Eastern Illinois University
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Student Theses & Publications
1-1-1995
An Analysis of Personal Pronouns in Middle
English Literary Texts
Melissa Jill Bennett
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Bennett, Melissa Jill, "An Analysis of Personal Pronouns in Middle English Literary Texts" (1995). Masters Theses. Paper 2125.
http://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2125
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--~- ---
An Analysis of Personal
Pronouns in Middle
(TITlE)
BY
Melissa Jill Bennett
THESIS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
Master
of
Arts
IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS
1995
YEAR
I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING
THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE
<6 -30 ,_ 9.sDATE
Abstract
This
thesis
examines
the
evolution
of
personal
pronouns from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, with a
particular focus
upon
that
baseline text
era.
The
Anglo-Saxon poem
the southern
literary dialects
for
The Dream of the
this analysis
the Nightingale
is the
Rood, although Bright's
paradigm of Anglo-Saxon pronouns is also employed.
and
of
(circa 1200),
The
The Owl
Fox and
the Wolf
(circa 1275), Piers Plowman (circa 1375), and Parliament of
Fowls (circa 1375)
the forms
are used to
of the
illustrate the changes
pronouns over four
Parliament
serving
to
standard.
The results
presented
in paradigms
represent
centuries, Chaucer's
the
emerging
of this line-by-line
supported by
which notes significant changes
in
London
analysis are
narrative commentary
in pronoun forms from text
to text.
Texts from the southwestern
were
chosen
correspondence
because
of
between
the
them
dialect from 1200 to 1375
geographic
and
the
and
standard
dialect of the Anglo-Saxon period, West Saxon.
in
the
analysis of
continuum of some
continual
the
the pronouns
aspects of the
use of the dual
Nightingale), the
use
from
literary
What we see
these texts
is a
West Saxon dialect:
case through 1200
of the
linguistic
h-
the
(The Owl and
form third
person
pronouns through 1375 (Parliament of Fowls), and the use of
the
yogh and the thorn consistently into 1200 (The Owl and
the Nightingale), the yogh even being seen in some words as
late
as
Piers Plowman,
though
intrestingly
not in
the
personal pronouns.
At the same time we are beginning to see variations in
the pronoun
changes in
changes
forms anticipating
pronouns
in the
formulation
the London standard.
serve as
language
a microcosm
which eventually
of the London standard.
forms remain
of the
larger
result in
the
While a number of the
fairly constant, changing primarily
of simplification of spelling
The
in terms
and reductions in the number
of forms for a given pronoun, these changes illustrate
the
evolution of the language toward the London standard.
The changes
the language
in pronouns demonstrate
toward
Bright's
paradigm to
Parliament
evidence
of
disappeared
century,
the
example,
the
have decreased from fifty-three in
some thirty-four
used in
Moreover, the
dual case
Fowls.
in The Owl
For
simplification.
number of pronoun forms
the tendency of
and the Nightingale
by Chaucer's
time.
By
years of
Langland
and
Chaucer's
still in
(circa 1200) has
the late
fourteenth
Chaucer, the
the Y=
person plural
pronouns forms have
forms
In the same era, the first person nominative
(yow).
pronoun has largely been
simplified to 1, although Chaucer
occasionally uses the southern ich
the
Reeve's
Tale, ik
been reduced to
secon
for emphasis or, as
for charactarization
in
(Fisher 964),
both exceptions, however, noteworthy in that they represent
conscious variations from the standard.
This movement
r=
toward simplification and reduction
movement toward a standard dialect.
of forms indicates the
5
Dedication
This thesis is dedicated to Tim Shonk.
much.
Tim, I owe you
By teaching me Old and Middle English, you made this
project possible.
and patience.
Thank you for all of your help, support,
Most of all, thank you for inspiring my love
of this language with all of its beauty and complexity.
------~
F
f,
t
II
I.'I
i
I
6
Acknowledgements
I
wish to thank Dr.
Dr.
Robert
Funk for
John Simpson, Dr.
their help
on
Rosemary Buck, and
this project.
comments and suggestions were most helpful.
thank my family for
work.
Your
I also wish to
their support and understanding of
my
--l!
r
7
Introduction
During
into
the
seven
Anglo-Saxon period,
kingdoms.
England
While each
was divided
kingdom
had
its own
distinct dialect, West Saxon eventually became the standard
literary dialect
in part because Wessex
of power in England.
been
centers of
their
While Northumbria and Mercia both had
power at one
influence
became the center
over
time,
whole
the
they did
not exert
Anglo-Saxon
nation.
However, beginning with Egbert
in the early ninth century,
the
extending
West
Saxon
throughout
kings
all of
began
England.
kings and the chieftains
By 830,
their
all of
influence
the English
of Wales recognized Egbert's rule
(Baugh and Cable 48).
West
Saxon also
became
recognized
dialect during the Anglo-Saxon
amount
century,
he
learning had
decided
realized
state
of
Cable 69).
When
late ninth
the
nation's
Alfred
then
Latin texts
literature
or had others
into the
well
as an
translate for
vernacular.
schools, "creating a
as
To achieve
days of Bede and Alcuin.
Alfred translated
founded public
the
region.
to try to restore learning in England to the level
this goal,
many
the
decayed (Baugh and
it was before in the
him
out of this
to the throne in the
that
standard
period because of the large
of literature that came
Alfred the Great ascended
as the
Alfred also
literate audience for
educated
class
able
to
r=
8
administer
the growing
(Williams 59).
bureaucracy
In addition,
historical document, the
of
a growing
Alfred decided to
state"
compile a
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Baugh
and
Cable 70).
If West Saxon was the standard literary dialect during
the Old English
become
While
the
no
period, why
standard
one
reason
is
accounts for
to the
rise
the East Midlands
the London
Middle
the
The
dialect
English
period?
change,
several
of London
geographic location.
variety of
provides
during the
reason
factors contribute
then did
English.
One
London dialect,
dialect in the
a
Middle Ages,
a middle ground between the conservative Southern
dialect and the radical
Northern dialects (Baugh and Cable
It tends to blend characteristics of both extremes.
187).
For example,
forms
the London
of pronouns
dialect incorporates
as well
singular
verb
southern
ch forms of words
northern
form,
London
forms
dialect
the southern
(Francis
It
85).
Map
I ).
incorporates
the
southern
northern tendency to leave
Algeo 163)
uses
the
opposed to the
like cherch as
(Pyles and
third person
also
kirk (Jones
present participle
expressed in
as
northern th
In
addition, the
form
of
the
as well as
the
initial !'s unvoiced, a feature
the orthography of
words like fader
and fox
instead of the southern forms, vader and vox (Jordan xv).
In addition
became
a melting
to being centrally
pot
for English
located, London
dialects for
also
economic
t"'
reasons.
Because land surrounding London was more valuable
agriculturally than land in
in London increased,
making it the largest city in England
(Baugh and Cable 188).
In addition, London became the most
important commercial city in
11th
the north and west, population
century (Williams
the nation by the end
63).
Because of
of the
its prosperity,
people from all over England came to London, bringing their
regional dialects with them
to
London
accounts
by
people
for the way
(Williams 86).
from
different
This migration
regions
probably
London English incorporated features
of other Middle English dialects (Baugh and Cable 189).
Another
factor that
helps
explain the
London standard is the presence of the court.
the Old English period,
dialect
of
prestige
Winchester.
rise of
As we saw in
the West Saxon dialect became
when
the
court
the
was
located
the
at
But when William the Conqueror became king of
England in 1066, he built his residence at Westminster, two
miles
away from
political,
London,
as well
(Williams 63).
as
transforming the
the commercial
Because the
city into
center of
court was located
the
England
there, the
London dialect became the prestige dialect, even though the
language
spoken by the
nobility at
the time
was French.
