Catching up

From OE to ME: threefold twofold number distinction: dual pronouns are lost; Four cases Three cases (syncretism accusative/dative): dative forms of pronouns tend to assimilate accusative forms; in the neutral pronoun, the tendency goes in the opposite direction: the accusative (hit) assimilates the dative (him) to avoid losing the distinction animateinanimate present in pronouns (amiguity with masculine)

Catching up
In ME the system of personal pronouns for the 1st and 2nd persons looks like this:
ME 1st p. 2nd ps.

Sg.

S.
O.

ich/ik/i/y
me

u/thou
e/thee

Poss.
Pl. S. O. Poss.

mi(n)
we us our(e)

i(n)
e/ye eu/ou/ou/you oure/youre

What about 3rd person pronouns?

Problem solving
After the changes undergone in the course of the ME

period, two oppositions become relevant for pronominal morphology: (a) Animate (masc. / fem.) vs. Inanimate (ANIMACY) (b) Singular vs. Plural (NUMBER)
For this reason, any movement towards lack of

distinctiveness in these areas had to be remedied. This is exactly what will happen in the course of the ME period with the 3rd p. sg. masc. and fem. and nominative plural forms.

OE 3rd p. pronouns
Sg. Nom. Gen. Acc. Dat. Masc. he his hine him Fem. heo hire hie hire hie hira/heora hie him/heom N. hit his hit him

Pl.
Nom. Gen. Acc. Dat.

3rd p. sg. masc. and fem. and 3rd p. pl. nom. pronouns were very similar in form in OE (he, heo, and hie), with the obvious risk of homonymy, especially in reduced-stress contexts, where pronouns are frequently to be found. Homonymic clash The Owl and the Nightingale (13th c. Southern) he may represent either he or she, while hi may be both feminine and plural, nominative and accusative. Reaction of the system: systemic regulation adoption of new distinctive forms for the fem. sg. and 3rd p. pl.

 The ME equivalent of the OE feminine pronoun heo was he in

most dialects. This implies that, in most cases, there was no formal distinction between masculine and feminine, and even plural (ambiguity). And the other dialectal forms (hy, heo) were not ideal for the purpose either. Therefore, some kind of systemic regulation is necessary and in this case the language opted for the adoption of a new feminine form, the ancestor of PDE she. The origin of the form she is one of the unsolved puzzles of the history of English. Many different theories have been put forward in order to account for the origin of this form, but there is not a general agreement as to where the form comes from.

Origin of she so nom.sg.fem. of the OE determiner (se, so, t)

According to an early view, she descends from the nom. sg. fem. of the

determiner so, via stress shift and later palatalization. First, stress shift transforms the falling diphthong into a rising diphthong (Scandinavian influence): [seo] > [seo] Then non-syllabic/unaccented [e] is reduced to [j], and the vowel [o] is lengthened: [seo] > [sjo:] Finally, the cluster [sj] undergoes palatalisation into [S], giving place to the form [So:], which is found in some ME texts. So, [seo] > [seo] > [sjo:] > [So:] This development would yield scho and similar forms, but not she. The emergence of the vowel /e/ can be explained by analogy with the masculine form he . PROBLEM: The form so seems to have died out before the emergence of she.

Origin of she ho 3rd p. sg. fem. pronoun: the Shetland theory

A more likely account is the so-called Shetland-theory, since it assumes

for she a development parallel to that found in the placename Shetland < ON Hjaltland. The starting point is the morphologically and chronologically preferable 3rd p. sg. fem. pronoun ho. The development is quite similar to that of the previous theory, i.e. stress shift, vowel reduction to [j], and lengthening of [o] [heo] > [heo] > [hjo:] (from falling to rising diphthong). EVIDENCE: The change from a falling to a rising diphthong can be accounted for by means of Scandinavian influence (in OE most diphthongs were falling, whereas in ON they were rising). This is a case of systemic regulation, because the choice of the rising diphthong was necessary to distinguish the masculine and the feminine forms. This development is also present in words like OE cosan > PDE choose (and not *cheese).

Origin of she ho 3rd p. sg. fem. pronoun: the Shetland theory

In the course of time, the cluster [hj- is replaced by [-.

