Personal pronouns in Bua languages

International audience Bua languages in general are poorly documented and many aspects of their morphosyntax are still undescribed. The purpose of this paper is to outline a state of the art concerning the structure and operation of the personal pronoun systems. Largely based on unpublished or restricted documentation, it systematically reviews the systems of eight languages, commenting on both the identity of persons and the types of functional paradigms. Despite numerous shortcomings and uncertainties, interesting observations can be made concerning the 1st person plural ‘exclusive’/‘inclusive’ contrast, the logophoric pronouns, the tonal polarity of Subject and Object pronouns, and different types of personal possessive constructions.