Since the court was located in London, the laws of the land
and
official documents
According
way
to
were
issued from
there as
well.
to Baugh and Cable, after the use of French gave
English, the
language
found
in these
documents
10
became the basis for Standard
because the court was
Chaucer,
also wrote
throughout
spreading the
In addition,
in London, the court poets,
in
London English.
English is not based upon
read
English (189).
such as
While
Standard
Chaucer's works, his texts
England
and
influence of
may
be
responsible
the London dialect
were
for
(Baugh and
Cable 189).
Although it was not
introduced to England until 1476,
the printing press plays
perhaps the most influential role
in making the
London dialect the national
standard.
When
Caxton brought the printing press to England, he set up the
press
in
London and
translated
texts
into the
speech of London (Baugh and Cable 190).
and
Hoffman,
diversity
printing
that
existed
it
According to Myers
helped eliminate
between copies
Because London became the
current
the
of
dialectical
texts
(166).
center of the printing industry,
"reinforced the prestige
of London
English throughout
the country" ( 166) .
In
Middle
order
to study
English
period,
pronouns in
Nightingale,
These
three
England.
it
the
Middle
how
I
English
analyze the
English works
The
Fox and
texts
come
the Wolf,
from the
I specifically pick texts
changed during
use
The
of
Owl
and Piers
Southwestern
the
personal
and
the
Plowman.
part
of
from this area because
corresponds to the area in which the West Saxon dialect
was used,
the standard literary dialect
during the Anglo-
11
Saxon
period.
{See
Southwestern texts from
the Anglo-Saxon
of
prestige
addition,
me to trace the shift
dialect from the West
period to the London
during
Chaucer's Parliament
examining
different centuries throughout the
Middle English period allows
"standard" English
In
Appendix)
the
Middle
of Fowls,
in the
Saxon dialect in
dialect, the dialect
Ages.
I
which was
also
examine
written between
1373 and 1378, to see how close the London and Southwestern
dialects are at
Saxon poem The
this time.
Dream of
paradigm of Old English
My baseline text is the Anglo-
the Rood.
I
also use
Bright's
pronouns as an additional baseline
text to cover pronoun cases not present in The Dream of the
Rood.
j,
I
1:
~
II!
12
Methodology
The
following paradigm
for Anglo-Saxon
prounouns is
set forth in Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader (23).
First Person Pronouns
Singular
Dual
Nominative
ic, I
wit
Genitive
mYn
uncer
-
unc
Dative
me
Accusative
mec, me
uncit, unc
Plural
-
we
-user,
ure
us
-usic,
us
Second Person Pronouns
Nominative
Genitive
Singular
Dual
Plural
~u
git
ge
incer
-eower
eow
din
Dative
~e
inc
Accusative
6ec, ~e
incit, inc
-
-eowic, -eow
!
r
13
Third Person Pronouns
Masculine
Neuter
Feminine
Plural
he
hit
heo, hie
heo, hTe
Genitive
his
his
hire
hira
Dative
him
him
hire
him, he om
Accusative
hine
hit
heo, hTe
Nominative
The Dream of
written
the Rood, taken
heo, hie
from the Vercelli
Book
in the second half of the tenth century, serves as
the baseline text for this linguistic analysis.
The first
person pronouns in The Dream of the Rood closely follow the
paradigm
set forth
in
Bright's Old
English Grammar
and
Reader.
The
pronoun.
word ic
is used
exclusively for
the nominative
The first occurrence of this pronoun is in line 1
of the poem:
11
Hwae..t, ic swefna cyst secgan wylle.
Although The Dream
of the Rood
11
does not contain
any
occurrences of the dual first person nominative pronoun, it
does
contain
nominative we:
one
II
instance
of the
'Hw aQ,~ ere we d
Qle.. r
first
person
plural
greotende go de
hwD e I
StOdOn On Sta ~ Ole sy3"2> an Stefn UP gewat/ hi lderinca I
II
(11. 70-72).
For the first person
Rood
genitive case, The Dream
contains only the singular pronoun, min.
of the
It appears,
r
14
for example, in lines 130-31: "m1n mundbyrd is/ geriht to
f fl<. re
rode •
For
II
the both dative and
- is used
accusative cases, me
throughout the poem, as in lines 83-84: "-on me Bearn Godes
r
rQWOde hwile.
In The
I II
Dream of
the Rood,
us is used
for both
the
first person plural accusative and dative, as the following
line illustrates:
"he us onlysde
ond us l"If
forgeaf" (1.
of the dual
case forms,
14 7).
This poem
also displays one
the accusative
unc.
This
pronoun refers
to
just
the
dreamer and the rood: "-Bysmeredon hie unc butu
QlQ... tgc~
dere 1 "
The
Dream
pronouns.
pronouns,
For the
1. 48) .
(
It
of the
does
but no
Rood
contain some
dual or
singular pronouns,
du
accusative and
contains
few second
second person
plural second
the scribe
mannum.
min se
uses
for the nominative.
leofa,
singular
person pronouns.
~
for
the
Examples of these
pronouns can be found in lines 95-96: "-NU: ic
hoe. lee
person
r
as
p
hate,
gesyhd e
secge
1 "
The poem
displays several third person
none of them are
the scribe uses he
feminine.
For the masculine
throughout the poem.
pronouns, but
nominative,
Likewise,
his is
used for the genitive case, as in the following lines:
"- Deaci
a
he
r~r byrigde; hw~d ere eft Dryhten aras/ mid
·~~--~~.............................
l!
r
I'
15
his
miclan mihte mannum to helpe 1
used for
the
61
there is
accusative:
an
example of
"~Genamon
hine of dam hefian wi'te.
For
the third
uses the pronoun
1 "
hine
f~r
hie
101-02).
f
65-66).
(
used as
Him
a
is
moldern
In lines 60the
~mihtigne
masculine
God,/ ahofon
1 "
person neuter
hit.
11.
" ~ Ongunnon him
dative case:
beornas on banan gesyh ~ e
wyrcan/
(
"
It
nominative, the
scribe
is found, for instance,
in the
following passage:
r ~t
Hw~re ic {"urh
gold ongytan meahte
~rest
earmra hgewin, fCJe..t hit
ra
swk.tan on
ongan
(18-20)
sw'icran healfe.
For the plural nominative, the scribe usually uses the
in line 63: "~Aledon hre
pronoun hie, as
gestodon him
he uses
~t
his !Tee heafdum.
hi for the
deorcan nae..glum"
1
(
same purpose:
scedd an.
urhdrifan hi'
me mid
Wergas habban •
11 -
pronouns used
I II
"~strange
The
Ne dorste ic hira
feondas,/
other
form, hira,
ae... nigum
1 "
Although
pronouns
in one line
genitive case: heora and hira.
In lines 30-31 the scribe writes,
appears in 1 ine 4 7:
"~f
the Rood there are two
for the third person plural
me heora
However,
1 "
limwerigne,
46).
In The Dream of
he ton
f ~r
Old
such as
reflexive meanings
English
myself
did
not
or herself,
have
any
reflexive
writers did
by using other pronouns.
convey
For example,
r
16
in lines 44-45 we find
Cyning,/
w~
Rod
s ic
ar~
heofona Hlaford; hyldan me ne
sentence, the
pronoun
II'
scribe has used the
me as
a
reflexive.
red; ahof ic r"Icne
dorste.
In this
1 "
first person accusative
In
line 39
an
accusative
pronoun, this time the third person masculine hine, is used
in the reflexive function:
f.X..t we£..s God
uses
the
~lmihtig.
third person
scribe of The
II
(
geong H.l!..le~
In one line, the scribe also
1 "
r~r
tO w& fersyne I
ra
Ongyrede hine
dative
reflexive: "'Genaman me
r£ r
II'
plural
pronoun him
strange feondas,/
30-31) •
as
a
geworhton
On one occasion, the
Dream of the Rood comes
close to using what
looks like a modern reflexive pronoun:
Hw~t,
me
fa
geweor~ode
wuldres Ealdor
ofer holtwudu, heofonrTces Weard,
swylce swa he his modor eac, Marian sylfe,
£lmihtig God for ealle menn
geweordode ofer eall wifa cynn.
