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Pronouns

Avar Pronouns (Местоимения)

Version: 1.0
Last Updated: May 26, 2026

This section is part of our living public grammar of Avar and is regularly updated to reflect the latest linguistic research, database enhancements, and morphological analyses.

Avar pronouns are a closed class of words that substitute for nouns. They exhibit complex morphological patterns including suppletion, oblique stem changes, and specific case formants (like the Genitive -р).

1. Overview & Grammatical Categories

Avar distinguishes seven primary pronoun types:

  1. Personal: дун (I), мун (you), ниж (we excl.), нилъ (we incl.), нуж (you pl.)
  2. Reflexive: жив (himself), жий (herself), жиб (itself), жал (themselves)
  3. Demonstrative: гьаб, гьеб, доб, лъоб, гъоб (also act as 3rd person pronouns)
  4. Interrogative: щив (who), щиб (what), кинав (which), чан (how many)
  5. Indefinite: щивалиго (someone), щибалиго (something)
  6. Negative: щивниги (no one), щибниги (nothing)
  7. Definitive: тӀолго (all), щибав (each/every)
1.1 Grammatical Class & Real Gender Agreement
  • Personal Pronouns (1st/2nd person) lack grammatical class markers. However, verb agreement depends strictly on the real gender of the referent.
    • Дун вачӀана "I came" (Male speaker → Class I verb).
    • Дун ячӀана "I came" (Female speaker → Class II verb).
  • Other Pronouns (Reflexive, Demonstrative, Interrogative, Definitive) contain explicit class markers (-в, -й, -б, -л) and agree with the noun they replace or modify.
1.2 Inclusive vs. Exclusive "We"

Avar distinguishes between two forms of the first-person plural:

  • нилъ (Inclusive): "We" including the addressee (speaker + listener + others).
  • ниж (Exclusive): "We" excluding the addressee (speaker + others).
2. Personal Pronouns (Личные Местоимения)

Personal pronouns decline similarly to nouns but feature major oblique stem alternations and a unique Genitive formant (-р instead of -л).

2.1 Main Cases (Singular)
Case 1st Person (I) 2nd Person (You)
Nominative дун мун
Ergative дица дуца
Genitive дир дур
Dative дие дуе
  • Oblique Stem: дун → ди-; мун → ду-.
2.2 Main Cases (Plural)
Case 1st Incl. (We) 1st Excl. (We) 2nd Plural (You)
Nominative нилъ ниж нуж
Ergative нилъеца нижеца нужеца
Genitive нилъер нижер нужер
Dative нилъее нижее нужее
  • Plural Extension: Plural pronouns insert -е- to form the oblique stem (нилъ → нилъе-, нуж → нуже-).
2.3 Spatial Cases

Formed by attaching the Series Marker + Case Suffix to the Oblique Stem:

  • Series I (-д- "on/at"): ди-д-а (Loc), ди-д-е (All), ди-д-а-са (Abl).
  • Series II (-хъ- "in/with"): ду-хъ (Loc), ду-хъ-е (All), ду-хъ-а (Abl).
  • Series III (-лъ- "under"): ниже-лъ (Loc).
  • Series IV (-кь- "near/under"): нуже-кь (Loc).
3. Reflexive Pronouns (Возвратные Местоимения)

Reflexive pronouns (жив, жий, жиб, жал) express "self/oneself" and distinguish grammatical class.

3.1 Usage Rules
  1. 3rd Person Only: They are strictly used with 3rd-person referents.
  2. Postpositive Position: They appear after the demonstrative/noun they modify and must be in the same case.
    • Долъ жинцаго хъвана... "She (Erg) herself (Erg) wrote..."
3.2 Declension Patterns

Stems vary significantly by class:

  • Class I (жив): Main oblique stem is жинди- (жиндица, жиндир). However, Series I spatial cases use a shortened stem жин- (жинда).
  • Class II (жий): Ergative is shortened to жинца. Genitive/Dative use жинди- (жиндир).
  • Class III (жиб) & Plural (жал): Share the exact same oblique stem жиде- for all cases (жидеца, жидер, жидеда).
3.3 The Emphatic Particle -го

The particle -го can attach to reflexive (and personal) pronouns for exclusivity ("by oneself", "alone").

  • Жиндирго хӀалтӀи (His own/very work).
  • Дунго вачӀана (I came myself/alone).
4. Demonstrative Pronouns (Указательные Местоимения)

Demonstratives indicate spatial orientation and also function independently as 3rd-person personal pronouns ("he, she, it, they").

4.1 Spatial Deixis Matrix
Pronoun Variant Meaning Verticality
гьав ав This (near speaker) Horizontal (Proximal)
гьев эв That (near addressee) Horizontal (Medial)
дов гьадав That (far from both) Horizontal (Distal)
лъов гьалъав That (above speaker) Vertical (Above)
гъов гьагъав That (below speaker) Vertical (Below)
4.2 Declension Rules

They decline like proper nouns with class markers, but with a unique Dative formant -ие.

