Italian being apro-drop language, subject pronouns are mostly omitted, both in the written and spoken language, as the inflected verb is conjugated by person. An example would be:Mangio una mela, which is much more common thanIo mangio una mela, where the subject can be inferred from the inflected formmangio; similarlyÈ carina instead ofLei è carina. The explicit usage of personal pronouns may sound redundant to a native speaker, except when it is used in order to emphasize the subject. (Io mangio una mela could be interpreted asI am eating an apple and you are not).
Third person pronominal forms used as formal terms of address to refer to second person subjects (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead.
2
Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
1910, Reuben Eliyahu Israel,Traducsion libera de las poezias ebraicas de Roş Aşana i Kipur[2], Craiova: Institutul Grafic, I. Samitca şi D. Baraş, Socieatate in Comandita,→OCLC,page10:
Delantre de tiio mi orgolio abato I mi corason lo razgo con kevranto¹)
I suppress my pride before you, and my heart tears it with despair.
illa quidem clāmābat ‘iō, cārissima māter, auferor!’
Indeed, she was crying out, “Oh! mother dearest – I am being taken away!” (SeePersephone. The full context implies a cry of anguish as well as a plea for help from Persephone's mother, Ceres. The alternative ‘‘Help!’’ calls for an imperative such as‘‘ferteauxilium!’’.)
AIS:Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] –map 1638: “volete che ci vada io” – onnavigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
1981, Arend Quak, chapter 1, inDie altmittel- und altniederfränkischen Psalmen und Glossen. Nach den Handschriften und Erstdrucken neu herausgegeben. [The Old Middle and Old Lower Franconian Psalms and Glosses. Republished after the manuscripts and original publications.] (Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur;47)[4], Amsterdam: Rodopi,→ISBN, page69:
Duncla uuerthin ougon iro that sia ne gesian in rukgi iroio an crumbe.
May their eyes be blinded so they (can) not see, and may their backkeep getting bent!
1981, Arend Quak, chapter 1, inDie altmittel- und altniederfränkischen Psalmen und Glossen. Nach den Handschriften und Erstdrucken neu herausgegeben. [The Old Middle and Old Lower Franconian Psalms and Glosses. Republished after the manuscripts and original publications.] (Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur;47)[5], Amsterdam: Rodopi,→ISBN, page71:
1971, Willy Sanders, editor,(Expositio) Willerammi Eberspergensis abbatis in canticis canticorum. Die Leidener Handschrift. (Kleine deutsche Prosadenkmäler des Mittelalters; 9)[6] (overall work in Latin and Old High German), München: Wilhelm Fink, page52:
So wer ouch thurgh godes willan thiro wereld arbeyde muothe, wie magh herie ze meeron ruowan cuman, thanne thaz her uollecume 'ad fontem totius boni'?
And whoever by God's will is tired by the burdens of the world, how can heever attain peace better than that he reaches the source of all good?
