[lit-ideas] "She" (Was: "Her")
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 11:32:49 EDT
In a message dated 5/7/2004 8:09:25 AM Eastern Standard Time,
aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>I read someplace that the feminine pronoun
>[in its present form, "she"] didn't
>exist until I can't remember what century.
>Is that correct?
Well, the first quote in the OED -- is from 1154, but there was an earlier
unrelated form, "heo". I append below the etymological note for "she", or "her"
as Geary would correct me ("It's the objective, stupid") -- Cheers,
JL
----
From the OED
"she". Etymological Note. Of difficult etymology; but prob. an altered form
of the OE. fem. dem. pron. sÃo, séo, sÃe: see THE dem. pron.
It would appear that in some dialects of late OE. the diphthong in this word
underwent a change of stress, the older pronunciations (sio) and (sie) being
replaced by (sjo) and (sje). The latter of these variants is represented by the
spelling se of the 13th c.; and the phonetic development so far is exactly
parallel to that of the OE. fem. pers. pron. hÃo, héo, hÃe (see HEO), which
in
the 13th c. was pronounced in some dialects (hjo, hje), as is shown by the
written forms ho, he. As the combination (sj) is acoustically close to (), and
more difficult (according to English habits of articulation) to produce, it is
not surprising that (sje, sjo) became (e, o), these being the pronunciations
expressed by the written forms scæ (midland, c 1150) and sco, scho (northern,
a
1300).
It has been objected to this view that in ONorthumbrian the fem. sing. of the
demonstrative was not sio, seo, but eo, iu. Instances of seo, sio are,
however, found in the Lindisfarne Gospels and the glosses to the Durham Ritual
and
Hymnarium; and the extant remains of the dialect represent a very small portion
of the Northumbrian territory.
With regard to the substitution of the demonstrative pronoun for the original
pers. pron., it may be remarked that the phonetic development of various
dialects had in the 12th and 13thc. rendered the pronouns he (masc.) and heo
(fem.) almost or wholly indistinguishable in pronunciation. There was therefore
where these dialects were spoken a strong motive for using the unambiguous
feminine demonstrative instead of the feminine personal pronoun. Further, the
districts in which she or sho first appears in the place of heo are marked by
the
abundance of Scandinavian elements in the dialect and place-names; and in Old
Norse the dem. pron. (of all genders) is often used as a personal pron. It is
also noteworthy that in OS. and OHG. the fem. pers. pron. nom. sing. was siu
(mod.G. sie, Du. zij), corresponding to OE. sÃo (the oblique cases, and the
masc.
and neut. in the sing., being f. the stems hi-, i-); and in OFris. se â??sheâ??
occurs beside hiu.
The conjecture that she represents the ON. sjá this (nom. sing. masc. and
fem.) is untenable: the initial () is sufficiently accounted for otherwise, and
the vowels do not agree. It is however possible that the change from the
falling to the rising diphthong in the development both of hÃo and sÃo may be
due to
Scandinavian influence, as in ON. the Germanic eu and iu became rising
diphthongs.
Some scholars have maintained that she and its dialectal variants descend
directly from the pronunciations (hje, hjo) of HEO (referred to above); the
contention being that (hj) might naturally develop into (). This development
has
occurred in some Norwegian dialects, and it is illustrated by the proper names
Shetland and Shapinshay from ON. Hjaltland and Hjalpandisøy. There is slight
support for this view in the existence of north. dialect forms such as SHOOP
representing OE héope HIP n.2 Other views are that () was substituted for the
un-English sound (ç), developed from (hj), and that it arose from the sequence
-s
+ j- in such contexts as was hió.
The type (to which the mod. literary form belongs) is in origin East
Midland, while the type is originally northern.]
As proper feminine pronoun of the third person, nominative case. The female
being in question, or last mentioned. Used of persons of the female sex.
First quote
1154 OE. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1140,
And te Lundenissce folc hire wolde tæcen & scæ fleh.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
