On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 20:14:57 -0600, Patrick Ryan
<
proto-language@...> wrote:
>From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard@...>
>
>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
>
>> >***
>> >Patrick:
>> >
>> >Is there any indisputable example that could be cited?
>> >
>> >***
>>
>> I just cited it: they (from ON þeir, replacing OE híe, héo).
>
>Though possibly eased by cognate _þa:_ 'those' in Old English.
>
>***
>Patrick:
>
>Maybe we should be discussing what "indisputable" means to you and to me?
>
>I would certainly want to dispute your characterization of this example.
>
>It seems to me that the explanation is much easier if we consider _Þa:_ to
>have been influenced/contaminated by _Þeir_.
That is neither easier nor correct. OE <þa:> gives ME
<tho:>, <the>, which regularly develops into the plural
definite article. The emphatic form OE <þa:s> becomes the
ME demonstrative <tho:s(e)> > ModE <those>.
The 3pl. personal pronoun, OE NA. <hi:e>, <he:o>, G.
<heora>, D. <he:om> regularly gives ME N. <hi>, <hy>, G.
<heore>, <here>, <hire>, <hore>, <hure>, <hare>, DA. <heom>,
<hem>, <hom>, <ham> in the South.
In the North, however, where Viking influence was stronger,
we find N. <thei>/<they>, <thai>, G. <theyre>, <thair(e)>,
DA. <theim>, <thaim>, from Norse <þei(r)>, <þeirra>, <þeim>.
There is no influence on the article/demonstrative, which is
<tho:(s)> in the North just as it is in the South.
The new forms gradually made their way to the South,
beginning with the nominative. Chaucer uses nom. <they>
versus G. <here>, DA. <hem>. By the time of early Modern
English, the Norse forms had completely replaced the native
Anglo-Saxon ones, resulting in N. <they>, G. <their>, DA.
<them>. The old form may survive in DA. <'em> (I see/give
'em).
>Is loss of ON final -r regular for _actual_ loans into OE?
Yes. I suppose it was already lost in the Viking source
dialects.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...