The full chart — four distances, four cases, plurals, presentatives
Beginner lesson 6 taught four demonstratives and four locatives — enough to point at things. That was a simplification of a chart with four distances across five columns, most of them inflecting for number.
You also need these because they turn up constantly inside the noun phrases of lessons 10 and 16 — iting taung a iti, deng marakal a taung a ren.
Forman's common deictic pronouns, organised by distance from speaker (s) and addressee (a). l.n. = limited number (singular), u.n. = unlimited number (plural).
| Distance | ing (l.n. / u.n.) | ning (l.n. / u.n.) | king (l.n. / u.n.) | locative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a place mine alone | ini / deni, reni | nini / dareni | kanini / kareni | keni |
| common to us both | iti / deti, reti | niti / dareti | kaniti / kareti | keti |
| near you | iyan / den, ren | niyan / daryan, daren | kanyan / karyan, karen | keyan, ken |
| further off | ita / deta, reta | nita / dareta | kanita / kareta | keta, karin |
Five distinct forms per distance, most with a plural. Forman also records dialect variants awti, awni, awta, awyan, areti, areni, areta, aryan.
The case forms above — niti, kanini, dareti and the rest — come from Forman and are not controversial. What is contested is which distance each of the four base words carries.
| Slot | Bergaño 1736 (taught here) | Forman 1971 |
|---|---|---|
| speaker alone | ini | iti |
| common to both | iti | ini |
| near the hearer | iyan | ita |
| further off | ita | iyan |
Bergaño settles it with an example: ining pluma, "this pen I am writing with", against iting tintero — "if the two of us dip into one inkwell." A pen belongs to the writer; an inkwell is shared.
Forman additionally assigns karin to his furthest row, and records keta, ken and kyan as competing shapes he cannot fully separate. This corner of the language is genuinely unsettled.
This is the part beginner lesson 6 left out entirely. A demonstrative takes the same three cases a noun does.
| Case | Near me | Near us | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ing | iti | ini | this (as subject) |
| ning | niti | nini | of this, by this |
| king | kaniti | kanini | to this, at this |
You have already met these without noticing. In lesson 16's kanitang minunang panaun, kanita is the king-case form of ita — the furthest demonstrative, which suits a phrase meaning "way back a long time ago." In lesson 14, Balu mu kanu… and in beginner lesson 8, kanyan was glossed as "now" — Forman notes that use explicitly.
A separate column, used for here it is and there it is — pointing something out rather than referring to it.
| Singular | Plural | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| oiti | oreti | here it is (by me) |
| oini | oreni | here it is (by us) |
| oita | oreta | there it is (by you) |
| oyan | oryan | there it is (yonder) |
Oita ing bale ra. — Their house is that one there.
Oreni na ring tiket. — These are the tickets here now.
Oini ing kapatad ku. — This one here is my sibling.
Oita ya pala ing salamin mu! — So that's where your glasses are!
That last one packs the realisation particle pala from lesson 14 into a presentative — "oh, so that's where it is." Exactly the moment the particle exists for.
Built from the question words, with man or reduplication.
| Form | Meaning | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| ninuman | whosoever, anyone | ninu + man |
| ninuninu | everybody | ninu, reduplicated |
| nanuman | whatever, anything | nanu + man |
| nanunanu | all sorts of things | nanu, reduplicated |
The pattern is worth generalising: question word + man gives "-ever"; question word doubled gives a collective or a variety.
You saw maskinanu in lesson 13 — maski + nanu, "no matter what" — in e la mamangan maskinanu, "they didn't eat anything."
Beginner lesson 6 originally taught Forman's arrangement. When Bergaño's 1736 grammar turned out to be reachable, it sided with the other one — and with an unambiguous worked example — so the course reverted.
That is two independent sources against one, the older of them explicit. It is not proof: 1736 usage may simply differ from 1969 Bacolor usage, and Forman's informants said what they said.
Follow the speakers around you. A four-way distance contrast is certain; the exact labelling is the part that varies, and a course written from documents cannot settle it for your barrio.
Do I really need all twenty-odd forms? To produce, no. To read, yes — the case forms especially, because kanita and niti look nothing like ita and iti on the page.
Why does kanyan mean "now"? A distance-in-space form pressed into service for distance-in-time. English does the same with "then."
Which arrangement should I use when speaking? Whichever the people you speak with use. If you have no speakers yet, use this chart and stay ready to change.
Deictics are the highest-frequency closed class in any language after pronouns. The case forms in particular are unavoidable in text, and the indefinite substitutes give you "anyone," "anything" and "wherever" for free once you see the pattern.
Next: Writing Systems — three of them, and why old signage looks so unfamiliar.