  • Ergative Bases: Class I (-в → -с), Class II/III (-й/-б → -лъ), Plural (-л → -з).
    • гьав → Erg: гьас → Gen: гьасул → Dat: гьасие.
    • гьаб → Erg: гьалъ → Gen: гьалъул → Dat: гьалъие.
4.3 Spatial Cases
  • Series I: Built on the Ergative base (гьас-д-а "on him").
  • Series II-IV: Built on the Genitive base (dropping the final -л) (гьасу-хъ, гьалъу-кь).
5. Interrogative Pronouns (Вопросительные Местоимения)
5.1 Suppletive Stems (щив / щиб)

The pronouns for "who" and "what" use entirely different stems for oblique cases.

  • Animate (щив, щий, щал "who"): Use the oblique stem лъи-.
    • Nom: щив, Erg: лъица, Gen: лъил, Dat: лъие, Loc: лъида.
  • Inanimate (щиб "what"): Uses the oblique stems сун- and сунду-.
    • Nom: щиб, Erg: сунца, Gen: сундул, Dat: сундуе, Loc I: сунда, Loc II: сундухъ.
5.2 Adjectival & Indeclinable Interrogatives
  • кинав (which/what kind): Behaves morphologically as a standard adjective, agreeing with the noun (кинай яс "which girl").
  • чан (how many): Indeclinable. Exists only in the Nominative.
6. Indefinite & Negative Pronouns
6.1 Indefinite Suffix (-алиго)

Added to interrogative pronouns to mean "someone/something".

  • Oblique Attachment: The suffix attaches to the fully declined form (лъица + алиго → лъицалиго "by someone").
  • Vowel Fusion: й + а fuses to я (кинай + алиго → кинаялиго).
  • Indeclinable: чаналиго (some amount) remains indeclinable just like its base чан.
6.2 Negative Suffix (-ниги)

Added to interrogative forms to mean "no one/nothing".

  • щив → щивниги (no one); лъица → лъицаниги (by no one).

Syntactic Rules for Negatives:

  1. Double Negation: If used with a negative verb, it means "no one/nothing" (Дида щивниги вихьичӀо "I saw no one" lit. "I didn't see no one").
  2. Indefinite Shift: If used with an affirmative verb, the meaning shifts back to indefinite "someone/something" (Жакъа щивниги вачӀила "Someone will come today").
7. Definitive Pronouns (Определительные)

Express totality ("all", "every").

  • тӀолго (all/whole): Indeclinable, used as an invariable modifier.
  • тӀолалго (all of them - pl): Declines, but uses a switched oblique stem тӀолгояз- (Erg: тӀолгояз).
  • тӀолабго (the whole X): Declines exactly like a standard adjective, with the emphatic -го appended to the case ending (тӀолалъулго).
  • щибав (each/every): Derived from щиб. Standard adjectival declension (Erg: щибас / щибалъ). Forms show a fossilized -б- in standard orthography, but variants with original class markers exist (щива-в).
8. Syntactic Functions

Pronouns can fulfill various syntactic roles depending on their case:

  1. Subject: Pronouns in the Nominative (for intransitive verbs) or Ergative (for transitive verbs).
  2. Direct Object: Pronouns in the Nominative.
  3. Indirect Object: Pronouns in the Dative or Spatial cases.
  4. Modifier / Attribute: Pronouns in the Genitive case (дир чу "my horse").
  5. Predicate: Pronouns can serve as predicates in interrogative sentences (Гьаб щиб? "What is this?"). They can also serve as the nominal part of compound predicates in Genitive or Nominative cases with a copula.

Special Interrogative Rule: When an interrogative pronoun acts as the subject or object of a sentence, the predicate often takes the form of a participle rather than a finite verb.

9. Morphological Derivations from Pronouns
9.1 Presentative Particles (-ле)

Formed from demonstrative pronouns by dropping the class marker and adding -ле. These function as presentative adverbs/particles ("here is", "there is"):

  • гьав → гьале (here is)
  • гьев → гьеле (there is)
  • гъов → гъоле (below there is)
  • дов → доле (far/level there is)
  • лъов → лъоле (above there is)
9.2 Comparative & Quantitative Enclitic (-гӀан)
  • With a Pronoun in the Genitive → Comparative (досулгӀан "like his / compared to his").
  • With a Pronoun in the Ergative/Nominative → Quantitative (дицагӀан "as much as I [did]").
9.3 Verbal Derivation (-лъизе)

In oral folklore, the verbalizer suffix -лъи- can be attached directly to a pronoun to mean "to become [Pronoun]":

  • мун (you) → мунлъизе (to become you).