The
pronoun paradigm
for The
illustrated by the following charts.
(90-94)
Dream of
the Rood
is
r
I
17
First Person Pronouns
Singular
Nominative
Dual
-
ic
Genitive
mTn
Dative
me
Accusative
me
Reflexive
me
we
-
Plural
-us
unc
-us
-
Second Person Pronouns
Singular
Nominative
-au
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
re
Dual
Plural
ll
18
Third Person Pronouns
Masculine
Neuter
Nominative
he
hit
Genitive
his
Dative
him
Accusative
hine
Reflexive
hine
Feminine
Plural
hTe, hi'
heora, hira
him
sylfe
him
---l!
19
Analysis of Pronouns in Middle English Literature
The Southwestern Dialect
The Owl and the Nightingale
In order to analyze
English
period, I
compare
the
examine four
pronouns to
Middle English piece,
of the
the
Middle English
texts and
baseline text.
The Owl and the
first vernacular poems
conquest (Atkins xii)
blend
pronoun changes during the Middle
The first
Nightingale, is one
to appear after
and consequently shows
the Norman
a remarkable
of the Old and Middle English features.
It survives
in two manuscripts, the MS Cotton Caligula A ix, written in
the
early thirteenth
Oxford,
29,
exemplar,
(Atkins
written
however,
in
the
dates
than the
the MS
to
century.
the period
consider the
Jesus text
Jesus College,
fourteenth
back
Scholars
XXXV).
reliable
century, and
1190-1210
Cotton
because the
MS
Cotton MS
fewer scribal errors, though both are copied from
intermediate text.
I base
The
my analysis on
more
has
the same
the Cotton
MS
although I include significant variants from the Jesus MS.
Although
this
English poem, the
still
uses
modifications
many
of
work
is
scribe of
considered to
The Owl
Anglo-Saxon
them,
be
and the
pronouns,
especially
for
the
a
Middle
Nightingale
or
slight
nominative
,.
20
pronouns.
In the first
sumere dale," we
Saxon first
pronoun
line of the poem, "Ich was
see that
the scribe is
using an
person nominative pronoun, Ich.
is
spelled
ic
in
in one
Anglo-
Although the
Anglo-Saxon,
the
pronounced the same in Middle English, [If].
word
is
The scribe of
The Owl continues to use this pronoun throughout almost all
of the poem
for the
however, one
occurrence of
the Cotton MS: Enes
frequently
than the
scribe uses
is,
ic in
u sunge, ic wo[t] wel ware"
the Jesus MS uses
Cotton
scribe.
after line
750 ic
ic much more
Although the
ich almost exclusively through
poem,
frequency.
the
f
There
the Anglo-Saxon pronoun
The scribe of
( 1. 1049).
of the
first person nominative.
Jesus
the first part
appears with
increasing
Atkins suggests that this phenomenon is due to
intermediate
text's
being copied
by
two
different
scribes (xxvi).
For
the
scribe uses
first
we, an
person
plural
nominative case,
Anglo-Saxon pronoun that
the
the language
has retained up through Modern English.
When using
the
scribe of
the Cotton
addition to min,
mine and mi.
the first
person singular genitive
MS uses
two other
the form found in The
In fact,
pronouns in
Dream of the Rood:
he uses all three of these pronouns
within one sentence:
Iwis for fine [vu]le lete,
wel [oft ich] mine song forlete;
7
case,
r
21
min horte atflif
=t.
fal t mi tonge,
wonne ru art [to me] i rrunge.
In the same sentence,
(35-38)
however, the scribe of the
Jesus MS
chooses to use a different pronoun:
Iwis for
fine [vu]le lete
Wel ofte ich my songe furlete;
Min heorte atflyhf ""l fal t my tunge
Hwenne
Here
]7u art to me i
p runge.
(35-38)
it appears that the Jesus scribe uses the pronoun min
in front of words
that begin with a vowel sound,
but uses
the pronoun my in front of words beginning with a consonant
sound.
For the first person
plural genitive case, the scribe
of the Cotton MS again uses different pronouns for the same
case: the Anglo-Saxon form
In line
11
'
118 we read
Iwis it was ure o
ure and a variant of
of the birds replying
J er
bro
p
er.
1 "
86 the nightingale Says tO the OWl,
h[e] wile/ mid ri J te segge
One quite
it, hure.
to the falcon,
However, in lines 185II'
•-=t mai hure ei
mid sckile.
r er
Wat
111
interesting genitive pronoun in
The Owl is
found in lines 991-4:
Wef er is betere of twe[n]e twom:
r a t mon bo bli
r e,
0
rer grom?
So bo hit euer in unker si f e
fat fu bo sori
In this passage
t
ich blif e.
we see that the writer of
The Owl and the
-·-~------------------------------~--
I
'
22
Nightingale
uses a
form of
the Anglo-Saxon
first person
dual case possessive, uncer, even though the dual
almost disappeared
from the
The
li
dual case genitive
II
language by
writer of The Owl consistently uses the
case had
this time.
in the poem when referring to just two people.
In
The Owl
we see me
used as both
the first person
I
:II
I
singular
dative and accusative pronouns, as is done in The
Dream of
the Rood.
pronoun
me
At times
in impersonal
line 39 the
the scribe
also uses
constructions. For
nightingale says, "'Me luste
7 o) elinge.
example, in
bet speten
In addition, me
singe/ Of
fine fule
also used
in reflexive constructions, as
1 "
the
fan
is
in the following
lines:
'1
t
if ich me loki wit
me schilde wit
ne reche ich no
7t
re
of
re
bare,
blete,
r
ine
f rete.
(56-58)
Similarly, as in The Dream of the Rood, us is used for
both the plural dative and the plural accusative cases.
unusual dative case
appears, though, in line
An
1733 in both
the Cotton and Jesus manuscripts: "'Hunke schal itide harm
schonde.
Here again the
1 "
Saxon dual case.
text has retained an Anglo-
Atkins argues that hunke derived from the
Anglo-Saxon first person dual dative unc (147).
When
the
Cotton
scribe
writes
the
second
person
singular nominative pronoun, he always uses the Anglo-Saxon
pronoun
7
~-
Occasionally this pronoun is contracted with
~--------------------------------
-----~
23
other words, as in line 95: "'Vel wostu rat hi dof
rarinne.
I II
Just as
scribe
with the first person
uses three
different forms
singular genitive case.
no
3t
of
rine rrete.
The scribe uses
second person
for the
second person
Line 58 reads, "'ne reche ich
I II
In lines 73-74, though, two other
forms of the pronoun appear:
is smal I I grettere is
genitive pronouns, the
.[-in
"'b
bodi is short,
heued ran fu al.
swore
I II
~
the Anglo-Saxon form
p
singular dative and accusative
for both the
case, as the
Anglo-Saxon writers do.
For
the second person plural nominative pronoun, both
scribes use
Line 116 of the Cotton MS
hit
wiste,
Anglo-Saxon pronoun ~-
a modification of the
I II
reads,
II'
Segge[
while the Jesus MS reads,
r]
me
Segge
II'
r
me if
~
hit wiste 1 " for the same line.
The Owl
and the Nightingale also
contains an example
of the second person plural genitive pronoun:
Schille ich an utest uppen ow grede,
ich shl swo strange ferde lede,
jrat ower pr[u]de schal aualle.
(1683-85)
Although the scribe has dropped the initial
~,
this pronoun
is still quite similar to the Anglo-Saxon form eower.
In
the
dative
case
of
the
second
person
plural
pronouns, the scribe uses three different forms: ow, eu, or
ov.
