A Handbook of the English Language by Robert Gordon Latham (books for men to read .txt) 📖

13. When 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.

§ 233. Those.—Perhaps the Anglo-Saxon þá with s added. Perhaps the þás from þis with its power altered. Rask, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, writes "from þis we find, in the plural, þæs for þás. From which afterwards, with a distinction in signification, these and those." The English form they is illustrated by the Anglo-Saxon form ðage = þá. The whole doctrine of the forms in question has yet to assume a satisfactory shape.

The present declension of the demonstrative pronouns is as follows:—

A.

She.—Defective in the oblique cases.

B.

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.

C.

I.

That.

  Neut. Masc. Fem. Sing.  Nom. That — —           Acc. That Than,[49] then[49] —           Dat. — — There.[49]             Instrumental Thence. Plur.  Nom. They.[50]           Acc. Them.[50]           Gen. Their.[50] Secondary Gen. Theirs.[50]

II.

Singular, This.          Plural, These.

III.

Those.

IV.

The—Undeclined.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE RELATIVE, INTERROGATIVE, AND CERTAIN OTHER PRONOUNS.

§ 234. In the relative and interrogative pronouns, 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? quâ viâ?). 2. The adverb where, a feminine dative, like there. 3. When, a masculine accusative (in Anglo-Saxon hwæne), and analogous to then.

The two sounds in the Danish words hvi, hvad, &c., and the two sounds in the English, what, when (Anglo-Saxon, hwæt, hwæne) account for the forms why and how. In the first the w alone, in the second the h alone, is sounded. The Danish for why is hvi, pronounced vi.

§ 235. The following remarks (some of them not strictly etymological) apply to a few of the remaining pronouns.

Same.—Wanting in Anglo-Saxon, where it was replaced by the word ylca, ylce. Probably derived from the Norse.

Self.—In myself, thyself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, a substantive (or with a substantival power), and preceded by a genitive case. In himself and themselves an adjective (or with an adjectival power), and preceded by an accusative case. Itself is equivocal, since we cannot say whether its elements are it and self, or its and self; the s having been dropped in utterance. It is very evident that either the form like himself, or the form like thyself, is exceptionable; in other words, that the use of the word is inconsistent. As this inconsistency is as old as the Anglo-Saxons, the history of the word gives us no elucidation. In favour of the forms like myself (self being a substantive), are the following facts:—

1. The plural word selves, a substantival, and not an adjectival form.

2. The Middle High German phrases mîn lîp, dîn lîp, my body, thy body, equivalent in sense to myself, thyself.

3. The circumstance that if self be dealt with as a substantive, such phrases as my own self, his own great self, &c., can be used; whereby the language is a gainer.

"Vox self, pluraliter selves, quamvis etiam pronomen a quibusdam censeatur (quoniam ut plurimum per Latinum ipse redditur), est tamen plane nomen substantivum, cui quidem vix aliquod apud Latinos substantivum respondet; proxime tamen accedet vox persona vel propria persona ut my self, thy self, our selves, your selves, &c. (ego ipse, tu ipse, nos ipsi, vos ipsi, &c.), ad verbum mea persona, tua persona, &c. Fateor tamen himself, itself, themselves, vulgo dici pro his-self, its-self, theirselves; at (interposito own) his own self, &c., ipsius propria persona, &c."—Wallis. c. vii.

4. The fact that many persons actually say hisself and theirselves.

Whit.—As in the phrase not a whit. This enters in the compound pronouns aught and naught.

One.—As in the phrase one does so and so. From the French on. Observe that this is from the Latin homo, in Old French hom, om. In the Germanic tongues man is used in the same sense: man sagt = one says = on dit. One, like self and other, is so far a substantive, that it is inflected. Gen. sing, one's own self: plural, my wife and little ones are well.

Derived pronouns.—Any, in Anglo-Saxon, ænig. In Old High German we have einîc = any, and einac = single. In Anglo-Saxon ânega means single. In Middle High German einec is always single. In New High German einig means, 1. a certain person (quidam), 2. agreeing; einzig, meaning single. In Dutch ênech has both meanings. This indicates the word án, one, as the root of the word in question.

Compound pronouns.—Which, as has been already stated more than once, is most incorrectly called the neuter of who. Instead of being a neuter, it is a compound word. The adjective leiks, like, is preserved in the Mœso-Gothic words galeiks and missaleiks. In Old High German the form is lih, in Anglo-Saxon lic. Hence we have Mœso-Gothic hvêleiks; Old High German, huëlih; Anglo-Saxon, huilic and hvilc; Old Frisian, hwelik; Danish, hvilk-en; German, welch; Scotch, whilk; English, which. The same is the case with—

1. Such.—Mœso-Gothic, svaleiks; Old High German, sôlîh; Old Saxon, sulîc; Anglo-Saxon, svilc; German, solch; English, such. Rask's derivation of the Anglo-Saxon swilc from swa-ylc, is exceptionable.

2. Thilk.—An old English word, found in the provincial dialects, as thick, thuck, theck, and hastily derived by Tyrwhitt, Ritson, and Weber, from së ylca, is found in the following forms: Mœso-Gothic, þéleiks; Norse, þvilikr.

3. Ilk.—Found in the Scotch, and always preceded by the article; the ilk, or that ilk, meaning the same. In Anglo-Saxon this word is ycla, preceded also by the article se ylca, seó ylce, þæt ylce. In English, as seen above, the word is replaced by same. In no other Gothic dialect does it occur. According to Grimm, this is no simple word, but a compound one, of which some such word as ei is the first, and lîc the second element.

Aught.—In Mœso-Gothic is found the particle, aiv, ever, but only in negative propositions; ni (not) preceding it. Its Old High German form is êo, io; in Middle High German, ie; in New High German, je; in Old Saxon, io; in Anglo-Saxon, â; in Norse, æ. Combined with this particle the word whit (thing) gives the following forms: Old High German, êowiht; Anglo-Saxon, âviht; Old Frisian, âwet; English aught. The word naught is aught preceded by the negative particle.

Each.—The particle gi enters, like the particle in the composition of pronouns. Old High German, êogalîher, every one; êocalih, all; Middle High German, iegelich; New High German, jeglich; Anglo-Saxon, ælc; English, each; the l being dropped, as in which and such. Ælc, as the original of the English each and the Scotch ilka,[51] must by no means be confounded with the word ylce, the same.

Every in Old English, everich, everech, everilk one, is ælc, preceded by the particle ever. (Grimm. D. G. iii. 54.)

Either.—Old High German, êogahuëdar; Middle High German, iegewëder; Anglo-Saxon, æghväðer, ægðer; Old Frisian, eider.

Neither.—The same with the negative article prefixed. Neither : either :: naught : aught.

§ 236. Other, whether.—These words, although derived forms, being simpler than some that have preceded, might fairly have been dealt with before. They make, however, a transition from the present to the succeeding chapter, and so find a place here.

A. First, it may be stated of them that