þou
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See also: thou
Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- thou, þu, thu, þoue, thoue, þowe, thowe, þouȝ, thouȝ, þue, ðhu, þeu, þeou, thugh, thogh, þo, tu, tou, towe, you
Etymology
[edit]From Old English þū, from Proto-West Germanic *þū, from Proto-Germanic *þū, from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (stressed) IPA(key): /
θ uː/, /ðuː/ - (unstressed) IPA(key): /ðu/[1][2]
- (after /t/, /d/, especially early) IPA(key): /tuː/, /tu/
Pronoun
[edit]þou (accusative þe, genitive þin, possessive determiner þi, þin)
- thou (second-person singular pronoun); you[3]
- c. 1275, Judas (Roud 2964, Child Ballad 23, Trinity College MS. B.14.39)[1], folio 34, recto, lines 36-37; republished at Cambridge: Wren Digital Library (Trinity College), 2019 May 29:
- Stille þou be peter. Wel i þe icnowe. / þou wolt fur ſake me þrien . ar þe coc him crowe.
- "Quiet now, Peter. I know you well; / You'll forsake me three times when the cock crows."
Derived terms
[edit]Derived terms
Descendants
[edit]- English: thou, tha (Yorkshire, Lancashire); thow, thu, du (Scotland)
- Scots: thou, du, thoo
- Yola: thou, th'
See also
[edit]Middle English personal pronouns
nominative | accusative | dative | genitive | possessive | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | 1st-person | I, ich, ik | me | min mi1 |
min | ||
2nd-person | þou | þe | þin þi1 |
þin | |||
3rd-person | m | he | him hine2 |
him | his | his hisen | |
f | sche, heo | hire heo |
hire | hire hires, hiren | |||
n | hit | hit him2 |
his, hit | — | |||
dual3 | 1st-person | wit | unk | unker | |||
2nd-person | ȝit | inc | inker | ||||
plural | 1st-person | we | us, ous | oure | oure oures, ouren | ||
2nd-person4 | ye | yow | your | your youres, youren | |||
3rd-person | inh. | he | hem he2 |
hem | here | here heres, heren | |
bor. | þei | þem, þeim | þeir | þeir þeires, þeiren |
1Used preconsonantally or before h.
2Early or dialectal.
3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.
References
[edit]- ^ Brink, Daniel (1992) “Variation between <þ-> and <t-> in the Ormulum”, in Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr and Robert L. Kyes, editors, On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs; 68), De Gruyter Mouton, , →ISBN, pages 21-35.
- ^ Thurber, Beverly A. (2011 February 15) “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, number 1, Cambridge University Press, , pages 65-81.
- ^ “thou, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 May 2018.
Categories:
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English pronouns
- Middle English terms with quotations
- Middle English personal pronouns