7
For instance, lines
114-115 in the
Cotton MS reads,
24
II'Ov naS neuer
[cu]ste.
"'Eu
iCUnde -parto:/
However, the
111
custe.
In line
1 "
scribe
1683 of
writes, "'Schille
The Jesus MS
pronouns
a
OV
same lines in the Jesus
rerto: I
nas neuer icunde
hit WaS id0n
the
ich an
again has the
Hit wes
r
[e]
MS read,
idon eu a
Cotton MS,
lo
f' e
however, the
utest uppen
form eu in
10
ow grede.
this line.
1 "
These
appear to be forms of the Anglo-Saxon dative case
eow, exhibiting a weakening of the eo diphthong.
The third
show
person nominative pronouns in
similarities to Anglo-Saxon
pronouns.
The Owl also
For example,
the masculine nominative pronoun is the Anglo-Saxon he, the
same
pronoun
we use
in
Modern
English.
The
pronoun
appears, for example, in lines 191-92: "'Maister Nichole of
Guldeforde,/ he is wis an war of worde.
The
The
Owl and
the
Nightingale
Anglo-Saxon
third person
The pronoun
hit first appears in
hule earding-stowe."
it
does
also retains
neuter nominative
texts.
the
pronoun, hit.
line 28: "hit was
The pronoun here
in Anglo-Saxon
1 "
fare
appears exactly as
However, there
is
one
instance in which the Cotton scribe uses the modern form of
the pronoun.
0
J er
br0
In line 118 he writes, "'Iwis it was ure
r er •
I II
The scribe of the Jesus manuscript
uses
hit in this line, though.
One interesting feature found in The Owl is the use of
the
third person masculine
neuter
hit.
nominative he in
place of the
The first instance of this feature appears in
----------
25
lines 21-24:
r
[B]et
u ., ht the dreim fat he were
Of harpe-={ pipe,
Bet
r
rat he were i-shote
u' t
Of harpe i_ pipe
While
that
ran he nere;
ran of f'rote.
the antecedent to the
derives from
(Kurath 1297),
an
pronoun he, dreim,
Anglo-Saxon
masculine noun,
the scribe does not
grammatical gender of
is a word
dream
retain the Anglo-Saxon
nouns because, in line
136, he also
uses the pronoun he to refer to trowe, a word that
derives
from an Anglo-Saxon neuter noun, treow (Cassidy and Ringler
475).
An analysis of other lines containing the pronoun he
for the neuter nominative reveals its use is not limited to
subordinate clauses as
However, although
used
it is
in the
not always
above lines
the case, he
with action verbs, while
hit is used
either.
is most
often
mostly with be
verbs.
For
scribe
heo
he
the third person feminine nominative pronoun, the
uses three different forms:
heo, he, and . ho.
form is the same as the Anglo-Saxon pronoun.
The
Although
is rarely used for the feminine pronoun, it does appear
at least once in the Cotton MS:
fos word a
';:{_ after
7 af
fe ni ·} tingale,
rare longe tale
he song so lude
~
so scharpe,
26
ri} t so me grulde schille harpe.
(139-42).
The use of he as a feminine pronoun appears to be a scribal
error, though, because
in the Jesus MS the scribe supplies
the
in line
correct form
heo
141.
pronoun appears in line 19 which
uor
'f e
rise.
reads,
According to Moss/,
11
third person feminine nominative
Anglo-Saxon heo
..
(56).
it heo.
written
He
last
HO was
11
feminine
fe
gladur
the use of ho for the
pronoun is taken from the
He argues
pronounced as [ho] even
The
that heo
started being
though writers were still spelling
suggests that
the pronoun
eventually became
as ho because people were writing the word as they
pronounced it (56).
Other
nominative pronouns
retain some
of their
hi.
"~
find in
The Owl
Anglo-Saxon characteristics
third person plural pronouns.
contains two different
we
The
that
are the
Owl and the Nightingale
nominative plural pronouns: ho
and
In lines 75-76 we see the first form of the pronoun:
·r in e? ene
ipeint mid
bof col-blake "'::{
wade. '
11
brode, 1 ri
l
Occasionally, though,
t swo ho weren
the scribe uses
heo, which is used for the plural nominative as well as the
feminine nominative pronoun in
Anglo-Saxon literature.
An
example of this pronoun appears in the following passage:
r
U
seist .rat ich am manne [ 10 ~ ]
an euereuch man is wia
an me mid stone ·-=r.
an me tobu[r]ste
I
me wro~ ,
lugge freter,
1
tobeter,
~·----~~-----------------------------
,.
27
an hwanne he hab[b]er me ofslahe,
heo hanger me on heore hahe,
r ar
ich aschewele pie an crewe
ran re rar is
fro [m]
isowe.
( 1607-14)
Line 12, however, gives us an example of another nominative
plural
appears
pronoun: "hi
It
that the plural pronoun used here is closer to the
Anglo-Saxon
the
sure stronge."
holde plaiding
pronoun h1e than it is to the northern form of
pronoun used
in
London.
According to
I
Masse,
the
spelling of this pronoun changed from hie to hi in much the
same way that heo changed to
ho.
Since the final vowel in
hie became weakened, people started pronouncing it [hi] and
as a result, began to spell it that way as well (58).
In
The Owl
and the
Nightingale, the pronoun
used for both the masculine and
For example,
in line 111 we
faucun was wror
we
see the
eurich ping
his dede. '
see the masculine case:
11
f
e
However, in lines 231-32
used for
the neuter
rat is lof misdede,/ hit luuer
case: "'
t
fuster to
11
For the feminine genitive
This
the neuter genitive cases.
wit his bridde."
same pronoun
his is
pronoun
appears,
for
case, the scribe uses hire.
example,
in
the
following
passage:
J?os
hule abod fort hit was eve,
hone mil te no leng bileue,
vor hire horte was so gret
·.~·
-·-~----------------------------------
,
28
fat wel
ne}
hire fnast atschet,
1warp a word
The Owl and the
the
Nightingale contains several forms of
third person plural
seems the closest to
in line'
plural
genitive pronoun.
The form that
the Anglo-Saxon pronoun is hoere,
1612: "'heo hongep me on
genitive
(41-45)
far-after lange.
form
of
the
heore hahe. '"
pronoun
appears
as
Another
in
the
following passage:
Herof
f
e lauedies to me mene
r,
an wel sore me ahwener:
wel neh min heorte wule tochine,
hwon ich biholde hire pine.
The
form of the plural
form
pronoun that occurs
most often is
One example of this form occurs in line 588: "'"Par
hore.
men
(1563-66)
gor
of
oft to hore
node.'"
the pronoun
is found
/
Masse notes
only
in the
that this last
Southern and
Kentish dialects (59).
For the third person masculine dative case, the scribe
uses
the pronoun him.
One example occurs in the following
passage:
Maister Nichole of Guldeforde,
he is wis an war of worde:
he is of dome sure gleu,
t
Him is
him is lof eurich unyeu.
also used
(191-94)
for the masculine
One example appears in lines 121-22:
accusative case.
"'Worp hit ut mid
re
-·~~~~~~------------------
,
~
li
r.
li
II
29
alre-[vu]rste/
rat his necke him to-berste!
I II
The scribe
of The Owl and the Nightingale, however, also uses hine for
the masculine accusative case, just as the scribe of The
Dream of
the Rood does.
For example, in line 873 we read,
"'Mid mine songe Ich hine pulte.
For
the third
person
1 "
neuter
accusative
case,
the
scribe of The Owl and the Nightingale uses the same pronoun
as is
used in The
Dream of the
lines 95-96 read, "'Vel
fule
r
wostu rat hi
hit Up to fe Chinne •
The
accusative
Rood: hit.
case
For example,
dor
farinne,/ hi
I II
of
the
third
person feminine
pronoun used in The Owl is quite similar to the Anglo-Saxon
pronoun
final
hie.
