Cf. also the HU evidence: HU *(j)es- (nom./erg. > Hurr. iš-te nom.,
iža-š erg., Ur. ješǝ), *so- (obl. > Hurr. žo-/žu-, Ur. šo-).
The PNC 1-st p. pronoun needs some comments. Like other personal
pronouns, it is characterized by unique phonetic features (voiced fricative in
PNC, the development *z > *d in Av.-And.-Tsez., Darg. and Lak. /where *d >
t:/). However, forms with *d- certainly can not be kept apart from forms with
*z, since morphologically they match each other very well.
The direct stem may be safely reconstructed as *zō,
sporadically with a pronominal suffix *-n - *zōn (cf. PA
*di-n, PL *zo-n; on Lak. nu and Darg. nu see *nV). A possible
trace of *-n is also the -ǝ vowel in PC: it probably reflects
*-ǝ̃ < *-ō-n with loss of nasalization (without it *-ɨ would be
expected in PC). The vowel -u- in Av. (du-n) and Darg. (du)
should best be explained by the influence of the 2-d p. pro-
noun q.v.
The evidence of PN, PHU, PL and Khin. allows to recons-
truct three different oblique stems for the 1-st p. pronoun.
The one is *zā- /PL *za- = PN *sa-(*sā-)/, the other - *ʔez(V)
/PL *-ez = PHU *(j)es- = PN *ʔas = Khin. as/; finally, the
third is *ʔiz(V) /PL gen. *-iz = Khin. i/e/. It is most pro-
bable that the third stem is reflected in Darg. *di-, PC *di-,
PA *di- (where it lost the initial vowel and became the gene-
ral oblique stem). In Lak. and HU, where the obl. stem is t:u-
and *so- respectively, it is probably due to a merger of PEC
dir. *zō- and obl. *zā-.
We may present the following solution for this very complicated
picture. The original ergative was *ʔez(V), preserved in PN as *ʔas; in
PHU it became also nominative (merging of erg./nom. in pronouns is rather usual
in ergative languages). In PL and Khin. this stem shifted to dative - which is
parallel to the general shift of the PEC ergative case in *-s_V > PL dative
*-s: (note, however, that in Khin. the erg. form jä probably still reflects
the same stem *ʔez(V)). The obl. stem *zā- then took upon itself
ergative functions in PL. Finally, the original genitive stem *ʔiz(V) was
preserved as such in PL, Khin and (with vowel loss) in PD, PA and PC; in all
other languages it was superseded by the general oblique stem *zā-
(sometimes even by the dir. stem *zō-).
To sum up: PEC (PNC) dir. stem *zō(-n); erg. stem *ʔez(V); gen.
stem *ʔiz(V); general oblique stem *zā-.
See Trubetzkoy 1930, 273; Abdokov 1983, 137.
