10 Jan 2004

Icelandic Pronouns

My homework this weekend is to memorize the singular and plural pronouns in Old Icelandic. (We're only learning the 3rd person plurals right now, because the first- and second-person are hard: they make a distinction between two and more-than-two.)

Singular:
1 2 3m 3f 3n refl.
N ek þú hann hon þat -
A mik þik hann hana þat sik
D mér þér honum henni því sér
G mín þín hans hennar þess sín
Plural:
3m 3f 3n
N þeir þær þau
A þá þær þau
D þeim þeim þeim
G þeirra þeirra þeirra

You can see some similarities between this language and older forms of English: mine/mín, thine/þín, that/þat, them/þeim, their/þeirra. (þ pronounced th.) Both evolved from a Proto-Germanic language that was spoken thousands of years ago are recent borrowings -- maybe Danelaw-era? -- from Scandinavian that replaced earlier Anglo-Saxon pronouns. Thanks to Lisa for the correction!

Previous: | Next: