Possesive pronouns are enclitic in Sumerian. That means you add them to the roots of nouns. This has been covered previously. If you look below, the table has "+Locative*". From what I understand, the locative behaves strangely with the possesive pronoun. It ignores the noun order and hops all the way to the possesive pronoun, merging with it! So, if you see "-ĝa" it replaces "ĝu10". For example, lugal-ĝa is "in my king" while "lugal-ĝu10" is "my king". All the other cases follow the noun order.
| Person | Element | +Locative* |
|---|---|---|
| 1s | -ĝu10 | -ĝa |
| 2s | -zu | -za |
| 3s | -a-ne2 (animate) / -be (inanimate) | -a-na (anim) / -ba (inanim) |
| 1p | -me | -me-a |
| 2p | -zu-ne2-ne | -zu-ne2-ne-a |
| 3p | -a-ne2-ne (anim) / -be (inanim) | -a-ne2-ne-a (both!) |
Here's a tricky example of how this can complicate the plural:
ka iri.zune2ne.ak.še = towards the gate of your(plural) city
ka iri.zu.ene.ak.še = towards the gate of your (singular) cities
ka iri.zune2ne.ene.ak.ene.še = towards the gates of your(plural) cities
Like in English, independent pronouns (such as I, you, he/she/it, you(plural),we, they) are just regular nouns. So, regular noun rules apply. However, you can not add possessive or demonstrative pronouns to them (it would make no sense). Additionally, the dative case behaves strangely if it is alone with the independent pronoun. Finally, in the Sumerian language, pronouns are only necessary in the verb (I will explain this later). So, you don't even have to use independent pronouns if you don't want to as they are redundant. Historically, it's posssible that they served as emphasis.
| Person | Noun | Dative |
|---|---|---|
| 1s | -ĝa-e | -ĝa-ra (or -ĝa-a-ra) |
| 2s | -za-e | -za-ra (or za-a-ra) |
| 3s | -e-ne | -e-ne-ra (or e-ne-e-ra) |
| 1p | -me-en-de-en | unattested |
| 2p | -me-en-ze-en | unattested |
| 3p | -e-ne-ne | -e-ne-ne-ra (or -e-ne-ne-e-ra) |
unattested: Sadly, there is no evidence of this combination ever being used so no one knows what it is. However, if one wants to try and reconstruct it, it's essentially just a guess. Personally, I'd guess that it might be something like:
me-en-de-en-ra (or me-en-de-en-e-ra)
me-en-ze-en-ra (or me-en-de-en-e-ra)
Let's start asking questions! This includes all of the "what" "where" "how" etc... Keep in mind that these act like normal nouns and follow normal noun rules. However, there are no possesive/demonstrative pronouns that can be attached, since again, it wouldn't make any sense ("my who" "that how"). Since cases can apply to interrogative pronouns, you can create a great number of them. Some translate well into English such as:
me-ta = whence (from where)
Others, not so much:
a-na-gin7 = how (literally "like what?")
As such, I will include the basic pronouns, as well as those that are either common or not intuitive.
| Word | Translation |
|---|---|
| a-na | what |
| a-ba | who |
| a-na-gin7 | how |
| en-še | how long |
| a-na-aš | why |
| me-a | where / in where (locative is identical) |
| me-še | to where / whither |
| me-ta | from where / whence |
As mentioned before, these are treated just like nouns. So, the enclitic copula can also be used. You can try it out and get lots of combinations. Here's a couple for example:
a-ba-am = who is it
a-na-me-en = what am I
me-ta-me-eš = whence (from where) are they [perhaps "where are they from?" is a bit more modern]
Reflexive pronouns are nouns in their own right, not attached to nouns like some of the others
The root is essentially "ni2" or "ni2-te", but since it requires a possesive pronoun in order to actually be a reflexive pronoun, the below table will include them. Remember, normal noun rules apply, as it's a noun, just with a possesive pronoun always present. (ni2 / ni2te means "self", but reflexive pronouns are things like "myself" or "himself").
| Person | Reflexive | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1s | ni2-ĝu10 | myself |
| 2s | ni2-zu | yourself |
| 3s | ni2-te-ne2 (anim) / ni2-be2 (inanim) | him/herself / itself |
| 1p | ni2-me | ourselves |
| 2p | ni2-zu-ne-ne | yourselves |
| 3p | ni2-te-ne2-ne (anim) / ni2-be2 (inanim) | themselves |
Notice how the inanimate version of the 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural are the same (ni2-be2). How are you supposed to tell whether a collective group of inanimate objects or a single inanimate object is reflexively mentioning themselves (or itself)? You'll have to look at the sentence context, since the reflexives themselves are identical.
Demonstrative pronouns mean "this one right here" "this" "that" and "That one yonder/that one far over there". Imagine 4 distances. Very close, close, far, very far.
The demonstratives can be enclitic or a standalone noun. Let's look at the enclitic ones (who take the same slot that the possesives do) first:
That = -bi
That one far over there = -ri
This = -ne / -e (rare)
This one right here = -še (rare)
Now for the standalone noun version. Sadly, there is only one:
ur5 = this
Let's look at some funky ways of using "this" noun, since we can slap cases on it (and anything a regular noun can get, since it is one). Since most constructions are intuitive in their meanings, I'll show you two which have meanings that if literally translated don't make much sense in English:
ur5-gin7 = like this / thus
ur5-še = because of this (lit. towards this)
What about "that"? Or any of the other demonstratives? Well, there is no standalone noun versions for those ones. You'll have to make do with the enclitic option. Only with "this" do you have multiple options
What about the plural versions (These, those, etc...)? Well, for the standalone noun, you can just add the plural marker onto it, since it follows noun rules. For the enclitic, it's up to interpretation. Say you want to say "those kings". You would just literally say "that kings" and context would do the rest (lugal.bi.ene / lugal-bi-e-ne).