Pronoun Demonstrative

Summary

A demonstrative pronoun refers to a specific person(s) or thing(s) in particular. In English, the following words are demonstrative pronouns: “this”, “that”, “these”, “those”.

Article

In Biblical Aramaic, demonstrative pronouns can function either as nouns or adjectives. Demonstrative pronouns can change form according to gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) but NOT according to person (i.e. first, second, or third person).

Form

Paradigm

Demonstrative Pronoun Paradigm

Parsing

Aramaic

Transliteration

Gloss

masculine singular near

דֶּנָה

denah

this

feminine singular near

דָּה

da’

this

masculine singular far

דֵּךְ

dekh

that

feminine singular far

דָּךְ

dakh

that

both singular far

דִּכֵּן

dikken

that

common plural far

אִלֵּין (also אֵל and אֵלֶּה)

‘illeyn (also ‘el and ‘elleh)

those

feminine plural far

אִלֵּךְ

‘illekh

those

Function

As a noun

Reciprocal

Demonstrative pronouns can be used to distinguish individuals within a group interacting with each other.

Apposition to a noun

As an adjective

as an attributive adjective

When used as an attributive adjective, a demonstrative pronoun often follows the noun, and both terms can take the definite article. Sometimes neither the noun nor the demonstrative pronoun takes the definite article. In either case, the demonstrative pronoun makes the described noun definite.

as a Predicative adjective

As a relative particle