Old English/Pronouns

Introduction: Introduction - Grammar - Orthography - I-mutation
Grammar: Nouns - Pronouns - Articles - Adjectives - Numbers - Verbs - Participles - Adverbs - Conjunctions - Prepositions - Interjections - Appositives - Word Formation -

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Pronouns are used to substitute for nouns in most speech. 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 never to be used in sentences. However, they are useful because they help avoid repeating the same noun over and over again; and they make it easier for a sentence to be understood. For an example without using any pronouns, see this sentence:

• Alistair is doing what Alistair thinks is best for Alistair's rights as a human being.

Because it repeats "Alistair" so much it seems strange and tedious. A more usual way to say the above, using pronouns, would be:

• Alistair is doing what he thinks is best for his rights as a human being.

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 "whom" in "John is the person whom I like"
• Demonstrative pronouns - words used often when pointing to something, with 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".

Like nouns and adjectives, pronouns are declined according to case, gender (only sometimes), and number.

Personal pronouns

The simple personal pronouns are declined like this:

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	Plural
Nominative	iċ	ƿit	ƿē
Accusative	mē	unc	ūs
Genitive	mīn	uncer	ūre
Dative	mē	unc	ūs

Notice that there is a dual number; it means "both" or "two" as in "we both" or "we two". The separate dual number is exceptional and rare. If used with an adjective or a verb, it should take the same declensions and conjugations as plural. Since there is a dual number for each set of pronouns, the plural form should only be used for three or more.

In Anglian dialects, in the accusative, "mec" was used instead of "mē"; "uncit" was used instead of "unc"; and "ūsiċ" was used instead of "ūs". Also in Anglian dialects, "ūser" was sometimes used instead of "ūre".

Second person

Second person pronouns are for the person who is being spoken to, like Modern English "you" (and “thou” and “ye” in dialects).

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	þū	ġit	ġē
Accusative	þē	inc	ēoƿ
Genitive	þīn	incer	ēoƿer
Dative	þē	inc	ēoƿ

In Anglian dialects, "þec", "inċit" and "ēoƿiċ" were used in the accusative instead of "þē", "inc", and "ēoƿ" respectively.

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.	Fem. sg.	Pl. all genders
Nominative	hē	hit	hēo	hīe
Accusative	hine		hīe
Genitive	his		hiere	heora
Dative	him			him

In Anglian dialects, "hēo" was used for feminine and plural nominative and accusative. In earlier Old English, both in West Saxon and Anglian dialects, "hīo" was used instead of "hēo".

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 following are Old English interrogative pronouns:

"Hƿā" - "who"
Case	Sg. and pl.
Nominative	hƿā
Accusative	hƿone, hƿæne
Genitive	hƿæs
Dative	hƿǣm, hƿām
Instrumental	hƿȳ

"Hƿæt" - "what"
Case	Sg. and pl.
Nominative	hƿæt
Accusative
Genitive	hƿæs
Dative	hƿǣm, hƿām
Instrumental	hƿȳ

Note that "hƿæt" was used when a person had been identified, and that was the person who was being enquired about. "Hƿā" was used when no person had been identified. Consider, "Hƿæt is hē?" - "Who is he?", where "hē" shows that we are aware of which person the question applies to. But "Hƿā ǣt mīnne hlāf?" - "Who ate my bread?", where no one is indicated.

The instrumental form of "hƿæt" (hƿȳ) is used to mean "why". Also used for "why" is for hƿȳ.

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.

"Hƿæðer" - "which of two"
Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	hƿæðer			hƿæðre	hƿæðer	hƿæðra
Accusative	hƿæðerne	hƿæðer	hƿæðere
Genitive	hƿæðres		hƿæðerre	hƿæðerra
Dative	hƿæðrum			hƿæðrum
Instrumental	hƿæðre

Like hƿæðer is āhƿæðer "some one, something; any one; anything", ǣġhƿæðer "of two" "either, both, each"; "of many" "every one, each", nāhƿæðer "neither", sƿæðer "whichever of two, whosoever of two".

The following word is also used as an interrogative adjective, like Modern English "which" as in "Which fruit did you eat?" Used standalone as a pronoun, though, it means "which one". Because it is an adjective, it also simply takes the strong adjectival declension.

