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(9) Je-n al juon al in pālle.
1pl.in.agr-should sing.trans a song of American
'We should sing an American song.'
(10) Je-n al al in pālle.
1pl.in.agr-should sing.trans song of American
'We should sing American songs.'
2.2.3 Pronouns
Marshallese has two types of pronouns: objective pronouns, which might be argued to
bear accusative case, and what have been referred to in the literature as absolute or
emphatic pronouns. The two types of pronouns are shown in Table 8.
Table 8. Marshallese pronouns
(adapted from Bender 1984)
absolute/emphatic objective
1 singular n#a eō
2 singular kwe eok
3 singular e e (human only)
1 plural inclusive kōj kōj
1 plural exclusive kōm kōm
2 plural kom (Rālik); komi (Ratak) kom (Rālik); komi (Ratak)
3 plural er er (human only)
In most cases, the absolute/emphatic pronouns and the objective pronouns have the same
morphological form. The only exceptions are the first and second singular pronouns. In
order to distinguish the two types or pronouns, the gloss for the absolute/emphatic
pronouns will include "abs", while the gloss for the objective pronouns will include "obj".
The third person objective pronouns may only be used for humans and not for
nonhumans (compare (11) and (12) with (13)).
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