The word _um_ occurs in Icelandic. In Danish and Swedish it is _om_; in the Germanic languages _omme_, _umbi_, _umpi_, _ymbe_, and also _um_. Its meaning is _at_, _on_, _about_. The word _whilom_ is the substantive _while_=_a time_ or _pause_ (Dan. _hvile_=_to rest_), with the addition of the preposition _om_. That the particular dative form in _om_ has arisen out of the noun _plus_ the preposition is a safe assertion. I am not prepared, however, to account for the formation of all the cases in this manner. s. 295. _Analysis of cases._--In the word _children's_ we are enabled to separate the word into three parts. 1. The root _child_. 2. The plural signs _r_ and _en_. 3. The sign of the genitive case, _s_. In this case the word is said to be analysed, since we not only take it to pieces, but also give the respective powers of each of its elements; stating which denotes the case, and which the number. Although it is too much to say that the analysis of every case of every number can be thus effected, it ought always to be attempted. s. 296. _The true nature of the genitive form in s._--It is a common notion that the genitive form _father's_ is contracted from _father his_. The expression in our liturgy, _for Jesus Christ his sake_, which is merely a pleonastic one, is the only foundation for this assertion. As the idea, however, is not only one of the commonest, but also one of the greatest errors in etymology, the following three statements are given for the sake of contradiction to it. 1. The expression the _Queen's Majesty_ is not capable of being reduced to the _Queen his Majesty_. 2. In the form _his_ itself, the _s_ has precisely the power that it has in _father's_, &c. Now _his_ cannot be said to arise out of _he_ + _his_. 3. In all the languages of the vast Indo-European tribe, except the Celtic, the genitive ends in _s_, just as it does in {242} English; so that even if the words _father his_ would account for the English word _father's_, it would not account for the Sanskrit genitive _pad-as_, of a foot; the Zend _dughdhar-s_, of a daughter; the Lithuanic _dugter-s_; the Greek [Greek: odont-os]; the Latin _dent-is_, &c. For further remarks upon the English genitive, see the Cambridge Philological Museum, vol. ii. p. 246. * * * * * {243} CHAPTER V. THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS. s. 297. _I, we, us, me, thou, ye._--These constitute the true personal pronouns. From _he_, _she_, and _it_, they differ in being destitute of gender. These latter words are demonstrative rather than personal, so that there are in English true personal pronouns for the first two persons only. In other languages the current pronouns of the third person are, as in English, demonstrative rather than personal.