borrowing pronouns

[Robert Whiting]

On Sun, 14 Mar 1999, Yoel  L. Arbeitman wrote:

>>Robert Orr wrote:

>>Not to mention the entire 3rd-plural paradigm in Modern English,
>>borrowed from Old Norse to replace the inherited WGmc. forms which had
>>become indistinguishable from sing. forms.

>But the entire paradigm of the 3rd pl in NE is "they, them (acc.-dat.)
>and their". So it might be less hyperbolic to say the "the-" stem for the
>3rd pl.

<snip>

One might throw in "theirs" which is actually the pronoun (gen.), "their"
being an adjective ('these books are theirs' ~ 'these are their books').

One could also note that the old form of the oblique (acc.-dat.) has not
been completely replaced but the form 'em (dat.-acc. pl. of OE he:)
continues to be used ("stick 'em up; up and at 'em; head 'em up, move 'em
out; give 'em hell, Harry") informally; most people, however, think that
'em is just an abbreviation of 'them' without realizing its origin.

Bob Whiting
whiting at cc.helsinki.fi