erek gass wrote:

> Even our third person plural pronoun set is
> attributable to the Norse. The interesting things are the usual
> investigative words: how, when, where, who, and why. In the case of "they,
> them, their" the reason seems to be that the OE words in use were rather
> weak, and the ON equivalents were accepted (the "why" if you will).

Most Norse influence didn't make itself felt until the Middle English period.

"They, them, their" and "-s" (rather than "-th") as third singular ending, did
not get taken into general English usage until the 15th century. Chaucer
(late 14th c.) still used the Old English forms except in dialog by characters
from Yorkshire.

--
Stephen Fryer
Lund Computer Services

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The more answers I find, the more questions I have
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