Introduction to Pronouns
So far we have studied various nouns and adjectives along with their declension. We have also used some pronouns while studying conjugation of verbs. E.g. so = he, sā = she, taṃ = it, tvaṃ & tumhe = you (singular and plural), ahaṃ = I, mayaṃ = we.
All the above are personal pronouns as they are used to indicate some person. There are a few other types of pronouns in Pali, like :
Demonstrative pronouns – indicating this, that etc.
Relative pronouns – expressing the one who, that which etc.
Interrogative pronouns – indicating who, which etc.
Other than the above categories there are pronouns indicating ‘all’, ‘other’, ‘certain’ etc.
All these pronouns decline into various cases and we will be studying declension tables of many of these pronouns in the coming units.
Please note that the pronouns decline in 7 cases (nominative to locative case) and 2 numbers. There is no vocative case for the pronouns as the pronouns are not used for addressing purpose.
Now let us learn in detail about two personal pronouns – amha and tumha.
The personal pronoun for the first person is called amha. The forms ahaṃ (I) and mayaṃ (we) are the nominative singular and plural forms of amha. Various declined forms of amha are used to express ‘by me’, ‘to us’, ‘with me’, ‘ours’ etc.
Similarly, the personal pronoun for the second person is called tumha. The forms tvaṃ (you – singular) and tumhe (you – plural) are the nominative singular and plural forms of tumha. Various declined forms of tumha are used to express ‘by you’, ‘to you’, ‘yours’ etc.