Chaucer's Works, Volume 6 — Introduction, Glossary, and IndexesChaucer, Geoffrey
General
Chaucer's Works, Volume 6 — Introduction, Glossary, and Indexes
Chaucer, Geoffrey
English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500
The second pers. pron. is _thou_, _thow_, dat. and acc. _thee_; pl. _ye_,
dat. and acc. _you_. _Thou_ is often appended to verbs, in the form _tow_;
as in _shaltow_, _wiltow_, &c.
The third pers. pron. masc. is _he_, dat. and acc. _him_; pl. _they_, gen.
_hir_ (as in _hir aller_), dat. and acc. _hem_ (never _them_), for all
genders. The fem. form is _she_, dat. and acc. _hir_ or _hire_, also
_h[`e]re_ at the end of a line or at the caesura (see Glossary). The neut.
form is _hit_ or _it_, dat. _him_; acc. _hit_ or _it_.
s. 83. POSSESSIVES. The forms are: _myn_, _my_; _thyn_, _thy_; _his_[65]
(masc. and neut.), _hire_, _hir_, _here_ (fem.); _oure_, _our_; _youre_,
_your_; _hire_, _here_, _hir_, _her_ = their. The Northern form _thair_ is
purposely introduced in A 4172. When standing alone, we also find _oure_,
_oures_, ours; _youre_, _youres_, yours; _hires_, hers; _hirs_, theirs.
s. 84. DEMONSTRATIVES. _The_ is used for the def. article in all genders
and in both numbers. A trace of the old dat. _then_ (A.S. _dh[=a]m_) occurs
in _for the nones_ (= _for then ones_). _Atte_ = _at the_.
The demonstratives are _that_; pl. _tho_, those; and _this_, pl. _thise_.
Note that _thise_ (dhiiz) is always monosyllabic; the final _e_ merely
marks (probably) a longer vowel-sound. It is probable that, in the same
way, the form _hise_, his, used with plurals, may have meant (hiiz); the
Cambridge MS. has the curious form _hese_; but it is monosyllabic.
s. 85. INTERROGATIVES. These are: _who_, _what_; gen. _whoos_, _wh[=o]s;_
dat. _wh[=o]m_; acc. _wh[=o]m_, _what_. Also _which_; pl. _whiche_,
_which_. Also _whether_, which of the two.
s. 86. RELATIVES. _That_ is used generally; also _which_, pl. _whiche_,
_which_. _Whos_ occurs as expressing a genitive; and _whom_ for a dative;
but we never find _who_ as a nominative. We also meet with _that-he_ for
'who'; _that-his_ for 'whose'; _that-him_ for 'whom'; cf. A 2710. Also _the
which_; or, when used adjectivally, _the whiche_ (A 3923); _which that_;
_the which that_; _who that_, _what that_; _who so_, _what so_.
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