The usual declension of the personal pronouns is exceptionable. _I_ and _me_, _thou_ and _ye_, stand in no etymological relations to each other. The true view of the words is, that they are not irregular but defective. _I_ has no _oblique_, and _me_ no nominative case. And so with respect to the rest. _I_, in German _ich_, Icelandic _ek_, corresponds with [Greek: ego], and _ego_ of the classical languages; _ego_ and [Greek: ego] being, like _I_, defective in the oblique cases. _My_, as stated above, is a form originally accusative, but now used in a genitive sense. _Me._--In Anglo-Saxon this was called a dative form. The fact seems to be that both _my_ and _me_ grow out of an accusative form, _meh_, _mec_. That the sound of _k_ originally belonged to the pronouns _me_ and _thee_, we learn not only from the Anglo-Saxons _mec_, _thec_, _meh_, _theh_, but from the Icelandic _mik_, _thik_, and the German _mich_, _dich_. This accounts for the form _my_; since _y_=_ey_, and the sounds of _y_ and _g_ are allied. That both _me_ and _my_ can be evolved from _mik_, we see in the present Scandinavian languages, where, very often even in the same district, _mig_ is pronounced both _mey_ and _mee_. {244} _We_ and _our_.--These words are not in the condition of _I_ and _me_. Although the fact be obscured, they are really in an etymological relation to each other. This we infer from the alliance between the sounds of _w_ and _ou_, and from the Danish forms _vi_ (_we_), _vor_ (_our_). It may be doubted, however, whether _our_ be a true genitive rather than an adjectival form. In the form _ours_ we find it playing the part, not of a case, but of an independent word. Upon this, however, too much stress cannot be laid. In Danish it takes a neuter form: _vor_=_noster_; _vort_=_nostrum_. From this I conceive that it agrees, not with the Latin genitive _nostr[^u]m_, but with the adjective _noster_. _Us, we, our._--Even _us_ is in an etymological relation to _we_. That _we_ and _our_ are so, has just been shown. Now in Anglo-Saxon there were two forms of _our_, _viz_., _['u]re_ (=_nostr[^u]m_), and _user_ (=_noster_). This connects _we_ and _us_ through _our_. From these preliminary notices we have the changes in form of the true personal pronouns, as follows:-- 1ST PERSON _1st Term._ (_for nominative singular_). _I._ Undeclined. _2nd Term._ (_for the singular number_). Acc. _Me_. Gen. _My_. Form in _n_--_Mine_. _3rd Term._ (_for the plural number_). Nom. _We_. Acc. _Us_. Form in _r_--_Our_, _ours_. 2ND PERSON. _1st Term._ (_for the singular number_). Nom. _Thou_. Acc. _Thee_. Gen. _Thy_. Form in _n_--_Thine_. _2nd Term._ (_for the plural number_). Nom. _Ye_. Acc. _You_. Form in _r_--_Your_, _yours_.