An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

es ‘this’ is present, for it too
is fully inflected for case, number and gender. 
Ê
es is much more like
present-day ‘this’ than se is like ‘that’, in that it acts almost always with
reference to a nearby event whereas se most often refers to a specified
item. In present-day English we have three terms: namely the specific
the and then two contrasting words showing either nearness (this) or
distance (that). This latter contrast is usually referred to as deixis, and
it should be clear that the same opposition is not so clear-cut in Old
English.
2.4 Pronouns
The set of personal pronouns in Old English was more extensive than
the one that we have today, but nevertheless the paradigms are easily
understood. There are occasional ambiguities, but these are quite
isolated and therefore you should quickly come to know where such
problems arise. In presenting the personal pronoun paradigms I shall
deal firstly with the first and second person pronouns, before discussing
the third person ones.
THE BASIC ELEMENTS
19
02 pages 001-166 29/1/03 16:09 Page 19

---

The paradigm of the first person pronouns is as follows:
Singular
Plural
Nom.
ic
.
we¯
Acc./Dat.
me¯
u¯s
Gen.
mı¯n
u¯re
There are a few points to note. First of all, there is no distinction
between accusative and dative forms. This is also true in the second
person (but not the third person). For those of you familiar with
German, which has accusative mich and dative mir, this is an obvious
difference. The simplification in English is the result of the loss of
certain final consonants, and it is the result of mere chance, rather than
a deliberate structural change. Indeed, there are a few early texts which
do have distinctive accusative forms. Secondly, there is a further set
of pronouns which reflect an older number system, where there were
distinctive forms for reference to two people. This is called the dual
number, and the forms are: Nom. wit, Acc./Dat. unc, Gen. uncer. The dual
is not always used, and when it is used it is often to make clear that the
reference is to two people only. Thirdly, it should be noted that the first
and second person genitive forms have an adjectival function, and this
means that when they function as adjectives they take the appropriate
adjectival inflection (see Chapter 3). Finally it should be noted that, as
with the demonstratives, long vowels were often unstressed and short-
ened in context.
The second person pronouns are as follows:
Singular
Plural
Nom.
t
u¯
g
.
e¯
Acc./Dat.
t
e¯
e¯ow
Gen.
t
ı¯n
e¯ower
The same remarks as for the first person pronouns apply here, and so, for
example, there is a parallel dual paradigm, with the three forms g
.
it, inc,
incer. But the most important point here is that there were separate
singular and plural forms. Furthermore, the singular and plural forms do
not operate as in, say, French, where tu is only used in familiar and col-
loquial contexts. In Old English the singular forms are always singular
and the plural forms always plural, without exception. The development
of the use of the plural in singular contexts started only in the Middle
English period. You may also be able to spot that present-day English you
is related to the Old English accusative plural rather than the nomina-
tive plural (which gives ye). This development is later still.
It is likely that the Middle English use of the plural in singular
20
AN INTRODUCTION TO OLD ENGLISH
02 pages 001-166 29/1/03 16:09 Page 20

---

contexts arose firstly in formal contexts, although in relatively recent
English it is the use of thou rather than you which has become a sign
of formality, as in religious language. Of course in some dialects, for
example in Yorkshire, the distinction between singular and plural can
remain. On the other hand, some dialects have evolved a new plural
form, such as youse in Scots or y’all in the southern USA.
Let us now turn our attention to the third person pronouns. As today,
there are three singular pronouns but only a single paradigm for the
plural. In Old English the singular pronouns correspond to the three
grammatical genders, whereas in present-day English we use natural
gender in almost all instances. In Old English there still remained a pref-
erence for grammatical gender everywhere, except that there was a
strong tendency to use natural gender when referring back to humans, as
in:
(6) And [God] g
.
eworhte of
e
a¯m ribbe ænne [
] wifman, and
axode Adam hu¯ he¯o [
] hatan sc.eolde
And God created from the rib a woman, and asked Adam what she
should be called
But there is, nevertheless, a clear distinction between the Old English
and present-day usages, although sentences such as (6) may be the first
signs of the coming change.
As we mentioned above, there are separate accusative and dative
forms. The forms are as follows: