[From Manx Soc vol 2, Kelly's Manx Grammar]

CHAPTER XII.

OF THE PRONOUNS.

Of the Pronouns, some are Personal--as, mee, I; shin, we; oo, thou; shiu, ye; eh, he or it; ee, she; ad, they; or when any emphasis is expressed--mish for mee, uss for oo, eshyn for eh, ish for ee.

Some are Demonstratives--as, shoh, this; shen, that; shid, that there, or yonder.

Some are Relatives--as, quoi, who; cre, or que, what.

Some are Possessives--as, my, mine; dty, thine; e, his or hers.

Some are Interrogatives--as, quoi, who; cre, or que, what (kys, or quis, how).

Some are Derivatives--as, mish, meehene; uss, oo-hene; ish, eehene.

Pronouns are compounded with prepositions--as, orrym, upon me; ort, upon thee; er, upon him; lhiam, with me; lhiat, with thee; lesh, with him; &c., &c.* These are peculiar to our language, and are called pronominal participles; by the assistance of which, and the auxiliary verb ta mee, to be, annexed to the substantive, all possessive parts of speech are expressed. (See Construction of Prepositions.)

1.--OF THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES.

Personal Pronouns are three--mee, I; oo, thou; eh, he; and ee, she; and are thus declined:--

Mee, I.

Oo, thou.

Eh, he.

Ee, she.

Hene, self, or alone, expressing emphasis or apposition, may be added to the pronouns personal: thus, mee-hene, I myself; and so throughout, except when it is added to aym, hym, rhym, voym, and then h is changed into p, as aympene, hympene, &c.

Ish in the feminine, and eshyn in the masculine, are emphatical pronouns, and used in composition: as, ecksh, hers; echeysyn, his, or of him.

Mish, shinyn; aym's, ainyn; dooys, hym's; dooinyn, hooinyn, &c.; uss, shiuish; ayd's, euish; dhyt's, rhyt's, &c.; eshyn, ish; echeysyn, ecksh; dasyn, jeeish, &c., are used when particular persons or things are set in opposition to one another, or when property is signified: as, shoh yn lioar ayms, cha nee yn lioar echeysyn, this is my book, not his; cur dooys eh, cha nee dasyn, give it to me, not to him. Otherwise it would be, cur dou eh, &c.

2.--DEMONSTRATIVES.

Shoh, shen, shid are common, undeclinable, and all of the third person: cre shoh? what's this? cre shen? what's that? cre shid? what's yonder, or there?

3.--RELATIVES.

Quoi, who, cre, what, are common. Relatives are generally understood, and not expressed, in Manks.

4.--THE POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS.

My, mine or my.

My is of both genders; and, when it comes before a vowel, y is cast away, and m' only expressed--as, m'annym, my soul, for my annym.

Dty, thine or thy.

Dty is of both genders; and by apostrophe dt'--as, dt'ennal, thy breath, for dty ennal.

E, his, her, or its.

The gender of the possessive pronoun e is determined only by the initial letter of the following substantive; aspirated after e masc., as e ghoo, his word, e hooil, his eye; but remaining unaltered after e fem., as e goo, her word, e sooil, her eye. It also doubles in expression the initial consonant of the following noun, when it comes before substantives beginning with l, n, r. The same rule holds in the Spanish, Welsh, and Irish.

Nyn, our, your, their, of all genders, and the plural number, used indiscriminately with substantives of both numbers--as, nyn dhie, our house, pl. nyn dhieyn.

5.--INTERROGATIVES.

Quoi, who--what man or person.

Cre, what--what thing.

They are of all genders and numbers.

They are not always interrogatives, but are sometimes indefinites, especially when attended with erbee, any: as, quoi-erbee nee shoh, whosoever doth this; quoi-erbee nee eh, whosoever doth it; cree-erbee te, or rather t'eh, whatever it be.

* The ingenious and learned author of the Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, treating of these pronouns, has these words:--"The Orientalist will find a surprising affinity between these cognomina and the Hebrew li, lo, lah, &c., olli, ollort, lionn, &c., the Persian aura, &c; and they are certainly of the same root."