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 grammatical category of person, gender, number and case. There is a difference between the system of pronouns in OE, ME and MnE. One difference is particularly marked the category of number. The personal pronouns for the 1 st 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 G. MN D. M A. MEC, M
The Dual Form:

reduced; at the beginning of the next period became I developed to grammatical category which did not exist in OE (poss. pron.);
served for several purposes

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

The Plural Form:

N. WIT G. UNCER D. UNC A. UNC

(=the two of us)

N. W G. RE D. S A. S

(=our)

The Singular Form of 2nd Person Personal Pronoun:

N. G. D. A.

N C
The Plural Form:

used as possessive determiner

The Dual Form:

N. GIT G. UNCER D. INC A. INC

N. G G. WER D. W A. W

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

N. H G. HIS(S) D. HIM A. HINE

there were no reflexive pronouns, instead personal pronoun was used

somewhere in sentence (acc. was very prominent) neuter gender:

feminine gender:

N. H G. HIRE D. HIRE A. H

N. HIT G. HIS D. HIM 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 D. HM, HEM, HIM A. H, HI

borrowed initial consonant; instead of HIRA, HEORA, HIERA THEIR, THEM used equally frequent as HIRA, HEORA, HEOM, HIM Chaucer used them in balanced manner

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

The Interrogative Pronouns:

masculine & feminine gender:

N. HW G. HWS

WHO WHOSE

these 3 cases were

D. HWM, HWAM WHOM essential A. HWONE I. HW (=interrogative adverb WHY) frequent in interrogative pronouns
neuter gender:

N. HWT G. HWS D. HWM, HWAM A. HWT I. HW rare

The Demonstrative Pronouns:

SINGULAR: masculine gender:

N. SE used as def. article G. D. A. I.

feminine gender:

neuter gender:

S M
ONE

N. SO G. D. A. I.

RE RE

N. G. D. A. I.

t S M, t

(=THAT) M

RE

PLURAL:

N. G. D. A. I.

R, RA M

M,

M
ES, OS, IS
neuter gender:

* used as truly demonstrative category

SINGULAR: masculine gender:

feminine gender:

N. G. D. A. I.

ES ISSES ISSUM ISNE, YSNE

N. G. D. A. I.

OS ISSE ISSE S ISSE

N. G. D. A.

IS ISSE ISSE S

I. ISSE

PLURAL:

N. G. D. A. I.

S ISSA ISSUM IS ISSUM

ME definite article THE, 2 Theories: 1. Demonstrative pronoun SE simply replaced the initial S with the initial 2. Nominative masculine S lost its final S and was replaced by TH

* IS remained THIS in MnE