The Functions of Independent Personal Pronouns in Berber

The paper investigates independent personal pronouns in Berber, outlining their typological profile and their syntactic and pragmatic functions. These pronouns are a category that, with very few exceptions, is present in the grammatical system of all the languages of the world. There is a great variety of functions and forms linked to them, according to the source they originated from. All Berber languages have independent pronouns, but not all of them share the same grammatical features. Moreover, their syntactic and pragmatic functions are rarely found in the available grammars, which makes comparison difficult. Following an initial overview, the paper focuses on the functions of these pronouns in Siwi, a Berber language spoken in Siwa (Egypt).