It
displays, though,
vowel as many other
the weakening
pronouns do.
of the
Examples of this
pronoun appear in lines 29-31:
[ r] e
1
ni) tingale hi iSe'
hi bihod
"::( r u J te
This same
1:
ouerse} ,
wel [vu] 1 of
pronoun is also used
as in lines 199-200: "'
after ran
r
1
in relexive constructions,
fo hule
is WOrd Upbro) te • I
rare hule.
one wile hi biro 3te,;t
II
Both the dative and the accusative third person plural
pronouns
show similarities
to Anglo-Saxon
pronouns, too.
While Anglo-Saxon writers use heom for the dative case, the
scribe of The Owl uses hom:
Ich wisse men mid min[e] songe,
.. ..
., ~ --------------------------------~
I
j
30
rat hi ne sunegi nowiht longe:
I bidde hom rat heo iswike,
·rat [heo] heom seolue ne biswike.
(927-30)
In this passage the Anglo-Saxon dative also appears as part
of a reflexive construction, heom seolue.
In addition, the
accusative plural pronoun used in The Owl, hi, is also much
like its Anglo-Saxon predecessor, hTe.
form
appears in
lines 107-08:
mete,/ bihold his neste, iseJ
The pronoun
"~
One example of this
ho bro? te
hi ete.
his briddes
I II
paradigm for The Owl
and the Nightingale
is summed up by the following charts.
First Person Pronouns
Singular
Dual
Nominative
ich, ic
Genitive
mine, min, mi
unker
Dative
me
hunke
Accusative
me
Reflexive
me
Plural
we
hure, ure
us
us
. ..............................
·i
------~-
31
Second Person Pronouns
Singular
Plural
fu
3e, ye
Nominative
Genitive
fine,
fin,
re
Dative
ower
(i
ow, eu, ov
Accusative
Third Person Pronouns
Masculine
Nominative
Genitive
he
his
Feminine
Plural
he, hit,
ho, he,
hi, ho
it
heo
his
hire
Neuter
hore,
heore,
hire
Dative
Accusative
Reflexive
hom
him
him, hine
hit, hine
hi
hi
hi
he om
seolve
--~----------------------------
!?_
r
32
The Fox and the Wolf
Written between
1275 and 1300 (Dunn
and Byrnes 166),
in The Fox and the Wolf two different pronouns are used for
the first
stille,
person singular nominative.
Ich hote,
retained
the
a Godes
v
now
nome!'"
Anglo-Saxon pronoun,
represents the sound [c] by
Line 36 reads, "'Be
Here the
but
itself.
requires a ch to produce the
the
scribe has
~
no
longer
Instead, the language
same sound.
Yet in line
40 we see that the [t] sound is disappearing from the first
person nominative by this time, for here the scribe writes,
II ' l
have leten
pronoun
appear
r
ine
hennen blod. I II
throughout the
Both
poem,
appearing slightly more frequently.
with
forms of the
the Ich
form
In addition, though it
is an orthographical rather than linguistic development, in
this poem the first person singular nominative pronouns are
always capitalized.
Used only once
in the
poem, we is
the first
person
The only occurrence appears in
plural nominative pronoun.
line 64: II' rene We weren wel awreke! II
I
As in
The Owl
different pronouns
and the
Nightingale, there are
for the first person
singular genitive
case in The Fox and the Wolf: mine, min, and mi.
of
the pronoun used
most often is
II'Nedde lust iben of mine moure. I II
occasionally, as
in line
193: "'For
three
mine, as
The
form
in line 100:
The pronoun mi is used
Cristes loue,
be mi
-------~~---·-
1-
__
!
i•
IL.
33
prest!
Min,
1 "
the form
used in
occurs in only one 1 ine: "-
P ou
The
Dream of
the Rood,
haues t ben ofte min if ere 11
(185).
In
The
occurrences
houre.
Fox
and
of the
the
Wolf,
first person plural
One occurrence is in line
dest ofte shome.
111
there
35:
are
just
two
genitive pronoun,
II
'Houre hennen
rou
It appears again in line 59: "'Ac weste
hit houre cellerer.'"
Although there are no
plural
dative
pronoun
singular dative
occurrences of the first person
in
this poem,
pronoun does appear.
the
For this
scribe always uses me, as in line 219: "'And
were me
lof.
Me
is
to
person
case, the
rerfore
rou
1 "
also
accusative case.
adoun
first
~r
for
used
the
For example,
e kome.
line 174
However,
I II
first
person
singular
reads, "'Let
no first
me
person plural
accusative pronouns appear in this poem.
In The
second
Fox and the Wolf, the scribe uses
person singular
nominative pronoun.
~
for the
For example,
line 139 reads, "Quod
re
addition,
occasionally contracts
this pronoun
forming questions, as
in line 196:
with
the scribe
other words when
"'Woltou,
Once
1
vox:
-p
art ounwiis!
I II
In
quod the vox, 'srift ounderfonge?'"
more,
as in
The Owl
and the
Nightingale, the
scribe uses three different second person singular genitive
pronouns.
7
r
ine is the form used most often.
For example,
~~~--------------------------------
...
'1.
!
34
it appears in line 63:
The
"~
pronoun
~
fine bones he wold tobreke. ' "
also appears frequently,
p
Ich am Reneuard,
appears only in
"~All
frend. ' "
line 189:
as in line 133:
-f-lil'
The form
though,
"~Neltou?'
quod the wolf,
Wolf, the
scribe uses
~~
ore! '"
In
The Fox
pronoun,
and the
for
and accusative
both the second
cases.
appears in line 34:
of
One
"~Crist
person singular dative
occurrence of the
p
the same
dative case
}eue kare. '"
An example
the accusative case, on the other hand, appears in line
225:
"~
Ich
p
for
j eue at fisse nede. '"
Similarly, the scribe uses the pronoun ou for both the
second
person plural
dative
and accusative
cases.
One
passage we contains examples of both of these cases:
Men seide fat rou on fine liue
Misferdest mid mine wiue.
Ich
fe aperseiude one stounde,
And in bedde togedere ou founde:
Ich was ofte ou ful ney
And in bedde togedere ou sey.
(211-16)
For the third person masculine pronouns, the scribe of
The Fox and the Wolf uses the same forms as are used in The
Dream
case.
of the
Rood, with
the accusative
For the accusative case, the scribe most often uses
him instead of hine,
wiit
the exception of
him
brohute/ To
as in lines 70-71: "On
one putte
wes
auenture, his
water inne."
This
~a-~......................----------
·----~~-·-_·
I'
.•
I
i;
35
pronoun is also used in reflexive constructions, as in line
83:
Inou he gon him bi
II
r enche.
II
However I
in
one line the
scribe uses the same form found in The Dream of the Rood:
II
r
e VQX hine ikneU Wel fOr hiS kun" ( 123).
The
scribe of The Fox
Saxon pronouns
third
and the Wolf
for both the nominative
person neuter cases.
case appears in line 128:
here.'"
II'
also uses Angloand the accusative
An example
of the nominative
Ich wene hit is Sigrim rat Ich
The accusative case occurs in the following lines:
Ac weste hit houre cellerer
rQU
fat
Were iCOmen her I
He wolde sone after
r
e ) onge
Mid pikes and stones and staues strange.
All of
Fox
the third person
and the
pronouns.
used
Wolf
For
in The
also show
instance, one
Fox is gy,
plural pronouns used
similarities to
of the
(59-62)
in The
Anglo-Saxon
nominative pronouns
which appears to
be an alternate
spelling for the pronoun used in The Dream of the Rood, hi.
One example of this pronoun occurs in lines 283-84: "To
re
putte hY gonnen gon,/ All mid pikes and staues and stan--."
The other nominative plural form that appears in The Fox is
hoe, which appears in the following lines:
r
r
er freren WQneden, SWire Stey 1
0
rat hit com to
re
time
~at hoe shulden arisen ine,
Forto suggen here houssong.
