4. Other kinds of pronouns

They include definite, indefinite, negative and relative, all typical for Indo-European languages. All of them still exist in Modern English, and all of them are given here:

a) definite   gehwá (every) - declined the same way as hwá   gehwilc (each),   ægþer (either),   æ'lc (each),   swilc (such) - all declined like strong adjectives   sé ylca (the same) - declined like a weak adjective

b) indefinite   sum (some),   æ'nig (any) - both behave the same way as strong adjectives

c) negative   nán, næ'nig (no, none) - declined like strong adjectives

d) relative   þe (which, that)  séþe (which, that) - they are not declined

In Proto-Indo-European and in many ancient Indo-European languages there was a special kind of declension called pronominal, using only by pronouns and opposed to the one used by nouns, adjectives and numerals. Old English lost it, and its pronouns use all the same endings as the nouns and adjectives. Maybe the only inflection which remembers the Proto-language times, is the neuter nominative -t in hwæt and þæt, the ancient ending for inanimate (inactive) nouns and pronouns.

Article. In Proto-Indo-European no traces of definite or indefinite articles can be found, and the majority of ancient Indo-European languages lack it either. But still the article is considered a typical "late Indo-European" feature - it started appearing already when languages of the family existed separately. In Homer's Greek language there was no article, not in Mycenaean Greek, but all classical Greek dialects already have the definite article in wide use. Later the difinite article appears in Romance languages (though Latin did not have it at all), Celtic languages (again - Gaulish had no, but all Insular Celtic tongues generated it), in late Germanic (but not in Gothic nor in Old English), and even in several Slavic languages, those which belong to the so-called "Balkan language alliance" (Macedonian, Bulgarian).

Old English did not use the article. It appeared later, coming, as it always happen, for the demonstrative pronoun. But even in this period the texts show us the frequent use of the demonstrative pronoun before nouns in the sentence: ...he heold þæt rice (he held the kingdom). As for the indefinite article, it was a product of the Old English numerals.

 

§ 6. The Old English Numeral.

It is obvious that all Indo-European languages have the general trend of transformation from the synthetic (or inflectional) stage to the analytic one. At least for the latest 1,000 years this trend could be observed in all branches of the family.

The level of this analitization process in each single language can be estimated by several features, their presence or absence in the language. One of them is for sure the declension of the numerals.

In Proto-Indo-European all numerals, both cardinal and ordinal, were declined, as they derived on a very ancient stage from nouns or adjectives, originally being a declined part of speech. There are still language groups within the family with decline their numerals: among them, Slavic and Baltic are the most typical samples. They practically did not suffer any influence of the analytic processes. But all other groups seem to have been influenced somehow. Ancient Italic and Hellenic languages left the declension only for the first four cardinal pronouns (from 1 to 4), the same with ancient Celtic.

The Old English language preserves this system of declension only for three numerals.

Here is the list of the cardinal numerals:  

1 án	20 twentig
2 twá	21 twentig ond án
3 þríe	30 þrítig
4 féower	40 féowertig
5 fíf	50 fíftig
6 six, syx, siex	60 siextig
7 seofon, syofn	70 siofontig
8 eahta	80 eahtatig
9 nigon	90 nigontig
10 tien, týn	100 hundtéontig, hund, hundred
11 endlefan	110 hundælleftig
12 twelf	120 hundtwelftig
13 þríotíene	200 tú hund
14 féowertíene	1000 þúsend
15 fíftíene...	2000 tú þúsendu

And here is the declension of some of them:

1 án is declined just like a strong adjective, can be only singular, but has masculine, neuter and feminine genders. It is the source of the future indefinite article 'a, an' in Modern English. So 'a house' in fact means "one house", here -n disappeared before a consonant. When at school, many of us thought that 'an' derived from 'a' and it appeares vice versa.

2 twá:         Masc.    Neut.                  Fem. N  twegen     tú, twá                 twá G                twégea, twégra D                twæ'm, twám A  twegen     tú, twá                  twá

So the genders have differences only in nominative and accusative cases, and indirect cases (genitive and dative) have common forms for all three genders. No number can be changed for it, and originally this numeral was dual, which seems natural.

3 þríe:       Masc.               Neut.              Fem. N  þríe, þrí, þrý   þrío, þréo       þrío, þréo G                        þríora, þréora D                        þrím A  þríe, þrí, þrý   þrío, þréo       þrío, þréo

A typical i-stem noun. Strange is the following: while in the case of "two" the Modern English lost masculine and neuter forms and picked up the feminine one for use ('two' < twá), here we have another case, when the feminine and neuter were forgotten, and today's three comes directly from the masculine þríe.

And the last is the numeral begen, bú, bá (both) which is declined the same way as twá and is also dual.

Ordinal numerals  use the suffix -ta or -þa, etymologically a common Indo-European one (-to-). 

1 forma, fyresta	15 fíftéoþa
2 óþer, æfterra	16 sixtéoþa
3 þridda, þirda	17 siofontéoþa
4 féorþa	18 eahtatéoþa
5 fífta	19 nigontéoþa
6 siexta, syxta	20 twentigoþa
7 siofoþa	30 þrittigoþa
8 eahtoþa	40 féowertigoþa
9 nigoþa	50 fíftigoþa
10 téoþa	100 hundtéontiogoþa
11 endlefta
12 twelfta
13 þreotéoþa
14 féowertéoþa

The two variants for the word "first" actually mean different attributes: forma is translated as "forward", and fyresta is "the farthest", "the first". Again double variants for the second nominal mean respectively "the other" and "the following".

Mainly according to Old English texts ordinal numerals were used with the demonstrative pronoun þá before them. This is where the definite article in 'the first', 'the third' comes from. To say "the 22nd", for example, you should combine the following: either twá and twenigoþa (two and twentieth), or óþer éac twentigum (second with twenty). So the order is different from the modern English, but instead closer to Modern German where "the 22nd" sounds like zwei und zwanzig (two and twenty).

At all, it is easy to notice that the words in English became much shorter, and therefore simpler in pronunciation and learning. It is much easier to pronounce "hundredth" than hundtéontiogoþa, "fourth" than féowertéoþa. Modetrn English acquired words mainly having one or two syllables, but this was not the rule in the Old English period.