"Hƿilċ" - "which one"
Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	hƿilċ			hƿilċe	hƿilċ	hƿilca
Accusative	hƿilcne	hƿilċ	hƿilċe
Genitive	hƿilċes		hƿilcre	hƿilcra
Dative	hƿilcum			hƿilcum
Instrumental	hƿilċe

Like hƿilċ is sƿilċ "such", ġehƿilċ "each/every one", ǣġhƿilċ "each one, every one", nāthƿilċ "someone I know not", samhƿilċ "some".

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns are pronouns that are used to refer to an earlier substansive, called an antecedent, and give additional information, as the "who" in the following examples:

• "It was John who did that" - Hit ƿæs Iohannes se þe dyde þæt
• "I like men who know what they're doing" - Mē līciaþ menn þā þe ƿiton þæt hīe dōþ

And the "that" in the following examples:

• "The thing that I hate most about it, is the stupidity of it all" - Þæt þing þæt iċ þæs mǣst hatġe, is his dƿola
• "All the trees that I cut down had green leaves" - Eall þā treoƿ þā iċ fylede hæfdon grēnu lēaf

And the "which" in the following examples:

• "The squirrel, which was red, ran away" - Þæt ācƿeorna þæt þe rēad ƿæs, earn aƿeġ
• "The house which I live in is old" - Þæt hūs in þǣm þe iċ ƿuniġe is eald

In Old English, the relative pronoun was the same as the definitive article, but it could be followed in addition by þe. You could also use just þe by itself.

"Se (þe)" - "who, which, that"
Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural all genders
Nominative	se (þe)	þæt (þe)	sēo (þe)	þā (þe)
Accusative	þone (þe)		þā (þe)
Genitive	þæs (þe)		þǣre (þe)	þāra (þe)
Dative	þǣm (þe), þām (þe)		þǣre (þe)	þǣm (þe), þām (þe)

Note that because se by itself could also mean "that (one", alongside this relative pronoun meaning; and þe alone could be a relative pronoun, se þe could actually be just a relative pronoun, or a relative pronoun and an indicative pronoun combined, e.g. "that which" or "he who".

A kind of word which in Modern English could be confused with a relative pronoun, is an indirect interrogative. The bold words in the following examples are indirect interrogatives:

• "I asked him what he was doing"
• "Do you know who they are?"

As in Modern English, the indirect interrogative pronouns in Old English were the same as the normal interrogative pronouns, for which see the "Interrogative pronouns" section of this page.

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".

"Þes" - "this"
Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	All genders
Nominative	þes	þis	þēos	þās
Accusative	þisne		þās
Genitive	þisses		þisse, þisre	þissa, þisra
Dative	þissum			þissum
Instrumental	þȳs		-	-

The plural of þes (þās) has the meaning of "these".

"Se" - "that"
Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	All genders
Nominative	se	þæt	sēo	þā
Accusative	þone		þā
Genitive	þæs		þǣre	þāra
Dative	þǣm, þām			þǣm, þām
Instrumental	þȳ		-	-

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".

• Ġehƿā - "anybody" or "everybody"; declined just like the interrogative pronoun hƿā.
• Ġehƿilċ - "anything/anyone" or "everything/everyone"; declined just like the interrogative pronoun hƿilċ.
• Ġehƿæt - "anything" or "everything"; declined just the interrogate pronoun hƿæt.

Negative pronouns

Negative indefinite pronouns, or simply negative pronouns, are pronouns which refer to a lack of someone or something, like "nothing" in Modern English.

Nā(ƿi)ht - "nothing"
Case	'Sg. (no need for plural)
Nominative	nā(ƿi)ht
Accusative
Genitive	nā(ƿi)ht-es
Dative	nā(ƿi)ht-e

Note that nā(ƿi)ht is actually a compound of nā - "not" and ƿiht - "something". The declension is simply the strong singular neuter noun declension.

"Nobody" is in Old English nān mann, which is actually just the negative article (which is declined like a strong adjective) and the noun mann - "human", "person", for whose declension see here.

Bibliography

A part of the text in this article was taken from the public domain English grammar "The Grammar of English Grammars" by Goold Brown, 1851.