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First Person is when you mention yourself, for example in English, it’s when you use the words I or me. Second Person is when you mention the person you’re speaking to. In English,
it’s when you use the word you. Third Person is when you mention anyone or anything else. There is one more issue: in English, the word us can mean ‘me and you’ or ‘me and someone
else’. In Ganggalida, those two meanings are kept distinct. The meaning ‘me and you’ is called First Person Inclusive. The meaning ‘me and someone else’ is First Person Exclusive.
The idea of Subjects, Objects and Goals The Subject of a sentence is the one who is doing the action. The Object of a sentence is the
one who is having the action done to them. In Ganggalida, some sentences have a person or thing which we can call the Goal. One kind of Goal is someone who receives something, or
who benefits for the action. You can find out more about Goals in sections 3.5 and 3.6. The idea of Transitivity
Subjects, Objects and Goals influence how Ganggalida words are put together. An important idea related to them is Transitivity. Sentences that have a Subject and no Object, like the
man sleeps are called Intransitive sentences. Sentences that have a Subject and an Object, like the goanna eats the crab, are called Transitive sentences. In addition to Intransitive and
Transitive sentences, Ganggalida also has Semi‐transitive sentences, which have a Subject and a Goal. A summary is shown in Table 18. To learn more about when a sentence has an
Object and when it has a Goal, see section 3.5.
Transitive sentence Subject Object
Semi‐transitive sentence Subject Goal Intransitive sentence
Subject Table 18. Basic sentence types in Ganggalida
2.3 Stems and endings for pronouns
Pronouns are words like the English words you, me, him, them, us and your, my, his, their. In Ganggalida, they express information about Number Singular, Dual, Plural and Person
First Person, Second Person, Third Person, as well as some other information. In this section you can read about the forms of Ganggalida pronouns.
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The Direct forms of pronouns The Direct form can be used to express the Subject or the Object of a sentence. It is also the
Citation Form. You can look up pronouns in the dictionary by finding their Direct form. Table 19 shows you the Direct forms for Ganggalida pronouns. Some of the headings at the
top and left of the table are abbreviations. You can check what the abbreviations mean in Table 17 of section 2.2.
1 1exc ‘me’ ‘us‐not‐you’
1inc ‘you and me’
2 ‘you’
3 ‘he, she, it, they’
Singular ngada nyingga or nyiwa niya
Dual ngarra
ngagurra girra
birra
Plural
ngalda ngagulda
gilda bilda
Table 19. Direct forms of personal pronouns The Dative and Locative forms of pronouns
The Dative form is used in certain sentences to express the Goal. Table 20 shows you the Dative forms. The Locative form is also used in certain sentences to express the Goal. Table
21 shows you the Locative forms. There is no Locative form for the Third Person.
1 1exc ‘me’ ‘us‐not‐you’
1inc ‘you and me’
2 ‘you’
3 ‘he, she, it, they’
Singular ngijuwa or ngiju
ngumbara or ngumba
niwara or niwa
Dual ngarrawa
ngagurruwa girrwara or girrwa
birrwara or birrwa
Plural ngalawa
ngaguluwa gilwara
or gilwa bilwara
or bilwa
Table 20. Dative forms of personal pronouns 1 1exc
‘me’ ‘us‐not‐you’ 1inc
‘you and me’ 2
‘you’
Singular ngijinji ngumbanji
Dual ngarrawanji
ngagurruwanji girrwanji
Plural ngalawanji
ngaguluwanji gilwanji
Table 21. Locative forms of personal pronouns
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Stems for other endings To make pronouns with any other ending, Ganggalida uses the stems in Table 22. The
endings that can go on those stems are: Privative ‐warri, Proprietive ‐jurlu, Ablative ‐jinaba, Allative ‐jirlu, Genitive ‐bagarra, Dual ‐jiyarrng‐ and Plural ‐balath‐.
Those endings have the same use with pronouns as they have with nouns, adjectives and determiners. For example, to say ‘without me’ you would use the First Person singular stem
ngijin‐ plus the Privative ending ‐warri, to make the word ngijinwarri. To find out more about the uses of those endings, see section 3.1.
1 1exc ‘me’ ‘us‐not‐you’
1inc ‘you and me’
2 ‘you’
3 ‘he, she, it, they’
Singular ngijin‐ ngumban‐ niwan‐
Dual ngarrawan‐
ngagurruwan‐ girrwan‐ birrwan‐
Plural ngalawan‐
ngaguluwan‐ gilwan‐
bilwan‐
Table 22. Stems of personal pronouns for use with other endings Stems for Possessive Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns, like my, his, their in English, are used to express who owns something or possesses something. In Ganggalida the possessive pronouns take the same kinds of
endings that adjectives take. Their stems are shown in Table 23 you will notice that the stems in Tables 22 and 23 have the same forms. The endings for the possessive pronoun
stems are: Absolutive ‐da, Ergative Locative ‐ji, Dative ‐inja, Privative ‐warri, Proprietive ‐jurlu, Ablative ‐jinaba, Allative ‐jirlu, Genitive ‐bagarra, Dual ‐jiyarrng‐ and
Plural ‐balath‐. To find out more about the uses of those endings, see section 3.1.
1 1exc ‘me’ ‘us‐not‐you’
1inc ‘you and me’
2 ‘you’
3 ‘he, she, it, they’
Singular ngijin‐ ngumban‐ niwan‐
Dual ngarrawan‐
ngagurruwan‐ girrwan‐ birrwan‐
Plural ngalawan‐
ngaguluwan‐ gilwan‐
bilwan‐
Table 23. Stems of possessive pronouns, for use with all endings The Stative forms of pronouns
The Stative ending ‐ma can appear on pronoun stems, as in Table 24. To find out about the Stative ending on other words, see section 2.1.
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1 1exc ‘me’ ‘us‐not‐you’
1inc ‘you and me’
2 ‘you’
3 ‘he, she, it, they’
Singular nganhma nyima
nima
Dual ngarrma
ngagurrma girrma birrma
Plural ngalma
ngagulma gilma
bilma
Table 24. Stative Direct forms of personal pronouns
2.4 Stems and endings for Verbs