, i.e subject pronouns may be omitted entirely. This is similar to languages like Latin or modern Spanish. Therefore, subject pronouns can be used for emphasis, example: Ik tawida þata (I did that) instead of tawida þata (I did that). Here are the Gothic personal pronouns.

Case	First person
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ik	wit	weis
Accusative	mik	ugkis	uns, unsis
Genitive	meina	ugkara	unsara
Dative	mis	ugkis	unsis, uns

Case	Second person
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	þu	jut	jus
Accusative	þuk	igqis	izwis
Genitive	þeina	igqara	izwara
Dative	þus	igqis	izwis

Case	Third person
	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	is	ita	si	eis	ija	ijōs
Accusative	ina		ija	ins
Genitive	is		izōs	izē		izō
Dative	imma		izai	im

The reflexive pronouns (English: myself, yourself, ourselves, themselves, etc.) in Gothic sik, seina, and sis were used for both numbers and all genders.

Accusative	sik
Genitive	seina
Dative	sis

Possessive Pronouns

Gothic possessive pronouns (English: mine, yours, its, etc) decline like strong adjectives such as the adjective blinds (blind). The basic pronouns are: meins (mine); þeins (your); seins (his/her/their).

Case	Possessive Pronouns
	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	seins	sein(ata)	seina	seinai	seina	seinōs
Accusative	seinana			seinans	seina	seinōs
Genitive	seinis	seinis	seinaizōs	seinaizē	seinaizē	seinaizō
Dative	seinamma	seinamma	seinai	seinaim	seinaim	seinaim

Seins is used only when it relates back to the subject of the sentence. Otherwise, the genitive forms of the personal pronoun are used: is (his); izōs (her); izē (their [masc]); izō (their [fem]). The plural possessive pronouns are: unsar (our); izwar (your [pl]); ugkar (our [1st person dual]); igqar (your [2nd person dual]). They decline the same as seins, but without the -ata forms.

Case	Possessive Pronouns
	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	unsar	unsar	unsara	unsarai	unsara	unsarōs
Accusative	unsarana			unsarans	unsara	unsarōs
Genitive	unsaris	unsaris	unsaraizōs	unsaraizē	unsaraizē	unsaraizō
Dative	unsaramma	unsaramma	unsarai	unsaraim	unsaraim	unsaraim

Demonstrative Pronouns

The simple demonstrative pronouns sa, sō, and þata were used as pronouns for this, that, and sometimes functioned as definite articles the. It should be stressed that Gothic did not have definite articles.

Case	Demonstrative Pronouns
	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	sa	þata	sō	þai	þō	þōs
Accusative	þana			þans	þō	þōs
Genitive	þis	þis	þizōs	þizē	þizē	þizō
Dative	þamma	þamma	þizai	þaim	þaim	þaim

In addition to the above forms, there existed compound demonstrative articles formed with the above pronouns + -uh. They decline the same, but where the above pronouns end in -s, it changes to -z in the compound demonstrative pronouns: therefore, þis becomes þizuh and þōs becomes þōzuh respectively. An instrumental neuter þē has been preserved in the phrase ni þē haldis (none the more).

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns are formed with the demonstrative pronouns + ei.

Case	Relative Pronouns
	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	saei	þatei	sōei/sei	þai	þō	þōs
Accusative	þanei			þanzei	þōei	þōzei
Genitive	þizei	þizei	þizōzei	þizēei	þizēei	*þizōei
Dative	þammei	þammei	þizaiei	þaimei	þaimei	þaimei

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask a question, such as what, who, whom, whose. The neuter ƕa is used as what and sometimes why.

Case	Interrogative: Who/What
	Singular
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	ƕas	ƕa	ƕō
Accusative	ƕana
Genitive	ƕis		*ƕizōs
Dative	ƕamma		ƕizai

The plural form *ƕans (masculine accusative) occurs once as part of the indefinite pronoun ƕanzuh "each, every". An instrumental neuter ƕē is attested.

References

• Joseph Wright, Grammar of the Gothic language, 2nd edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1966