A History of English Language

A history of the english language 150
SINGULAR PLURAL
Masc. Fem. Neut. All Genders
N. þēs þēos þis
þās,
G. þisses þisse þisses þissa
D. þissum þisse þissum þissum
A. þisne þās þis
þās,
I.
it was like the nominative, and partly because the dative him would have been subject to
confusion with the corresponding case of the masculine. One other general simplification
is to be noted: the loss of the dual number. A language can get along without a distinction
in pronouns for two persons and more than two; the forms wit, and their oblique
cases did not survive beyond the thirteenth century, and English lost the dual number.
It will be observed that the pronoun she had the form hēo in Old English. The modern
form could have developed from the Old English hēo, but it is believed by some that it is
due in part at least to the influence of the demonstrative sēo. A similar reinforcing
influence of the demonstrative is perhaps to be seen in the forms of the third person
plural, they, their, them, but here the source of the modern developments was
undoubtedly Scandinavian (cf. § 77). The normal development of the Old English
pronouns would have been hi (he), here, hem, and these are very common. In the
districts, however, where Scandinavian influence was strong, the nominative hi began
early to be replaced by the Scandinavian form þei (ON þeir), and somewhat later a
similar replacement occurred in the other cases, their and them. The new forms were
adopted more slowly farther south, and the usual inflection in Chaucer is thei, here, hem.
But by the end of the Middle English period the forms they, their, them may be regarded
as the normal English plurals.
116. The Verb.
Apart from some leveling of inflections and the weakening of endings in accordance with
the general tendency, 7 the principal changes in the verb during the Middle English period
were the serious losses suffered by the strong conjugation (see §§ 117–18). This
conjugation, although including some of the most important verbs in the language, was
relatively small 8 as compared with the large and steadily growing body of weak verbs.
7
For example, the -an of the Old English infinitive became -en and later -e: OE drīfan> M.E.
dnīven>drive.
8
The facts stated in this section are based upon collections for 333 strong verbs in Old English.
This number includes a few verbs for which only isolated forms occur and one (*stecan) that is not
recorded at all, although its existence is to be inferred from its surviving forms in Middle English.