old english pronouns

7/28/2019 Old English Pronouns

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24.11.2008.Pronouns

The pronominal system in OE is even more complex than nominal system which is rich in

fractions / endings. The personal pronouns in OE were marked by the grammaticalcategory of person, gender, number and case.

There is a difference between the system of pronouns in OE, ME and MnE. One differenceis particularly marked the category of number.

The personal pronouns for the 1st and 2nd person in OE were marked by 3 numbers(singular, dual & plural), while in MnE and ME are marked by 2 numbers (singular &

plural). Dual is lost by the end of the OE period.

The Personal Pronouns:

OE IC > MnE I

The Singular Form of 1st Person Personal Pronoun:

N. IC reduced; at the beginning of the next period became I

G. MN developed to grammatical category which did not exist in OE (poss. pron.);served for several purposes

D. M one form, but 2 functions; even today ME serves in both cases but dativeform requires apposition, esp. when marked

A. MEC, M

The Dual Form: The Plural Form:

N. WIT (=the two of us) N. WG. UNCER G. RE (=our)D. UNC D. SA. UNC A. S

The Singular Form of 2nd Person Personal Pronoun:

N.

G. N used as possessive determiner

D.

A. C

The Dual Form: The Plural Form:

N. GIT N. GG. UNCER G. WERD. INC D. WA. INC A. W


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The Singular Form of 3rd Person Personal Pronoun: (marked for 3 genders)

masculine gender:

N. HG. HIS(S)D. HIMA. HINE there were no reflexive pronouns, instead personal pronoun was used

somewhere in sentence (acc. was very prominent)

feminine gender: neuter gender:

N. H N. HITG. HIRE G. HISD. HIRE D. HIMA. H A. HIT

The Plural Form of 3rd Person Personal Pronoun:

all genders:

N. HE replaced by the Scandinavian personal pronoun AI, EI

G. HIRA, HIORA, HIERA borrowed initial consonant;instead of HIRA, HEORA, HIERA THEIR, THEM

D. HM, HEM, HIM used equally frequent as HIRA, HEORA, HEOM, HIM Chaucer used them in balanced mannerA. H, HI

Same case form were used as starting point for development of what is going to become anew category of personal pronouns.

The Interrogative Pronouns:

masculine & feminine gender:

N. HW WHO these 3 cases

G. HWS WHOSE wereD. HWM, HWAM WHOM essentialA. HWONEI. HW (=interrogative adverb WHY)frequent in interrogative pronouns

neuter gender:

N. HWTG. HWSD. HWM, HWAMA. HWTI. HW rare


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The Demonstrative Pronouns:

SINGULAR:masculine gender:

N. SE used as def. article

G. SD. MA. ONE

I.

feminine gender:

N. SO

G. RED. RE

A.

I. RE

neuter gender:

N. t (=THAT)

G. S

D. M, M

A. t

I.

PLURAL:

N.

G. R, RA

D. M, MA.

I. M

* used as truly demonstrative category ES, OS, IS

SINGULAR:masculine gender: feminine gender: neuter gender:

N. ES

G. ISSESD. ISSUM

A. ISNE, YSNE

I. S

N. OSG. ISSE

D. ISSE

A. S

I. ISSE

N. ISG. ISSE

D. ISSE

A. S

I. ISSEPLURAL:

N. S

G. ISSA

D. ISSUMA. IS

I. ISSUM

* IS remained THIS in MnE

ME definite article THE, 2 Theories:1. Demonstrative pronoun SE simply replaced theinitial S with the initial2. Nominative masculine S lost its final Sand

was replaced by TH

old english pronouns

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