(262-65)
-~-~~~~~~-----------------------
l
36
The previous
passage also contains an
example of the
third person genitive plural pronoun, here.
The
Fox and the Wolf
also uses the
This
Ailmer--/ He
pronoun
pronoun hoere for the
wes hoere maister
exibits a
change
scribe of
lines: "f?is ilke frere
genitive case, as in the following
heyte
The
curtiler" (271-72).
in the
diphthong
of the
pronoun used in The Dream of the Rood, heora.
For
the third
pronouns, the scribe
form,
which
person
indicates
[hennen] leten
and accusative
plural
of The Fox and the Wolf uses the same
example of the dative
hem
dative
a
leveling of
inflections.
case appears in line 45:
eddre-blod.'"
An
An
"'Ich haue
occurrence of
the
accusative case is found in lines 266-67: "0 frere fer wes
among/
Of here [freren]
pronoun appears to come
slep hem shulde
awecche."
This
from the Anglo-Saxon pronoun heom,
displaying a simplification of the diphthong.
In addition, this text has
one occurrence of a modern
reflexive pronoun:
J1e
And
vox hine ikneu wel for his kun,
fo
eroust knom wiit to him;
For he foute, mid sommne ginne,
Himself houpbringe,
rene wolf rerinne.
(123-26)
The
following charts illustrate
for The Fox and the Wolf.
the pronoun paradigm
----~--11
PrI
37
First Person Pronouns
Nominative
Genitive
Singular
Plural
Ich, I
we
mine, min, mi
Dative
me
Accusative
me
houre
Second Person Pronouns
Singular
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Plural
rou
r r
ine,
re
re
in, f i
ou
ou
,
-~~.··1~
Ti
,I
I
38
Third Person Pronouns
Masculine
Nominative
he
Genitive
his
Neuter
hit
Feminine
Plural
hy, hoe
here,
hoere
Dative
him
Accusative
him, hine
Reflexive
hem
hit
hem
him,
himself
---~-----------------------------------
r
~r
\~~· ..
..
I~
I
39
Piers Plowman
Although Langland is
officially considered a
speaker
of the West Midlands dialect, his horne was not far north of
the boundary modern linguists
distinguish as the limits of
the Southwestern dialect, and so his language exhibits many
characteristics
pronouns in
beginning
Saxon.
in
of southern
speech.
the Southwestern
to look
more
However, even
dialect were, by
like Modern
the
this time,
English than
Anglo-
In addition, since Langland spent part of his life
London,
an examination
written between 1377 and
examine how
of
Piers
Plowman, which
was
1379, provides the opportunity to
the London dialect was
exerting its influence
upon writers with other native dialects at this time.
Langland
nominative
uses
I
exclusively
as
the
first
pronoun throughout Piers Plowman.
person
In line 2 of
the prologue Langland writes, "I shoop me into [a] shrou[d]
as
1. a
sheep weere."
According to
use of I
Mosse, the
instead of ich or ik became common during the 14th century,
although
ich was
still used
Since Southwestern
the 14th
the Thames
writers still commonly used
century, the use of I
conscious effort
south of
(55).
ich during
in Piers Plowman could be a
on Langland's part to
imitate the London
dialect.
For the first person singular genitive case,
uses just one form: ffiY·
Langland
One occurrence of this pronoun can
--~~-------------------------------
·.·
----~-l~
i:
It
I
I
'
I'
r
i:
!;
~
..
i
I
l
I'
t:
40
II
i
\~
i
be found in line 193 of the prologue: "'For I herde ffiY sire
li
\!
II
seyn, seuen yeer ypassed.'"
As
uses
I'
the scribe of The Dream of the Rood does, Langland
the
pronoun
accusative
me
for
the
and dative cases.
first
person
singular
In addition, he also uses it
in reflexive constructions, as
in line 7 of
the prologue:
"I was wery forwandred and wente me to reste."
While
Langland
writers did
we,
for the
uses
the
same
pronoun
first person plural
as
earlier
nominative case,
the forms he uses for the plural genitive, dative, and
accusative are
slightly different.
he uses oure, as
oure si
?
t
pat
the genitive case
in line 32 of the prologue:
swiche men
quite similar to the one used
f ryue r•
II
plural cases,
IIi t Semer to
This pronoun
is
in The Fox and the Wolf, but
Langland has dropped the initial
dative
For
h·
For the accusative and
Langland uses
vs.
Both
cases are
present in the following lines from the prologue:
if we grucche of his gamen he wol greuen vs alle,
Cracchen vs or clawen vs, and in hise clouches
holde
That vs lof ef
fe lif er he late vs passe."
(154-55).
As
Bolton
explains,
the letter
v
is
often
used as
a
positional variant of g, especially in the initial position
(144).
I
I
I
!
r
-------l!·····.
I
\
i'
I
'
I
I
i'
I
41
For the second person singular pronouns, Langland uses
what
are essentially
the
same pronouns
as found
in The
i
l,,i
i
I
I!
II
Dream of
the Rood,
For example, Langland uses
in line
werche
same as
26 of Passus I : , sholdest.
change.
'!
I
for the nominative case, as
I
although they
~
f
the
fe
ow worf e
wers whan ~
same.
~,
the words
Occasionally,
in line
215 of the
are still
though,
replaces the thorn in the pronoun with a th.
this form appears
Langland
An example of
prologue: "Thaw
my
test bettre meete myst on Ma1uerne hilles."
Langland does use the Anglo-Saxon pronoun
second person singular genitive
he drops the final
these forms
fend and
p
n
For the
for the
sometimes
Examples of both of
of Passus I: "-For
flessh folwen togidere, I And that [shende
f-ill
herte.
accusative case,
to the one
occurrence
~
However,
from the pronoun.
soule; [set] it in
similar
case.
appear in lines 40-41
-J2--i
pronoun is
prologue: "'Crist kepe
Although
it
is
~sire
spelled
re
f]
1 "
Langland uses a
found in The
of this
Dream of the
found in
kyng.
form quite
Rood.
line 125
One
of the
1 "
differently,
the
pronoun
Langland uses for the second person plural nominative case,
yg, is pronounced the
One
occurrence
same as the Anglo-Saxon
of this
'I
II
:I
Even though the word does not look the
1 "
the Anglo-Saxon pronoun
pronounced
do exibit some
pronoun is
found
pronoun gg.
in line
Pas sus I: "- wolde pat yg_ wrou 5 te as his word teche
13 of
I II
i
:I
,
~ ---~---ll·.·.·.·.
i'
!
i
42
For
the second
person plural
genitive, dative,
and
accusative cases, Langland uses what are essentially modern
pronouns.
Youre,
the genitive pronoun, appears in line 43
of Passus I: "'(A] madame,
youre wordes. '
mercy', quod I, 'me likefl
wel
Langland uses the pronoun yow for both the
11
accusative and dative cases.
Both of these cases are found
in the following lines from Passus I:
For he is fader of fei
r
I
and formed yow alle
Bore with fel and with face, and yaf yow fyue
wittes
For to
worshipe hym
f
erwi
r
while ye
ben here.
(14-16)
In addition,
Langland
construction, which
"'For hadde ye
yowselue. '
part of
line 201 of
rattes youre [raik]
of using
feminine
Langland uses
ye kou
an Anglo-Saxon
nominative
she.
In
I
am,' quod
"'Holi chirche
knowe. '"
appears in
as
a
reflexive
the prologue:
f
e no 3 t
rule
11
Instead
person
uses yow
pronoun
line 75
/
in
the third
Piers
of Passus
she; ' Pow
Mosse remarks that the
exclusively in the East
form for
Plowman,
I he
ou}
writes,
test me
to
form she was used almost
Midlands dialect (56).
