Demonstrative Pronouns

There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: the proto­type of NE that, which distinguished three genders in the sg and had one form for all the genders in the pl. and the prototype of this with the same subdivisions: þes Masc., þēos Fem., þis Neut. and þas pl. They were declined like adjectives according to a five-case system: Nom., Gen., Dat., Acc., and Instr. (the latter having a special form only in the Masc. and Neut. sg).

Declension of sē, sēo, þæt

As seen from the table, the paradigm of the demonstrative pronoun sē contained many homonymous forms. Some case endings resembled those of personal pronouns, e.g. –m – Dat. Masc. and Neut. sg and Dat. pl; the element -r- in the Dat. and Gen. sg Fem. and in the Gen. pl. These case endings, which do not occur in the noun paradigms, are often re­ferred to as "pronominal" endings (-m,

-r-, -t).

Demonstrative pronouns are of special importance for a stu­dent of OE for they were frequently used as noun determiners and through agreement with the noun, indicated its number, gender and case. The forms of the pronouns may help to define the forms of the nouns in am­biguous instances, e. g. in the phrases on þæm lande, tō pære heorde 'on that land, to that herd' the forms of the pronouns help to differenti­ate gender: þæm is Neut. or Masc., þære is Fem.; both nouns are in the Dat. sg and happen to have identical endings: -e. In the following sen­tences the forms þæt and þā help to distinguish between numbers:

Uton ... ™ēseon þæt word (sg) 'let us see that event'

Manige cōmen tō byc™enne þā þing (pl) 'many came to buy those things'