The inflectional system of Old English

THE OLD ENGLISH

PRONOMINAL SYSTEM



As has been indicated earlier the Old English

determiner was inflected for Number, Case,
and Gender. The Old English pronouns of all
kinds were also inflected for the above
mentioned grammatical categories. The aim
of the analysis is to find out to what extent
the above mentioned syntactic categories
shared the formal means of signalling
Number, Case, and Gender

The Old English pronominal system



Singular



Masc. Fem.

Neuter

Nomin. s

e

/ h

e

s

eo

/ h

eo

þæ

t

/ hi

t

Genet. þæ

s

/ hi

s

þæ

re

/ hi

re

þæ

s

/ hi

s

Dative þæ

m

/ hi

m

þæ

re

/ hi

re

þæ

m

/ hi

m

Accus. þo

ne

/ hi

ne

þā / hie þæ

t

/ hi

t

The Old English determiner system
compared with the pronominal system

Plural

Nominative/Accusative þā / hie
Genitive þa

ra

/ hi

ra

Dative þa

m

/ hi

m

/heo

m

The Old English determiner system
compared with the pronominal system



Singular

Masculine Feminine

Neuter

N. þ

e

s (h

e

, s

e

) þ

eo

s (h

eo

, s

eo

) þis

(hit, þæs)

G. þisse

s

(hi

s

, þæ

s

) þisse (hire, þære)

þisse

s

(hi

s

, þæ

s

)

D. þissu

m

(hi

m

, þæ

m

) þisse (hire, þære)

þissu

m

(hi

m

, þæ

m

)

A. þis

ne

(hi

ne

, þo

ne

) þ

ā

s (hie, þ

ā

) þis

(hit, þæs)

The Old English demonstrative
pronouns

Plural

Nominative/Accusative þās (hie, þā)
Genitive þissa (hira, þāra)
Dative þissu

m

(hi

m

/heo

m

,

þā

m

)

þis < þi

t

-s, þisse < þis-

re

, þissa < þis-

ra

The Old English demonstrative
pronouns



The Old English interrogative pronoun had

forms in singular only.



Nom. hwa hwæt



Gen. hwæs



Dat. hwæm



Acc. hwone hwæt

The Old English interrogative
pronoun

The Old English pronouns can be divided into a

sort of stem (the function of the pronoun, i.e.
determiner, anaphoric, demonstrative,
interrogative), and a suffix which signalled
Number, Case, and Gender. The function of
the pronoun: determiner: se, seo, þæ-, þā-,
þo-; anaphoric: he, heo, hi-; demonstrative:
þes, þeos, þis-; interrogative: hwa, hwæ-,
hwo-.

Grammatical suffixes: -t – Nom. & Acc. Sg.

Neut; -s – Gen. Sg. Masc. & Neut.; -re – Gen.
& Dat. Sg. Fem.; -m – Dat. Sg. Masc. & Neut;
Dat. Pl. all Genders; -ne – Acc. Sg. Masc.; -ra
– Gen. Pl. all Genders.

The Old English pronominal
system