Therefore,
Langland's use of this pronoun may indicate an imitation of
the London dialect.
However,
M. L.
Samuels argues
that
both heo and she existed in Langland's own dialect (243).
For the
third person feminine genitive
Langland uses
writers,
Passus
the same pronoun
hire.
I: "I
It appears,
was afered
as is used
for example,
of hire
face
by Anglo-Saxon
in line
rei)
10 of
she fair
weere."
By the time
Langland wrote Piers
been dropped from the
resulting in our
Plowman, the
D
had
third person neuter nominative case,
modern pronoun, it.
Langland writes, "I
slombered in a slepy.ng, it sweyed so murye" (Prologue,
1.
10).
Langland
also uses
this
form for
the neuter
accusative case, as in lines 167-69 of the prologue:"'Reson
me shewe f1 I To
bugge a belle of bras or of bri} t siluer/
And knytten it on a coler for oure commune profit.'"
says the dropping of the
h
occurred because it was weakened
in its unstressed position
it
permanently
replaced
Masse
(56).
hit
After the
as
the
14th century,
neuter
nominative
/
pronoun in literature (Masse 56).
In Piers Plowman the pronoun used for the third person
plural nominative
"And
somme
bettre."
is
~·
chosen [hem]
Line 31 of the prologue reads,
chaff are;
cheueden
pe
The use of the th form of the pronoun reveals the
Scandinavian influence on the language.
According to Baugh
and Cable, hi would have been the normal development of the
Anglo-Saxon pronoun, but the influence of the Scandinavians
caused hie to be replaced
Old Norse (eir (158).
with ~' which comes
from the
--~--~-l~·.·I
1
I
l.:
I,
I
\
44
1
For the
hire.
third person
For example,
Ancres and
pat holden
to
in contree
t
hem
dative
and
uses hem
in
read, "As
hire
selles,/
[cairen] aboute/
likerous liflode hire likame to plese.
Langland
Langland uses
lines 28-30 of the prologue
heremites
no}
Coueiten
plural genitive,
for both
For
no
11
the third
person plural
and accusative cases, as does the scribe of The Fox
the
Wolf.
In addition,
reflexively, as in
line 20 of
this
pronoun is
also used
the prologue: "Some
putten
hem to plou) , pleiden ful selde."
In Piers
accusative
example,
for
and dative
re
(enne loke
However, sometimes
the
we mowen,/
appears, for
And peeren
he uses
and his for
nominative and genitive cases.
another form for
the genitive
One occurrence of this pronoun is in lines
prologue: "Were
hise eris/
in his
II
the Anglo-Saxon pronouns he
third person masculine
case.
This pronoun
While hYm pleye like • I
Langland use
the
cases.
for the masculine
in lines 172-3 of the prologue: "'And if hym list
to laike
presence
Plowman Langland uses hYm
78-79 of
fe Bisshop yblessed and worr
His see! sholde
no
3t
be sent to
bof e
decyue
peple."
The following charts
illustrate the pronoun
paradigm
for Piers Plowman.
_._____________________
--~--11
rr
I
45
First Person Pronouns
Singular
Plural
Nominative
I
we
Genitive
my
oure
Dative
me
vs
Accusative
me
vs
Reflexive
me
Second Person Pronouns
Nominative
Genitive
Singular
Plural
row, thow
ye
r
i,
Reflexive
youre
yow
Dative
Accusative
fin
fee
yow
yowselue
ll
l
,I
I',I
\I
,I
i\
l
46
Third Person Pronouns
Nominative
Genitive
Masculine
Neuter
Feminine
Plural
he
it
she
fei
his
hire
his, hise
hire,
hir
Dative
hym
Accusative
hym
Reflexive
hymself
hem
it
hem
hem
ll
, '1
\
'
47
The London Dialect
Parliament of Fowls
Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls
the London dialect at
wrote Piers
Plowman.
serves as an example of
roughly the same time
Analyzing a text
that Langland
representative of
the London dialect allows me
to compare the London dialect
to the
to determine how
Southwestern dialect
two dialects are at this point.
Parliament of
in The
retains some
By the time Chaucer wrote
Fowls (1373-1378), the pronouns
London dialect had
used
similar the
ch~nged
Dream of
used in the
considerably from
the Rood.
However,
the pronouns
Chaucer still
Anglo-Saxon pronouns in addition
to the ones
that still survive in the language today.
Chaucer's
third
pronouns
person
show
the
most
similarities to the pronouns used in The Dream of the Rood.
For
example, Chaucer
uses
the Anglo-Saxon
neuter nominative
pronoun in addition to
In lines
writes, "To
27-8 he
rede forth
delite/ That al that day me thoughte
usually
uses
happede
me for
it,
letteres olde."
nominative
though,
to
as in
behold/ Upon
Although he
person
the modern form.
hit
gan me
but a lyte."
lines
a
third
18-19:
bok, was
sometimes uses
so
Chaucer
"Agon it
write
hit for
with
the
pronoun, Chaucer uses the modern form it in the
accusative case.
- - - - - -.... !:
ti
rT
!
li
t'
I
48
Like the Anglo-Saxon writers, Chaucer uses his for the
third person
neuter genitive
pronoun.
One
occurrence of
this form appears in the following lines:
For overal where that I myn eyen caste
Were trees clad with !eves that ay shal laste,
,I
I
Eche in his kynde, of colour fresh and greene
As emeroude, that joye was to seene.
Chaucer also uses some
person feminine pronouns.
the genitive
I Venus and hire
also
uses an
"Hyre
Ango-Saxon forms for the third
For example,
pronoun: "And in
Fond
gilte heres
he uses hire
a prive corner
proter Richesse" (11.
alternate
with
(172-74)
spelling of
a goldene
for
in desport/
260-61).
He
this pronoun,
hyre:
thred/ !bounden
were,
untressed as she lay" (11. 267-68).
In addition, Chaucer uses the Anglo-Saxon pronoun hire
for the feminine dative case.
For example, in
line 275 he
writes, "And Bachus, god of wyn, sat hire besyde."
Chaucer uses
Saxon feminine
slightly different forms
hir, "But
This
just slightly
pronoun is
Saxon
thus I let
pronoun hire, showing
Chaucer uses another form
the
i
used in
In line
accusative pronoun too.
example, he uses
of the
Anglo270, for
hir [Venus]
different from
a reduction
the Anglo-
of the
final
in which he substitutes a
the Anglo-Saxon
pronoun: "Men
[Venus] sen--and sothly for to say"
{1.
270).
lie."
y
~·
for
myght hyre
r
49
However,
for
the
third
person
feminine nominative
pronoun, Chaucer uses she as Langland does.
this
pronoun appears in line
One example of
216: "She couchede hem after
as they shulde serve."
Chaucer does
third person
not use
an Anglo-Saxon pronoun
nominative plural
case.
Instead,
he always
uses the Scandinavian pronoun
they.
for example,
"And rightful folk
in lines 55-56:
for the
This pronoun appears,
shul gon
after they deye/ To hevene."
In Parliament
uses two
different
forms for the third person genitive plural case.
One form,
here,
appears
of
Fowls, Chaucer
in lines
39-40:
speche and al the blysse/
gan mysse."
An
found in lines
"Thanne
telleth it
That was betwix hem til the
occurrence of the other form,
8-9: "For al
be that I
here
day
her, can be
knowe nat Love
in
dede,/ Ne wot how that he quiteth Folk her hyre."
For both the third person dative and accusative plural
cases, Chaucer uses the pronoun hem, which demonstrates the
leveling of
inflections that
English period.
from the
occurred
during the
Middle
This form of the pronoun appears to derive
Anglo-Saxon dative
pronoun, heom.
