Proto-Indo-European pronouns have been reconstructed by modern linguists, based on similarities found across all Indo-European languages. This article lists and discusses the hypothesised forms.
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) pronouns, especially demonstrative pronouns, are difficult to reconstruct because of their variety in later languages.
PIE pronouns inflected for case and number, and partly for gender. For more information on these categories, see the article on Proto-Indo-European nominals.
PIE had personal pronouns in the first and second person, but not the third person, where demonstratives were used instead. They were inflected for case and number (singular, dual, and plural), but not for gender. The personal pronouns had their own unique forms and endings, and some had two distinct stems; this is most obvious in the first person singular, where the two stems are still preserved, as for instance in English I and me. There were also two varieties for the accusative, genitive and dative cases, a stressed and an enclitic form. Many of the special pronominal endings were later borrowed as nominal endings.
The following tables give the paradigms as reconstructed by Beekes and by Sihler.
Other reconstructions typically differ only slightly from Beekes and Sihler (see for example Fortson 2004).As for demonstratives, Beekes tentatively reconstructs a system with only two pronouns: "this, that" and "the (just named)" (anaphoric, reconstructed as by Fortson). He gives the following paradigms:
Beekes also postulates three adverbial particles, from which demonstratives were constructed in various later languages:
A third-person reflexive pronoun, parallel to the first and second person singular personal pronouns, also existed, though it lacked a nominative form:
PIE had a relative pronoun with the stem .
There was also a pronoun with the stem (adjectival) used both as an interrogative and an indefinite pronoun.
| Pronominal | Adjectival | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||||||||
| Masc./Fem. | Neuter | Masc./Fem. | Neuter | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | ||
| Nominative | |||||||||||
| Accusative | |||||||||||
| Dative | ? | ? | |||||||||
| Genitive | ? | ? | |||||||||
| Locative | ? | ? | ? | ||||||||
Proto-Indo-European possessed few adjectives that had a distinct set of endings, identical to those of the demonstrative pronoun above but differing from those of regular adjectives. They included at least "other, another" (or ?).
Reflexes, or descendants of the PIE reconstructed forms in its daughter languages, include the following.
| Type | Reconstruction | Reflexes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. nom. | Hitt. ūk, Ved. ahám, Av. azəm, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐγω(ν), Lat. ego, Goth. ik, Eng. I, Gm. ich, Du. ik, Alb. u-në,Bulg. аз\az, Russ. я\ja, Kamviri õc, Carian uk, Osset. æz/æz, Umb. eho, ON ek, Lith. aš, Venet. ego | ||
| Ved. mām, Av. mąm, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐμέ, Lat. mē, Eng. mec/me, Gm. mih/mich, Du. mij, Osset./Pers. mæn, Umb. mehe, Ir. mé, Welsh mi, Russ. mne, Alb. mua, Venet. mego | |||
| 1st pl. nom. | Hitt. wēš, Ved. vayám, Av. vaēm, Goth. wit (dual), weis, Toch. was/wes, | ||
| 1st pl. oblique | Hitt. anzāš, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: νώ (dual), Lat. nōs, Goth. uns, Toch. ñäś (sg.),
Skr. nas, Av. nō, Pers. amaxām/?, ON oss, okkr, Old Ir. ni, Welsh ni, OPruss. noūson, Lith. nuodu, Pol., Russ. nas, Alb. ne | ||
| 2nd sg. | Hitt. zīk, Ved. tvám, Av. tū, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: σύ, Doric Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: τύ, Lat. tū, Goth. þu, Toch. tu/tuwe, OCS ty
Pers. tuva/to, Osset. dy, Kashmiri tsū', Kamviri tü, Umb. tu, tui, Osc. tuvai, ON þú, Ir. tú/thú, Welsh ti, Arm. tu/du, OPruss. toū, Pol. ty, Russ. ty, Lith. tu, Ltv. tu, Alb. ti | ||
| 2nd pl. nom. | Ved. yūyám, Av. yūš, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ὑμεῖς, Goth. jūs, Toch. yas/yes, Eng. gē/ye; ēow/you, Gm. ir/ihr, Du. jij / gij, ON ykkr, yðr, Arm. dzez/dzez/cez, OPruss. ioūs, Lith. jūs, Ltv. jūs, Alb. juve, ju | ||
| 2nd pl. oblique | Lat. vōs, Skr. vas, Av. vō, Umb. uestra, OPruss. wans, Pol. wy, was, Russ. vy, vas, Alb. u | ||
| Demonstrative ("this, that") | Ved. sá, sā, tád, Av. hō, hā, tat̰, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ὁ, ἡ, τό, Goth. sa, so, þata, Icel. sá, sú, það, TochB. se, sā, te | ||
| Demonstrative ("the just named; this") | Ved. ay-ám, id-ám, Av. īm "him", Lat. is, ea, id, Alb. aì (he, that), ajò (she, that), Goth. is "he" Skr. it | ||
| Demonstrative / adverbial particle | Lat. cis, Eng. he, Gm. heute "on this day, today", OCS sĭ, Lith. šìs, | ||
| Reflexive | Ved. sva-yám, Av. xᵛāi, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἑ-, Lat. sē, sibi, suus, Old Ir. fa(-dessin), Ir. féin, OCS sę, Gm. sih/sich, sin/sein, Du. zich, zijn Carian sfes, Lyd. śfa-, Osc. sífeí, Umb. seso, ON sik, sinn, Goth. sik, Arm. ink῾s, OPruss. sien, sin, Lith. savo, Latv. sevi, Russ. sebe, -sja, Alb. vetë, u, Phryg. ve | ||
| Relative | Ved. yá-, Av. ya-, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ὅ-, Proto-Celtic *yo- | ||
| Interrogative pronoun | Hitt. kuiš, Luw. kuiš, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: τίς, Lat. quis, quid, Ir. cia, Eng. hwī/–, OCS čĭto Lyc. tike, Lyd. qi-, Osset. či, Pers. čiy/ki, Osc. pisi, Umb. púí, svepis, ON hverr, Welsh pwi, Russ. kto, čto, Alb. çë | ||
| Interrogative adjective | Ved. kás, Av. kō, Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ποῦ "where?", pōs "somehow", Goth., Lith. kàs, OCS kŭto Eng. hwā/who; hwæt/what, Gm. hwër/wer, Du. wie / wat, Carian kuo, Kashmiri kus, Kamviri kâča, Lat. qui, quae, quod; Arm. ov, inč῾, Toch. kus/kŭse, Ltv. kas, Pol. kto, Russ. kto, Alb. ku, kush, Phryg. kos | ||
| "(an)other" | Gk. Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄλλος, Lat. alius, Goth. aljis, Ir. ail/eile, Toch. ālak/alyek, Gm. eli-lenti "in another land, expelled" / elend "miserable, wretched", Eng. elles/else, Lyd. aλaś, Skr. araṇa, Osc. allo, ON elligar, Gaul. alla, Arm. ayl |
In the following languages, two reflexes separated by a slash mean: