English Personal Pronouns - Archaic and Non-standard Forms

Archaic and Non-standard Forms

Apart from the standard forms given above, English also has a number of non-standard, informal and archaic forms of personal pronouns.

• An archaic set of second-person singular pronouns is thou, thee, thyself, thy, thine. They were used as a familiar form, like French tu and German du. They passed out of general use between 1600 and 1800, although they (or variants of them) survive in some English and Scottish dialects and in some Christian religious communities. For details see thou.

• In archaic language, mine and thine may be used in place of my and thy when followed by a vowel sound.
• An archaic form of plural you as a subject pronoun is ye. Some dialects now use ye in place of you, or as an apocopated or clitic form of you. See ye (pronoun).
• A non-standard variant of my (particularly in British dialects) is me. (This may have its origins in the fact that in Middle English my before a consonant was pronounced, like modern English me, (while me was, similar to modern may) and this was shortened to or, as the pronouns he and we are nowadays; he was; versus it was he. As this vowel was short, it was not subject to the Great Vowel Shift, and so emerged in modern English unchanged.)
• Informal second-person plural forms (particularly in American dialects) include you all, y'all, youse. Other variants include: yous, you/youse guys, you/youse gals, you-uns, yis, yinz. Possessives may include you(r) guys's, you(r) gals's, yous's, y'all's (or y'alls). Reflexives may be formed by adding selves after any of the possessive forms. See y'all, yinz, yous. Yous is common in Scotland, particularly in the Central Belt area (though in some parts of the country, ye is used for the plural you).
• In informal speech them is often replaced by 'em, believed to be a survival of the late Old English form heom, which appears as hem in Chaucer, losing its aspiration due to being used as an unstressed form. (The forms they, them etc. are of Scandinavian origin.)
• Non-standard reflexive forms ourself and themself are sometimes used in contexts where we and they are used with singular meaning (see we and singular they).
• Non-standard reflexive forms hisself and theirselves/theirself are sometimes used (though would be considered incorrect in standard English).

A more complete table, including the standard forms and some of the above forms, is given below. Nonstandard, informal and archaic forms are in italics.

* In religious usage, the pronouns He, Him, and His are often capitalized when referring to God.

For further archaic forms, and information on the evolution of the personal pronouns of English, see Old English pronouns.