Chaucer uses
this pronoun as part of a reflexive construction, too.
reflexive
appears,
inowe, of whiche
for example,
some ther
some of hem were gay."
in lines
weere/ Fayre
The
233-34: "Wemen
of hemself,
and
r
50
Chaucer uses
the pronouns found
Rood, the
same
masculine
nominative
However,
ones
Chaucer
used
and
uses
accusative cases,
in The Dream
today, for
genitive
hym
for
once again
the
third
cases:
both
he
the
indicating
of the
person
and
dative
the leveling
his.
and
of
inflections that occurred during the Middle English period.
This pronoun
is an
orthographical variant of
the pronoun
used in The Dream of the Rood, him.
For
the
first
Parliament of Fowls,
person
singular nominative
Chaucer always uses
I·
case
For example,
in lines 6-7 Chaucer wrote, "So sore, iwis, that whan I
wot I
hym thynke,/ Nat
Similarly,
for the
wel wher that
first person
I flete or
plural
in
on
synke."
nominative case,
Chaucer uses only we.
Like the previous authors,
Chaucer uses more than one
form for the first person singular genitive case.
that he uses
is myn, a variant of the
Dream of the
Rood, min.
169: "With that
pronoun used in The
It appears, for
ffiY!1 hand he
tok in his
One form
example, in line
anon."
However,
Chaucer also uses the modern form of the pronoun, as in the
following
lines: "All this mene I be Love that my felynge/
Astonyeth with his wondyrful werkynge" (4-5).
For
the
first person
uses a form that
Saxon
appears
pronoun ure
in line
plural genitive
case, Chaucer
exhibits a transition between
and the
53-54:
Modern English
"'And that
the Anglo-
form our.
oure present
It
worldes
r
I
51
lyves space/ Nys but a maner deth, what wey we trace.
111
Like Langland, Chaucer uses thaw for the second person
singular nominative case.
This pronoun
is found in
line
116 which reads, "Be thaw myn helpe in this, for thaw mayst
best!"
As with the first
Chaucer
genitive
uses two
person singular genitive
different
singular case.
One
Both
in the
in thy face,/
to me" (155-56).
of a
The
Ttvn
also
the final n.
"'It standeth
errour, though thaw telle it not
Chaucer also uses the pronoun thy as part
reflexive construction, which occurs in line 73: "And
For the
the
singular pronoun
not to
111
second person dative cases,
dative singular
the
other form is
following lines:
he seyde, 'Know thyself first inmortal.
for
person
is much like
Anglo-Saxon form, but without
forms appear
writen
the second
of those forms
rin.
the Anglo-Saxon pronoun,
similar to the
forms for
pronouns,
case appears
come into
nothyng ment bi the.
in line
tolde."
Chaucer also
sorweful were.
16:
for
the plural.
in lines 157-58:
this place,/
For this
One example of the
1 "
is found
pronoun, as in
and yow
Chaucer uses the
"On bakes
rede I
uses yow for
line 138:
The
"'But dred
writyng nys
plural pronoun
ofte,
as I
yow
the accusative plural
"'This strem yow
ledeth to
the
1 "
The pronoun
paradigm for
Parliament of Fowls
summed up by the following charts.
can be
52
First Person Pronouns
Singular
Plural
Nominative
I
we
Genitive
my, myn
cure
Dative
me
Accusative
me
Second Person Pronouns
Singular
Nominative
thew
Genitive
thy, thyn
Dative
the
yow
yow
Accusative
Reflexive
Plural
thyself
53
Third Person Pronouns
Masculine
Neuter
Nominative
he
it, hit
Genitive
his
his
Dative
hym
Accusative
hym
Reflexive
Feminine
she
hire, hyre
hire
it
hyre, hir
Plural
they
her, here
hem
hem
hemself
--- -----l:-_i
r
!
i
54
Conclusion
Though
all four of the texts I analyze are written in
Middle English, we can see that Middle English was really a
language in
transition.
Indeed, as
in the prohemium of Book
knowe
ek
Although I
that
in
Chaucer himself notes
II of Troilus and Criseyde,
forme
of
speche
found many other differences
in terms
of syntax, verb conjugations,
name
few,
a
is
the
differences
(22).
between the texts
and vocabulary, to
the
in
chaunge"
" Ye
pronouns
alone
demonstrate that the language is not static at this time -nor at any other time for that matter.
The
changes in pronouns
larger changes
in the language which
the formulation of the
so
the
likely to
constant use of such a limited
daily discourse
to
preserve
Because
would seem that
change.
One
forms.
they are
pronouns would be
might think
that the
set of words as pronouns in
and continual copying of
their
microcosm of the
eventually result in
London standard.
frequently used, it
least
serve as a
And
yet,
demonstrates, the pronouns illustrate
texts would tend
as
this
study
the evolution of the
language toward the London standard.
The changes in
the
language
pronouns demonstrate the tendency
toward
number of pronoun forms
Bright's paradigm
simplification.
For example,
of
the
have decreased from fifty-three in
to some
thirty-four
used in
Chaucer's
-lf·.
r
t
i:
~
'
55
Moreover,
of Fowls.
Parliament
the dual
evidence in
The Owl and
disappeared
by Chaucer's
time.
By
years of
Langland
and
century,
the
case still
the Nightingale (circa
in
1200) has
the late
fourteenth
Chaucer, the
the Y=
person plural
pronouns forms have
forms
In the same era, the first person nominative
(yow).
simplified to 1, although Chaucer
pronoun has largely been
occasionally uses the
the
Reeve's
been reduced to
secon
southern ich for emphasis
Tale, ik
for charactarization
or, as in
(Fisher 964),
both exceptions, however, noteworthy in that they represent
conscious
toward
variations from
the
This
standard.
movement
simplification and reduction of forms indicates the
movement toward a standard dialect.
The
London
certainly
by
the
evidenced by the
of
Piers
standard
becomes the
late fourteenth
dominant
century,
a
for
example, shows
dominance
The language
evolution of the pronouns.
Plowman,
dialect,
that
the
London
dialect has had an impact upon the writers in the southwest
by 1375.
While the London dialect may not have
standard dialect
moving
in
by this time, the
language was certainly
Norman
that direction.
become the
Blake
sums
up
the
situation well when he writes,
"In the
medieval period change in
constant theme, particularly
language is a
towards the end
the period when men were beginning to
what
advantages
might
accrue
from
of
understand
having
a
r
56
standard
language,
for
a
standard
was
then
beginning to emerge" (41).
For writers such as Langland, these advantages would be the
cachet
of acceptance
by
the larger
urban audience,
imprimatur of the more elite literate classes.
the
r
57
Primary Texts
Chaucer,
Geoffrey.
Geoffrey
The
Chaucer.
Complete Poetry
Ed. John H.
and
Fisher.
Prose
2nd ed.
of
New
York: Harcourt, 1989.
The
Dream of the Rood.
Reader.
Ed.
Ringler.
Chicago:
Bright's Old
Frederic
G.
English Grammar and
Cassidy
and
Richard
N.
Holt, 1971.
The Fox and the Wolf. Ed. J.A.W. Bennett and G.V. Smithers.
London: Oxford U P, 1966.
Langland,
William.
Piers Plowman:
The B
George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson.
Version.
Ed.
London: Athlone,
1975.
The Owl and the Nightingale.
Ed. J.W.H. Atkins, M.A.
New
York: Russell & Russell, 1971.
Works Cited
Baugh,
Albert
C., and
English Language.
Bolton, W. F.
Thomas Cable.
A History
of the
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1993.
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A
r
59
Appendix
Map of Old English Dialect
•
•
•
z•
..
..
..
101
~------~--------~~
0
E
R
C
I
A
TI!E DIALEcrs OF OLD ENGUSH
Note. Only the major dialect areas are indicated. That the Saxon settlements north oflhe Thames
(see§ 34) had their own dialect features is apparent in Middle English.
(Baugh andCable 52)
60
Map of Middle English Dialects
THE DIALECfS Of MIDDLE ENGLISH
(Baugh and Cable 186)