User:CapnPrep/Sandbox/Possessives

My
Definition: A. adj. The possessive adjective corresponding to I pron.

Etymology: Variant of MINE adj. with loss of final -n, used originally before consonants except h, which ultimately became the universal possesive [sic.] adjective of the 1st person singular except in archaic or poetic use.

Such reduced forms first occur sporadically in early Middle English before consonants except h, in which use they become general in northern varieties of Middle English by the end of the 13th cent., and in other areas during the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, although occasional examples of mine before consonants are found even in the 16th cent.

Sporadic use before vowels or h occurs in manuscripts dating from the beginning of the 15th cent. Such use becomes increasingly common in the standard language in the early modern period, with adjectival uses of mine before a vowel becoming rarer in the course of the 17th cent., although it is not until the end of the 18th cent. that my becomes universal as the possessive adjective in the standard language except in archaic or poetic use. Compare MINE pron. 1.

On processes of differentiation between adjectival and pronominal (or dependent and independent possessive) forms elsewhere in the possessive pronoun system, see note s.v. HIS pron.2, and compare especially THY adj. and THINE pron.

Etymology of mine: < a suffixed form of the Germanic base of ME pron.1

His

 * His: OE. his (hys), genitive of personal pron. HE and hit, IT. The cognate langs. have only the parallel forms without h, Goth. and OS. is, OHG. is, es, in later stages supplanted by the originally reflexive sîn, sein, zîn, zijn. In OE., on the contrary, the refl. possessive sín was already obsolescent, and usually replaced by his, hire, hira. About the 11th c., the genitive his began, after the earlier analogy of mín, ðin, úre, eower, to be treated as an adj. (with pl. hise, occurring till the 15th c.). Like the other possessive pronouns also, his tended to develop absolute derivative forms, of which hisis, hysen (like hiris, hiren), occur in ME. The former did not take root (see next word), and the latter is only dialectal (see HISN).


 * Hisn, his'n absol. poss. pron.: (dial.) f. HIS poss. pron., analogous to hern, ourn, yourn, theirn, apparently by form-association with my, mine, thy, thine, earlier mí, mín, thí, thín, in which the -n distinguishes the absolute from the adjective form. These forms in -n are midland and southern.


 * †Hisis absol. poss. pron.: (Obs.) f. HIS poss. pron., in the same was as hir-is, hir-es, hers, ouris, oures, ours, etc. were formed from her, our, etc. As the simple possessive itself ended in s, it appears to have been generally felt to be unnecessary to add another -is or  ' s.

Thy/thine

 * Thine < OE. ðín, þín, used as genitive case of ðú, THOU, and as possess. adj. […] In OE. an adj. þín, þíne, þín, with strong inflexions, remains of which survived in Early ME. […] The final n of þīn began to be dropped before a cons. a 1200, leaving þī, later written þy, THY, q.v. At last thīn, thine, was restricted to the position in which the possessive is not followed by a n. Cf. MINE.


 * Thy < Early ME. þī, reduced form of þīn, THINE, used in ME. bef. consonants exc. h, but occurring before vowels in 15th c., and ultimately universal in prose use as the possessive adj. preceding its n.

Her/hers

 * Her: OE. hiere, hire, genitive of hío, HEO ‘she’ […] In OE. used both as an objective and possessive genitive: the former use became obs. in ME., and hire remained a possessive genitive, indistinguishable in use from a possessive adj., and is thus included in the same class with my, thy, his, our, your, their. Like these, it has developed an absolute form HERS1, for which HERN1 was also used in late ME., and still exists in some dialects.


 * Hers: The absolute form of the possessive pronoun HER, used when no noun follows


 * Etymology: In form, a double possessive, f. poss. pron. hire, HER, thus hires, her's, hers (cf. ours, yours, theirs), app. by association with the possessive case in such phrases as 'a friend of John's’, whence 'a friend of her's’, formerly 'a friend of her (hire)’. Of northern origin; the midland and southern equivalent being HERN1.


 * Hern: (Obs. exc. south and midl. dial.) f. HER poss. pron.1, apparently by form-association with the ME. pairs mī, mīn, thī, thīn (where the derivative form arose not by adding, but by dropping n). Cf. hisn, ourn, yourn, theirn.