The English Language Part 49

In Old English MSS. this plural in _-e_ is general. It occurs not only in adjectives and p.r.o.nouns as a regular inflection, but even as a plural of the genitive _his_, that word being treated as a nominative singular; so that _hise_ is formed from _his_, as _sui_ from _suus_, or as _eji_ might have been formed from _ejus_; provided that in the Latin language this last word had been mistaken for a nominative singular. The following examples are Mr. Guest's.

1. In these lay a gret mult.i.tude of _syke_ men, _blinde_, crokid, and _drye_.

_Wicliffe_, Jon. v.

2. In all the orders foure is non that can So much of dalliance and faire language, He hadde ymade ful many a marriage-- His tippet was ay fa.r.s.ed ful of knives, And pinnes for to given _faire_ wives.

_Chau._, Prol.

3. And _al_ the c.u.n.tre of Judee wente out to him, and _alle_ men of Jerusalem.--_Wiclif_, Mark i.

4. He ghyueth lif to _alle_ men, and brething, and _alle_ thingis; and made of von _al_ kynde of men to inhabit on _al_ the face of the erthe.--_Wicliffe_, Dedis of Apostlis, xvii.

5. That fadres sone which _alle_ thinges wrought; And _all_, that wrought is with a skilful thought, The Gost that from the fader gan procede, Hath souled hem.

_Chau._, The Second Nonnes Tale.

{253} 6. And _alle_ we that ben in this aray And maken _all_ this lamentation, We losten _alle_ our husbondes at that toun.

_Chau._, The Knightes Tale.

7. A _good_ man bryngeth forth _G.o.de_ thingis of _good_ tresore.--_Wicliffe_, Matt. xii.

8. So every _good_ tree maketh _G.o.de_ fruytis, but an yvel tree maketh yvel fruytes. A _good_ tree may not mak yvel fruytis, neither an yvel tree may make _G.o.de_ fruytis. Every tree that maketh not _good_ fruyt schal be cut down.--_Wicliffe_, Matt. vii.

9. Men loveden more darknessis than light for her werkes weren _yvele_, for ech man that doeth _yvel_, hateth the light.--_Wicliffe_, Jon. iii.

10. And _othere_ seedis felden among thornes wexen up and strangliden hem, and _othere_ seedis felden into good lond and gaven fruyt, sum an hundred fold, _another_ sixty fold, an _other_ thritty fold, &c.--_Wicliffe_, Matt. xiii.

11. Yet the while he spake to the puple lo _his_ mother and _hise_ brethren stonden withoute forth.--_Wicliffe_, Matt. xii.

12. And _hise_ disciplis camen and token _his_ body.--_Wicliffe_, Matt.

xiv.

13. Whan _thise_ Bretons tuo were fled out of _this_ lond Ine toke his feaute of alle, &c.

_Rob. Brunne_, p. 3.

14. _This_ is thilk disciple that bereth witnessyng of _these_ thingis, and wroot them.--_Wicliffe_, John xxi.

15. Seye to us in what powers thou doist _these_ thingis, and who is he that gaf to thee _this_ power.--_Wicliffe_, Luke xx.

-- 302. _Those._--Perhaps the Anglo-Saxon _a_ with _s_ added. Perhaps the _as_ from _is_ with its power altered. Rask, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, writes "from is we find, in the plural, aes for as. From which afterwards, with a distinction in signification, _these_ and _those_." The English form _they_ is ill.u.s.trated by the Anglo-Saxon form _age_=_a_. The whole doctrine of the forms in question has yet to a.s.sume a satisfactory shape.

The present declension of the demonstrative p.r.o.nouns is as follows:--

I.

_The_--Undeclined.

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II.

_She_--Defective in the oblique cases.

III.

_He_.

_Masc._ _Neut._ _Fem._ _Nom._ He It (from _hit_) -- _Acc._ Him It Her.

_Dat._ Him -- Her.

_Gen._ His -- Her.

_Secondary Gen._ -- Its Hers.

No plural form.

IV.

_That._

_Neut._ _Masc._ _Fem._ _Sing. Nom._ That -- -- _Acc._ That Than,[40] then -- _Dat._ -- -- There.[40]

-----------------/----------------/ _Plur. Nom._ They.[41]

_Acc._ Them.[41]

_Gen._ Their.[41]

_Secondary Gen._ Theirs.[41]

V.

_Singular_, This. _Plural_, These.

VI.

_Those_.

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CHAPTER VIII.

THE RELATIVE, INTERROGATIVE, AND CERTAIN OTHER p.r.o.nOUNS.

-- 303. In the relative and interrogative p.r.o.nouns, _who_, _what_, _whom_, _whose_, we have, expressed by a change of form, a neuter gender, _what_; a dative case, _whom_; and a genitive case, _whose_: the true power of the _s_ (_viz._ as the sign of a case) being obscured by the orthographical addition of the _e_ mute.

To these may be added, 1. the adverb _why_, originally the ablative form _hvi_ (_quo modo? qua via?_). 2. The adverb _where_, a feminine dative, like _there_. 3. _When_, a masculine accusative (in Anglo-Saxon _hwaene_), and a.n.a.logous to _then_.

-- 304. The following points in the history of the demonstrative and relative p.r.o.nouns are taken from Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik, vol. iii. pp.

1, 2, 3.