🚀 go-pugleaf

alex@lindbrook.math.ucla.edu (Alex Langley) wrote:
> In [Modern Western] Armenian there are two third person pronouns.  One
> refers to someone close to the speaker(s) and/or hearer(s) ("ink").  The
> other refers to someone farther away ("an").  I've heard it also said that
> "ink" and "an" can be used to distinguish two third persons in the same
> discourse, where "ink" would refer to the first one mentioned, and "an" to
> the second.  You get the idea. [...]
> Notice I don't just say "Armenian", Eastern or Classical Armenian may be
> different, and any reasons for the difference in Western Armenian would be
> interesting to discuss. 

If there is a difference, I'd guess it was due to influence from Turkish,
which has a triplet of demonstrative-adjectives-cum-third-person-pronouns
"bu" (this), "o" (he/she/it/that) and "shu" (somewhere in between, also
used to introduce an ostensively indicated object into a discussion).
Since "o" becomes "on-" in compounds (and I think the "-n" was dropped in
the nominative quite recently) it makes a plausible antecedent for "an".

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