Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take inflection and can usually be used instead of a noun. There are many different kind of pronouns in East Cree. For example, personal pronouns tell us about the role in conversation like ‘you’, ‘I’, ‘she’ or ‘he’. Demonstrative pronouns indicate the proximity of persons and things relative to the place of speaking: ‘this one’, ‘that one’. Pronouns are used for various purposes. Here are the pronouns and their uses in Northern East Cree.

• Personal pronouns: Personal emphatic pronouns, personal prefixes and personal inclusive pronouns
• Alternative pronouns for choosing another person or thing
• Indefinite pronouns: someone or something
• Interrogative pronouns for asking about persons or things, places
• Dubitative pronouns to wonder about people and things, selection or animate beings and things
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Absentative pronouns to talk about missing people or things
• Hesitation pronouns to act as placeholders for a missing noun
• Focus pronouns to show who or what is more important
• Identification pronouns to wonder about the identity of a person or object