Well, I too am something of a hobbyist. I'm not much of a studied linguist.
Before I go any further discussing, I thought that it was time for me to explain some of my reasoning.
There is at least one book which uses the pronoun ‘kra’ in a way which seemed incorrect to me:
Konroran's desire pushed kra so hard that sleep was something that was rarely seen.
So, I then began thinking about what would be the objective form of the pronoun. I wondered why their pronoun so nearly resembled the name of their species. I figured that they had no pronouns, exactly, but a form of inflecting nouns which indicated case in the same way that pronouns do in English.
A few faltering attempts later, I figured it was something like this: ‘kran’ is the objective form of the noun, and ‘kra’ the subjective form.
The absence of the ‘S’ in my latest revision is indicative of the fact that I've never seen it in a Kranic name. It occurs in Lemurian names, but I figure that any difference is accounted as an accent, rather than a dialect, and is a difference of phonemes which do not cause collision.
I personally like the ‘ln’ combination, and I use it in a few of my own conlangs. It could be ‘lg’ if that seems more kranish.
The hyphens were only there to separate the English word ‘self’ from the other piece. Use would be at the discretion and preference of the writer.
However, as you see with English, I did misrepresent
the diversity earlier in this thread. There are fewer forms for each case of the singular pronouns than there are grammatical functions. So long as people use intelligble grammar, the modern, contemporary pronouns in English serve well enough.
Of course, English has much more rigid grammatical requirements than Latin, for example, which declension for all its nouns.
Homonyms in the table of pronouns can be used in a grammatic syntax — but with caveats.
I didn't want any because it seemed demeaning to kran.
You will need to ensure that the sentence is formed in a manner that cannot confuse metaphor, subject, or object.
I wanted to go on about different constructions, and how they avoid or risk multiple interpretations, but I decided against that. I will say that anyone can see from my tables where the English pronouns have homonyms and where they do not.
With my proposals — especially with the latest one, — I figured that would be better for me to begin big and trim it down.
So far, I think more people here are in favor of simply using the plural pronouns paronymic with ‘they’ as more of a catch–all than it is already — something I don't quite favor, but hey: I'll say that something gets lost in the translation. After all, they don't speak English or any other Earthly language in Yliakum: Kranic–Lemurian is being translated for our convenience, much like Tolkien did with Westron.
SUMMARYHere is the table of pronouns as they seem to be used now:
| | subjective | objective, directly or indirectly |
| nominative, singular | kra (she, he) | kra (her, him) |
| possessive, determiner, singular | kras (her, his) |
| possessive, genitive, singular | | kras (hers, his) |
| reflexive, singular | | kraself (herself, himself) |
|
Taking criticisms in to consideration, my revised proposal would be:
| | subjective | objective, directly or indirectly |
| nominative, singular | kra (she, he) | kran (her, him) |
| nominative, plural | they | them |
| possessive, determiner, singular | kral (her, his) |
| possessive, determiner, plural | their |
| possessive, genitive, singular | | krac (hers, his) |
| possessive, genitive, plural | | theirs |
| reflexive, singular | | kran-self (herself, himself) |
| reflexive, plural | | themselves |
It pretty much looks like the one as suggested by Netforce10.
Those elements which I think to be inarguably necessary are these:
- The objective form ‘kran’ — most languages have that distinction, which helps to distinguish between the passive and the active format, and I think Kranic–Lemurian deserves the same distinction, too.
- The change of the ‘S’ to something else. Both ‘L’ and ‘C’ occur in Kranic names, and I take the ‘C’ to be a alveolar or palatal fricative — not simply another letter for the same sound as ‘K’. The phonetics of ‘L’ seem somehow possessive–ish to me, and ‘C’ is not too different in its phonetics.
My proposal has both ‘kral’ and ‘krac’, but other people can use either interchangeably and I shall personally — in my “headcanon”, if you will — see that as unfamiliarity with the Kran–Lemur language. I will have each of my characters, those who speak Kranic–Lemurian well, know and use my proposal regardless.
In regards to the ultimate statement in your reply,
different pronouns serve mainly, according to what I observe and my conlanging, to differentiate without decribing exactly who you're talking about.
That is one function of pronouns in most languages — as a convenient handle, — but, as I described above in this reply, I was figuring that there is no pronoun
per se in Kranic–Lemurian as there is in English.