Inclusive we

From Freepedia

Inclusive we is a pronoun that indicates the speaker, the addressee, and perhaps other people, as opposed to the exclusive we that excludes the addressee. In all European languages, as in English, there is but one pronoun for the speaker plus other people, regardless of who's included.

The inclusive-exclusive distinction is nearly universal among the Austronesian languages and the languages of northern Australia, but rare in the Papuan languages in between. It is widespread among the Dravidian languages, the Munda languages, and the languages of eastern Siberia, such as Evenki, though it has been lost from some. In America it is found in about half the languages, with no clear geographic or genealogical pattern. It is also found in a few languages of the Caucasus and Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Laal.

In Malay, the pronoun kami is inclusive, and kita is exclusive. That is, you may say "We (kita) will go shopping, and then we (kami) will eat," making it clear that your guest is not to accompany you to the market, but is invited to dinner. What you cannot do is be ambiguous as to whether or not your guest is included, as you can in English.

Tagalog has a very similar system with kamí and táyo being respectively the exclusive and inclusive forms. The word kitá (or katá) was originally a dual inclusive pronoun "thou and I". However, it has now become a portmanteau pronoun for first plus second person, as in mahál kitá "I love you", originally "you and I are dear."

In other Philippine languages, particularly those spoken in northern Luzon, the use of the dual pronoun is widely used. Kapampangan, for example, has ikata (dual), ikatamu (inclusive), and ikami (exclusive). Ilokano has data/sita, datayo/sitayo, and dakami/sikami.

Tausug of Sulu is the only Visayan language which has the dual form. Its pronouns are kita (dual), kitaniyu (inclusive), and kami (exclusive).

In standard Mandarin, the pronoun wǒmen 我們 "we", which is the plural of the pronoun wǒ 我 "I", is indefinite like its English counterpart. However, in northern Mandarin dialects there is an additional pronoun, zámen 咱們, which is inclusive. In these dialects, wǒmen 我們 is exclusive.

Taiwanese is similar. Exclusive goán is the plural of goá "I", while inclusive lán is a separate root also with the plural suffix. Lán may be used to express politeness or solidarity, as in asking a stranger "where do we live?" to mean "where do you live?".

This is a common pattern, where the plural form of "I" is the exclusive pronoun. It is also common for the inclusive pronoun to be composed of the pronouns for "I" and "you". Both are the case in the English creoles Tok Pisin and Bislama, where the inclusive pronoun is a variant of yumi (two people, that is, you + me) or yumipla (for more than two people; -pla or -pela is a plural suffix), and the exclusive pronoun is the plural of "me": mipla.

In Quechua, both forms, inclusive ñuqanchik and exclusive ñuqayku, are clearly based on the first-person singular pronoun ñuqa, but it is not immediately clear how they relate historically to the second-person pronoun qan or the plural suffix -kuna.

Another Amerindian language that makes the distinction is Guaraní, with singular che, exclusive ore, and an inclusive ñande that is likely formed from nde 'thou'.

In Telugu, the forms are inclusive మనము manamu and exclusive మేము memu.

Where verbs are inflected for person, as in Australia and much of America, the inclusive-exclusive distinction is made there as well. For example, in Passamaquoddy "I/we have it" is expressed ntíhin (singular; first person prefix n-), ntíhinèn (exclusive; plural suffix -èn), ktíhinèn (inclusive; inclusive prefix k-).

There is an interesting twist with inclusive pronouns in Samoan. In this language, as in the related languages Malay and Tagalog, there are two separate roots for "we", inclusive ’ita and exclusive ’ima. Unlike in those languages, the Samoan pronouns must be used with the dual suffix -’ua or the plural suffix -tou to mean "we".

Samoan pronouns	singular	dual	plural
Exclusive person	a’u	’ima’ua	’imatou
Inclusive person	’ita	’ita’ua	’itatou
Second person	’oe	’oulua	’outou
Third person	ia	’ila’ua	’ilatou

However, the inclusive pronoun ’ita may also occur on its own as a singular pronoun. In this case it means "I", but with a connotation of appealing or asking for indulgence, rather like the concept of amae in Japanese. That is, by using ’ita instead of the normal word for "I", a’u, you are involving the other person in statements about yourself.

Reference

• Thomas E Payne, 1997. Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58224-5