CHAPTER I
THE PRONOUN.
Brockelmann, Semit. Sprachwiss., p. 98 ff.; Grundriss, i. 296 ff. L. Reinisch, ‘Das persönl. Fürwort u. die Verbalflexion in den chamito-semit. Sprachen’ (Wiener Akad. der Wiss., 1909).
[a] 1. The personal pronoun (as well as the pronoun generally) belongs to the oldest and simplest elements of the language (§ 30 s). It must be discussed before the verb, since it plays an important part in verbal inflexion (§§ 44, 47).
[b] 2. The independent principal forms of the personal pronoun serve (like the Gk. ἐγώ, σύ, Lat. ego, tu, and their plurals) almost exclusively to emphasize the nominative-subject (see, however, § 135 d). They are as follows:
| Singular. | Plural. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Com. I. | אָֽנֹכִ֫י in pause אָנֹ֫כִי; | we. | אֲנַ֫חְנוּ in pause אֲנָ֫חְנוּ |
| אֲנִי, in pause אָ֫נִי | (נַ֫חְנוּ, in pause נָ֫חְנוּ), (אנו) | ||
| 2nd m thou. | (אַתָּ) אַתָּ֫ה, in pause | ye. | m. אַתֶּם |
| אָ֫תָּה or אַ֫תָּה | |||
| 2nd f thou | אַתְּ (אַתְּי properly אַתִּי), | (אַתֵּ֫נָּה) אַתֵּ֫נָה; (אַתֶּן) אַתֵּן | |
| in pause אָתְּ | |||
| 3rd m he (it) | הוּא | they. | הֵם (הֶם־), הֵ֫מָּה |
| 3rd f she (it) | הִיא | הֵ֫נָּה after prefixes הֵן, הֶן | |
The forms enclosed in parentheses are the less common. A table of these pronouns with their shortened forms (pronominal suffixes) is given in Paradigm A at the end of this Grammar.
Remarks.
First Person.
[c] 1. The form אָֽנֹכִי is less frequent than אֲנִי.[1] The former occurs in
- ↑ On the prevalence of אָנֹכִי in the earlier Books compare the statistics collected by Giesebrecht in ZAW. 1881, p. 251 ff., partly contested by Driver in the Journal of Philology, 1882, vol. xi. p. 222 ff. (but cf. his Introduction, ed. 6, p. 135, line 1 f.), but thoroughly established by König in Theol. Stud. u. Krit., 1893, pp. 464 ff. and 478, and in his Einleitung in das A.T., p. 168, &c. In some of the latest books אנכי is not found at all, and hardly at all in the Talmud. [For details see the Lexicon, s. v. אֲנֹי and אָנֹכִי.]
