Re[2]: [tied] Re: The personal pronouns of PIE (and other families)

At 4:58:15 PM on Monday, January 16, 2006, Miguel Carrasquer
wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 16:27:36 +0000, Rob
> <magwich78@...> wrote:

>>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer
>><mcv@...> wrote:

>>Just out of curiosity:

>>> 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>.

>>Was the -s in origin the plural ending (ModE -(e)s)?

> Hardly: it's the same -s as in this, these; Du. deze;
> Germ. dieser, etc.

> My guess would be it's from *so, the original nominative
> (m.) of the dem. pronoun, but I'd have to look it up.

It appears as <-se>, <-si> (e.g., ON runic nom.sg. sá-si,
sú-si, þat-si, acc.sg. þan-si, þá-si, þat-si, etc.). OED
(1989) suggests that it's probably identical with Gothic
<sai> 'see, behold'.

[...]

Brian