Proto-Indo-European language

: PIE redirects here. See Pie (disambiguation) for other uses of PIE.

Pronoun

PIE pronouns are difficult to reconstruct due to their variety in later languages. This is especially the case for demonstrative pronouns.

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PIE had personal pronouns in the first and second person, but not the third person, where demonstratives were used instead. 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 in English I and me. According to Beekes (1995), there were also two varieties for the accusative, genitive and dative cases, a stressed and an enclitic form.

Related Topics:
Pronoun - First - Enclitic

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As for demonstratives, Beekes (1995) tentatively reconstructs a system with only two pronouns: {{PIE|so/seh?/tod}} "this, that" and {{PIE|h?e/ (h?)ih?/(h?)id}} "the (just named)" (anaphoric). He also postulates three adverbial particles {{PIE|?i}} "here", {{PIE|h?en}} "there" and {{PIE|h?eu}} "away, again", from which demonstratives were constructed in various later languages.

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There was also an interrogative/indefinite pronoun with the stem {{PIE|k?e-/k?i-}} (adjectival {{PIE|k?o-}}), and probably a relative pronoun with the stem {{PIE|yo-}}. A third-person reflexive pronoun {{PIE|se}} (acc.), {{PIE|sewe, sei}} (gen.), {{PIE|séb?io, soi}} (dat.), parallel to the first and second person singular personal pronouns, also existed, as well as possessive pronominal adjectives.

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PIE had a separate set of endings for pronouns; many of these were later borrowed as nominal endings.

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