Evolution of the English pronoun

OUTLINE

1. Old English Pronoun

2. Middle English Pronoun

3. New English Pronoun

 

 

OLD ENGLISH PRONOUN

There were several types of pronouns OE: personal, demonstrative, interrogative, possessive, negative, relative, definite and indefinite. The grammatical categories of the pronouns were either similar to those of nouns (in “noun – pronoun”) or corresponded to those of adjectives (in “adjective – pronoun”). Some features of pronouns were peculiar to them alone.

Personal Pronouns

In OE, as in Gothic there is besides Sg. and Pl. personal pronouns also a dual number for the 1st and 2nd persons.

 

Singular

	I person	II person	III person
N.	ic	Þu	he heo, hio hit
G.	min	Þin	his hire, hiere his
D.	me	Þe	him hire, hiere him
Acc.	mec, me	Þec, Þe	hire hie, hi, hy hit

Dual

	I person	II person	III person
N.	wit	ʒit
G.	uncer	incer
D.	unc	inc
Acc.	unc, unit	inc, incit

Plural

	I person	II person	III person
N.	we	ʒe	hie, hi, hy, heo
G.	ure,user	eower	hira, heora, hiera, hyra
D.	us	eow	him, heom
Acc.	usic, us	eowinc, eow	hie, hi, hy, heo

 

Personal pronouns were declined like nouns according to a 4-case system. The forms of the oblique cases differed greatly from the basic Noun-case form, as most of the sounds were altered. The ancient ending and the root had fused into one morpheme. Some pronouns, namely in the 1st person had suppletive forms.

Some case forms of the pronouns of the 3rd person were similar to those of the demonstrative pronouns. Special attention should be paid to the Genetive case of the personal pronouns. Besides, being used as forms of the oblique case (objects), they were used in an attributive function.

e.g. his modar – his mother

sunu min – my son

 

Demonstrative Pronouns

There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: se, Þes.

Se – the prototype of that, which distinguished 3 genders in the Sg. and had one form for all the genders in the Pl.:

Singular: se (Masc.) – seo (Fem.) – Þæt (Neutre)

Plural: Þa

Þes – the prototype of this, with the same subdivisions:

Singular: Þes (Masc.) – Þeos (Fem.) – Þis (Neuter)

Plural: Þas

Demonstrative pronouns were declined like adjectives and thus had a five-case system. They took specific pronominal endings in some case forms that are endings, which are not found in the noun declension: r in the Genetive Pl., m in the Dative Sg.

The pronoun se, (seo, Þæt) (that) was widely used before nouns with the weakened demonstrative meaning, approaching that of the definite article and might help one determine the case, gender and number of the corresponding noun.

There were no articles in OE. The definite article developed from this pronoun in ME.

The Declension of the Demonstrative Pronouns se (seo, Þæt)

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
N.	se, se	þæt	seo	þa
G.	þæs	þæs	þære	þara, þæra
D.	þæm, þam	þæm, þam	þære	þam, þæm
Acc.	þone, þa	þæt	þa	þa
Instr.	þy, þon þæm, þam	þy,þon	þæ	þare

 

Its paradigm, just like other nominal paradigms contains some homonymous forms.

 

Possessive Pronouns

These pronouns are derived from the Genetive case of the personal pronouns of all persons and numbers. They are: Þin, min, incer, uncer, ure, eower – they are declined as strong adjectives. The possessive pronouns his, hire, hiera are unchanged. There is the reflective possessive pronoun – sin, which is also declined as a strong adjective.

 

Interrogative Pronouns

The interrogative pronouns hwa, hwæt have only singular forms:

 

N.	hwa	hwæt
G.	hwæs	hwæs
D.	hwæm	hwæm
Acc.	hwone	hwæt
Instr.	hwy	hwi

 

The interrogative pronoun hwilc (which) is declined according to the strong declension of adjectives.

 

Relative Pronouns

The most usual OE relative pronoun is Þe.

e.g. Þa beoraʒs, Þe, man hæt Alpis – the mountains, which are called the Alps.

The pronoun seÞe is also used, consisting of the demonstrative pronoun se and the relative pronoun Þe. The pronoun se can also be used as a relative pronoun without Þe, but se is inflected, according to gender, number, case, while Þe remains unchanged.

Indefinite Pronouns

Sum (some)and æniʒ (any)are indefinite pronouns. They are declined as strong adjectives.

Definite Pronouns

The pronouns ʒehwa (every)is declined as hwa. The Pronoun ʒehwilc (each), ælc (each), æʒÞer (either) and swilc (such)are declined as strong adjectives. The pronoun se ilca (the same)– as weak adjectives.

Negative Pronouns

The negative pronouns nan and næniʒ (no and none)are also declined as strong adjectives.

 

 

MIDDLE ENGLISH PRONOUN

Personal Pronouns had the following forms in ME:

 

Singular
	I person	II person	III person
N.	I, ich	thou	he, she, hit, it
Obj.	me	the	him, hir, her, hit, it
Plural
N.	we	ye	hi, they
Obj.	us	you	hem, them

Peculiarities

1. In ME most of the personal pronouns underwent some changes in pronunciation and spelling.

2. Dual number of pronouns disappeared.

3. Genitive case forms no longer existed as the case, but there existed possessives pronouns.

4. The Dative and Accusative merged into one Objective Case.

5. The 3rd person plural pronoun hi was gradually superseded by the pronoun they (of Scandinavian origin).The objective case is represented both by hem (of OE origin) and them (Scandinavian).

6. Initial h- of the Neuter pronoun hit was often lost. This is due probably to its usually unstressed position.

7. The origin of the Feminine pronoun she is not quite clear. It may have developed from the OE Feminine demonstrative pronoun seo. Occasionally the pronoun ye was used in addressing one person. This use is frequent in Chaucer’s works.

 

Possessive Pronouns

The Genitive Case of personal pronouns was singled out and became an independent category of Possessive pronouns. This process began in OE. Possessive pronouns had the following forms in ME: 

 

Singular
I person	II person	III person
min, mi	thin, thi	his, hir, her, his
Plural
our	your	hire, their

 

The forms min, thin are used if the following word begins with a vowel or with h.

The forms my (mi), thy (thi) are found before a word with an initial consonant.

Alongside of these, forms in s have been derived on the analogy of the genitive of nouns in such phrases, as the body is the husbondes = the body is her husband’s. In the 14th century expressions of this type are used: Þis land sale be youres = this land shall be yours.