The pronoun 175 Stress retracts one syllable left (lst-2nd persons accusative-genitive: мене - до мене, тебе - у тебе) and an initial н- appears in the third-person forms when they are immediately governed by a preposition (accusative-genitive, locative), thus: його - до нього 'it - to it', у ньому in it'.9 In this connection note (a) the spelling changes, particularly as regards її - неї, (b) that the instrumental and locative forms always have the initial н-, and (c) the recommended absence of such a form for the dative, given the rarity of prepositions governing the dative and the tendency for such sequences to be restricted to set expressions. It might be borne in mind that in texts and dialects one may occasionally come across forms where the initial н- is expected, but absent. Also, as regards pronunciation, one may, again dialectally, come across a pronunciation of він with a hard в (because it alternates with o), and even a pronunciation of Ї as if [ji], for example, їх [jix]. Very occasionally, after a preposition, one may encounter an accusative singular feminine ню. Себе 'self (reflexive) declines like ти, but has no nominative form, since it is only used to refer back to the grammatical subject. Note the stress retraction in the accusative-genitive when immediately governed by a preposition. G. себе P. D. собі Д. А. себе З. І. собою О. L. собі М. Завтра ми повернемося до себе. Tomorrow we'll return home. Сестра Наталка така гарна з себе. My sister Natalka is so very pretty. Перед собою я раптом побачив старого друга. Suddenly, before my very eyes, I saw an old friend. In connection with себе we can mention the reflexive particle -ся (after consonants and commonly after vowels), -сь (sometimes after vowels and, optionally, sonorants), now firmly attached to the verb in its 'reflexive form' (see повернемося above). Formerly, and still in south-western dialects, this particle was enclitic, in the forms ся and си (also first-person singular м'я ми, second-person singular тя - ти, and third-person accusative-genitive singular masculine-neuter ro, dative singular masculine-neuter му) and not attached to the verb. We still have Як ся маєш? 'How are you?' It is appropriate to mention the reciprocal pronoun, namely 'each other', 'one another'. This is conveyed by один одного (for two males), одна одну (for two females), and одне одного (for male and female). Note that the first component, as one might expect, occurs in the nominative singular and is invariable; the neuter singular first component (see 5.0) for 'male and female' is perhaps striking. The second component goes in whatever case the syntax
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