EVIDENCE: In many ModE dialects have the sound [-] for /hj-/ in words like hue, human. The existence of an intermediate stage represented by the spellings heo, ho, he, which are found just for a short period of time. These forms did not survive long, probably because [] was a marginal phoneme. The fricative [ only existed in final position in OE (e.g. niht), so that it was rather unstable in initial position. For this reason, it was replaced by the common and acoustically similar [-. EVIDENCE: This is a very common change in Germanic languages and is exemplified by Present-day Scots Shug for Hugh, and placenames like Shap < heap and Shetland < Hjaltland.

Origin of she ho 3rd p. sg. fem. pronoun: the Shetland theory

Therefore, after these changes, the form became [o:.

As in the preceding hypothesis, the vowel /e:/ is

accounted for as an analogical transfer from the masculine. So, [heo] > [heo] > [hjo:] > [o:] > [So:] > [Se:] The main advantage of this theory is that there is historical evidence for all changes.

Forms for she in late Middle English

NORTHERN AREA Abundance of modern forms: scho, sche, she Alternation of digraph <sh-> and trigraph <sch-> Alternation of vowels /o:/ and /e:/. /o:/ more abundant in the North

SOUTHERN AREA Abundance of old forms he(o), hy. The change has achieved this area, but the older forms are still preferred in the 15th c. Evidence of transitional forms heo, eo, he representing the sound []. These spellings are transitional forms geographically (diatopically) and chronologically (diachronically), because [] in initial position was unstable and consequently replaced by []. The h- spellings also appear in the West-Midlands area, with very conservative dialects, probably because the scribans North: complete Sc. paradigm; Midl.: mixed paradigm; South: native paradigm

 In

OE the singular and plural pronouns were easily distinguishable: he, heo (sg.) and hie (pl.), and verbs were also marked for number: -e /eT/(sg.) and a /aT/(pl.). In ME the distinction between pronouns is lost (remember homonymic clash in he) and verbs also lose their inflections because of the instability of unstressed vowels: -e and -a > /@T/. With the loss of verbal inflections, pronouns become the only way to mark the formal distinction between singular and plural. The problem was solved by borrowing the Scandinavian set of plural pronouns (and verb endings were also changed in some dialects Unit7)

Hie/heora/heom they/their/ them

The replacement of the OE 3rd p. pl. pronouns hie / heora / heom

by the Scandinavian pronouns they / their / them constitutes one of the rare cases in the history of any language of the borrowing of a primary grammatical item (Strang, B. 1970. A History of the English Language. London. Routledge: 266)
Why? Because the linguistic situation needs to be very close in

order to borrow part of the so-called CORE VOCABULARY.

In the course of the ME period and part of the eModE period, the

OE 3rd p. pl. pronouns were replaced by Scandinavian forms: they < ON eir their < ON eira them < ON eim

In the ME period there are three different paradigms for the 3rd person plural pronouns were attested: 1) Complete native paradigm (only h-forms): 2) Mixed paradigm (both th- and h-forms) stage 1: Sc. nom.+ native poss. and obl. stage 2: Sc. nom. and poss. + native obl. 3) Complete Scandinavian paradigm (only th-forms)

The Scandinavian forms were not borrowed all at once: it took at least

400 years for the new paradigm to be established in the language. The replacement of native h-forms by the new Scandinavian forms took place first in areas of dense Scandinavian settlement and then spread southwards across the country. Northern dialects show a complete Scandinavian paradigm by the early 13th century. E.g. Ormulum (c. 1200, NEMid) shows the whole series, though in the oblique Scandinavian em coexists with native hemm. In the remaining dialects Scandinavian pronouns spread more slowly with the following sequence: nominative possessive oblique. This means that the change was not only gradual in time and geographically, but also within the paradigm. In the London dialect, the evolution of the 3rd p. pl. pronouns looks like follows as shown by evidence from different sources:
14th c. (Chaucer) they hire hem 15th c. (Caxton) they their hem 16th c. (Shakespeare) they their them

Forms for they in late Middle English

In the late ME period, The Scandinavian pronoun is widely spread in the North with several variants: they, ey, e, ei, ai In the southern areas, the prevalent form is the native one. The Scandinavian forms have already reached the area, but they have not displaced the native ones. The change will not be completed until the EModE period. In the area of London, we already find the Scandinavian brought by immigrants from the North and the Midlands.