Classes and morphological categories

of pronouns in Old English.

• Pronouns are used to substitute for nouns. They are words like "I", "you", "he", "they", "anybody",

"who", and many more. They are not a requirement of a sentence, and it is possible for

them to never to be used in sentences.

There are different types of pronouns:

• Personal pronouns - usually refer to specific persons or objects

• Interrogative pronouns - used to ask questions of identity like Modern English "who", "what", and "which

one"• Relative pronouns - used after another substansive to

add additional information, like Modern English "who" in "John is the person who I like"

• Demonstrative pronouns - words used often when pointing to something, with a sense of location, as in

Modern English "this" or "that"• Indefinite pronouns - used to talk about nobody in

particular, or about everyone in general, like Modern English "anybody" and "everybody". Also includes negative pronouns - pronouns used to talk about

"nobody" or "nothing".

First person• First person pronouns are pronouns that refer to

the speaker (in singular), or the speaker and other people (in dual and plural), like Modern

English "I" and "we".

Case Singular Dual PluralNominative iċ wit wē

Accusative meċ, mē (in later OE) uncit, unc ūsiċ, ūs

Genitive mīn uncer ūser, ūreDative mē unc ūs

Second person• Second person pronouns are for

the person who is being spoken to, like Modern English "you".

Case Singular Dual PluralNominative þū ġit ġē

Accusative þeċ, þē (in later OE) inċit, inċ ēowiċ, ēow

Genitive þīn inċer ēowerDative þē inċ ēow

Third person• Third person pronouns refer to another person not involved in a conversation, like

Modern English "he", "she", "it", and "they".

Case Masc. sg. Neut. sg. sg. Fem. sg. Pl. all

gendersNominative hē hit hēo hīe

Accusative hine hit hīe hīeGenitive his his hire heoraDative him him hire him

Interrogative pronouns• Interrogative pronouns are pronouns used to

ask questions of identity, such as Modern English "who" and "what" as in "Who are you?"

and "What is that animal?“• The instrumental form of "hwæt" (hwȳ) is used

to mean "why". Also used for "why" is for hwȳ.• In Old English, they had a word meaning "which of two" as might be used in "Which of

the two children went with you?", declined the same as the strong adjective declension.

Relative pronouns• Relative pronouns are pronouns that are used to

refer to an earlier substansive, called an antecedant, and give additional information, as

the "who" in the following examples:

• "It was John who did that" - Hit wæs Iohannes se þe dyde þæt

• "I like men who know what they're doing" - Mē līciaþ menn þā þe witon þæt hīe dōþ

Demonstrative pronouns• Demonstrative pronouns are the kind of pronoun

you might use while pointing at something, often having also a sense of location, as in Modern English "this" and "that", where "this" has a meaning like "the one here" and that has a

meaning like "the one there". It is obvious to see that the Modern English word "that" came from

the neuter form of this word - þæt. This word was also the definitive article (like Modern English

"the") in Old English, so if it was used to modify a noun, it might either mean "the" or "that",

depending on context.

Indefinite pronouns• Indefinite pronouns are pronouns which don't refer

to anything specific. They can have the sense of "any" or "every". They also include negative pronouns - pronouns that mean "nothing" or

"nobody".• Ġehwā - "anybody" or "everybody"; declined just

like the interrogative pronoun hwā.• Ġehwilċ - "anything/anyone" or

"everything/everyone"; declined just like the interrogative pronoun hwilċ.

• Ġehwæt - "anything" or "everything"; declined just the the interrogate pronoun hwæt.

The formation of new classes of pronouns and

morphological changes in the categories of middle and

new English.

• Pronouns in Middle English look much the same as their Modern English counterparts, with a few

exceptions:

• The first person singular ("I") is variously spelled i, ich, ih, and is

found capitalized as I from 1250. The objective (accusative and dative

case) form is the same as Modern English: me. The possessive form

myn, min may occur without the -n, but takes a final -e when used with

plural nouns.

• The second person singular is thou (older thu). The objective (accusative

and dative case) form is thee. The possessive thyn is sometimes written

without the -n, but takes a final -e when used with a plural noun.

• He, him, his appear virtually unchanged. She may also be spelt

sche, but we find hire rather than her and hir instead of hers. The third

person singular neuter (it, also found in the older form hit) relates to the possessive his (not its!): ...Aprille

with his shoures soote ...April, with its showers sweet.

• The first person plural we, us, and oure are easy to understand. In older texts, expect

to find ure instead of oure.• The second person plural ("all of you") is

ye, but we find you as an object and possessive case your.

• The third person plural ("they") has they as a subject, but hem instead of them and

hir for their.

• the Modern English system of personal pronouns has preserved

some of the inflectional complexity of Old English and Middle English.

Thank you for your attention