I’ll take this separate set of sentences instead to show the differences:
English
The children talked to them.
The children talked to themselves.
The children talked to each other.
Swiss German
A different group is referred to by the normal third person plural pronoun. The “emphatic” pronoun
ina could be used contrastively, if this is desired.
D’Kinder hen mit na gredet.
Code: Select all
d=kind-er hen mit na g-red-et
DEF.PL=child=PL AUX.PL with 3p.DAT PTCP-speak-PTCP
“The children spoke with them”
For reflexive, the reflexive pronoun
sich is used in conjunction with the adverb(?)
selber.
D’Kinder hen mit sich selber gredet.
Code: Select all
d=kind-er hen mit sich selber g-red-et
DEF.PL=child=PL AUX.PL with 3.REFL self PTCP-speak-PTCP
“The children spoke with themselves”
For reciprocal, the above construction without
selber would be alright, but at least in this example, changing the preposition as well is more natural.
D’Kinder hen unter sich gredet.
Code: Select all
d=kind-er hen unter sich g-red-et
DEF.PL=child=PL AUX.PL under self PTCP-speak-PTCP
“The children spoke among themselves”
Mesak
If both participants are distinct groups, a third person pronoun in the dative is used here.
Sísvs ísvñ bañvi.
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sís-v-s ísi-v-ñ bañ-v-i
child-PL-ABS 3-PL-DAT speak-PL-3
“The children speak to them”
Reflexives are generally conveyed by the reflexive voice, which transforms transitives to intransitives. This is problematic for a verb like “speak” which is intransitive, as Mesak is very strict about transitivity. So in order to apply it, first an applicative has to be used, raising the dative to direct object. Then the reflexive voice is applied to the derived verb, turning it intransitive again.
Sísvs bañuñgsavi.
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sís-v-s bañ-uñg-sa-v-i
child-PL-ABS speak-DAT-REFL-PL-3
“The children to-self-speak.”
Reciprocals are marked exactly the same as reflexives, except that the NP is marked with the ergative rather than the absolutive. This is in fact the only place in Mesak’s grammar where ergative is used outside its normal usage case.
Ñ-isísnvs bañuñgsavi.
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ñ=i-sís-nv-s bañ-uñg-sa-v-i
ERG=3-child-SG>PL-ABS speak-DAT-REFL-PL-3
“The agentive children to-self-speak.”
and yes the ergative construction is dumb but it’s staying
Géarthnuns
Japoné語
Wena:
Swahili has a derivative verb suffix to indicate reciprocality, but in situations where it can't be used, such as when it's prepositional, pamoja "together" is used.