Talk:nihí

Duoplural for two, da- forms exist for three

My impression was that nihí is we two or you two (and possessives); danihí would be for three or more. C.f. http://books.google.com/books?ei=LJZqT7jdMOiLiALDx9G0BQ&id=aQgbAQAAIAAJ&dq=goossen+din%C3%A9+bizaad&q=danih%C3%AD#search_anchor , showing the chart given in Goossen's Diné Bizaad: Speak, Read, Write Navajo.

It seems that the da- forms are not used that much, possibly just when it's necessary to distinguish between two or more; is the nihí form being used for plain-old plural meanings? -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 03:16, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Right. Someone I know says that only smartasses use those forms. "we two/you two" are dual numbers, not duoplurals. A duoplural means two or more, or nonsingular. The number of nihí is usually determined by the verb. —Stephen ^(Talk) 03:43, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Interesting. What kind of smartasses, I wonder? Does it sound slightly old-fashioned, like how one's grandparents speak? Impossibly archaic, like Shakespeare or even Chaucer? Grammar-Nazi-esque? Pretentious? Hickish? Eastern/western to someone who speaks the western/eastern variant?

"Two or more, or nonsingular" sounds like just plain old plural. Is there any particular reason to use the term duoplural instead of plural? -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 05:48, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

I suppose he means pedantic, pretentious. In the case of the possessive prefixes, the form danihi- is regularly used. Yes, duoplural is like plural, except that under certain circumstances it can resolve to either dual or plural. For example, the duoplural nihí with a distributive plural verb makes nihí plural (that is, three or more). —Stephen ^(Talk) 06:43, 22 March 2012 (UTC)