1178: 4th Person (Kalaallisut) Mar 1, 2018
Nouns and verbs are always going to be in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person, right?
Not necessarily. Even without conjugations, every language will have these three grammatical numbers—one for the speaker, one for the listener, and one for everyone else—so even conceptually it may seem impossible to have a fourth person, but actually some languages do. Kalaallisut, for instance, has a fourth person, which has two similar uses; it is used as the subject for subordinate verbs in the third person, and as a noun's possessor when they both reference the same 3rd person subject. That may sound fairly convoluted, but it can also sort of be considered as 'he' or 'his' when they reference the subject being 3rd person, and 'he' or 'his' when they reference someone or something besides the subject as being 4th person. For instance, "Aligoĸ illua takuaa" means "Aligoĸ saw (the) house", but specifically "Aligoĸ saw the other person's house". Otherwise, the word for 'house' becomes 'illuni' in "Aligoĸ illuni takuaa" i.e. "Aligoĸ saw his own house". It can sometimes be hard to wrap one's (own) head around concepts that may seem very foreign, but it shows the extent to which nothing can be assumed about language.
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Not necessarily. Even without conjugations, every language will have these three grammatical numbers—one for the speaker, one for the listener, and one for everyone else—so even conceptually it may seem impossible to have a fourth person, but actually some languages do. Kalaallisut, for instance, has a fourth person, which has two similar uses; it is used as the subject for subordinate verbs in the third person, and as a noun's possessor when they both reference the same 3rd person subject. That may sound fairly convoluted, but it can also sort of be considered as 'he' or 'his' when they reference the subject being 3rd person, and 'he' or 'his' when they reference someone or something besides the subject as being 4th person. For instance, "Aligoĸ illua takuaa" means "Aligoĸ saw (the) house", but specifically "Aligoĸ saw the other person's house". Otherwise, the word for 'house' becomes 'illuni' in "Aligoĸ illuni takuaa" i.e. "Aligoĸ saw his own house". It can sometimes be hard to wrap one's (own) head around concepts that may seem very foreign, but it shows the extent to which nothing can be assumed about language.
Make sure to check out the new Word Facts Video, and support Word Facts on Patreon for more content, and to show your love.