The subject of history of English

14 Old English pronoun. Classes.

Pronoun as a part of speech is a very specific class of words; it does not have meaning, it simply points to something mentioned earlier or situated within the range of visibility of the speakers.

There are several types of pronouns in Old English: personal, demonstrative, definite, indefinite, negative and relative.

Personal pronouns, that constitute a system of words replacing nouns; they are also called noun-pronouns.In Old English they had 3 persons: the first, the second and the third 3 numbers: singular, plural and the remains of the dual number in the second person 3 genders: masculine, feminine, neuter. The personal pronouns are Ic ,ðū ,hē ,hit ,hēo ,hῑo ,wit ,ʒit ,wē , ʒē ,hῑe, hῑ, hy, hēo

Demonstrative pronouns are sē (that) and ðēs (this), the first indicating something far and the second something near; occasionally in colloquial speech the third pronoun ʒeon - yonder, something still more distant and farther. They had three genders, two numbers and five cases in the singular and four in the plural and agree in number, gender and case with the nouns they modify.

Interrogative pronouns are nouns-pronouns hwā and hwæt and adjective-pronoun hwilc had the category of case, but did not change in number. Pronoun hwilc is decline like a strong adjective.

Definite pronouns include the following: ælc (each), ʒehwā(everyone) ʒehwæt(everything) ʒehwilc(each) swilc(such), sē ilca ( the same). All but the last decline likev a strong adjective., and

sē ilca is always declined weak.

Indefinite pronouns include such as sum, æniʒ .They are used in preposition to nouns and are declined like strong adjectives. Another indefinite pronoun is man, used as in this function in the meaning any individual,anyone, or people in general (compare the use of pronoun they in present-

day English, in combinations like they say or man sagt in German).

Negative pronouns are formed by fusion of a negative particle ne-with indefinite pronoun æniʒ and numeral ān in its pronominal function. They are nān and næniʒ, and are declined like the corresponding words without the particle ne.

Relative pronoun ðe is found fairly often in Old English texts, it introduced relative clauses and was later replaced by a group of pronouns and adverbs( that, which, where, when, how).