PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
FIRST PERSON. SECOND PERSON— SECOND PERSON— common form old form. _Singular. Plural. Singular. Plural. Singular. Plural.
Nom. I, we,* you, you, thou, ye(++) or you
Pos. my or our or your or your or thy or ye(++) or you
mine,+ ours, yours, yours, thine, yours,
Obj. me; us. you; you. thee; you.
[Footnote *: Strictly speaking, we can hardly be the plural of I, says Professor Sweet, for I does not admit of plurality. We means I and you, I and he, I and she, or I and they, etc.]
[Footnote +: The forms mine, ours, yours, thine, hers, and theirs are used only when the name of the thing possessed is omitted; as, Yours is old, mine is new = Your book is old, etc. Mine and thine were formerly used before words beginning with a vowel sound; as, thine enemy, mine honor.
The expression a friend of mine presents a peculiar construction. The explanation generally given is, that of is partitive, and that the expression is equivalent to one friend of my friends.
It is said that this construction can be used only when more than one thing is possessed such expressions as This heart of mine, That temper of yours are good, idiomatic English. This naughty world of ours.—Byron. This moral life of mine.—Sheridan Knowles. Dim are those heads of theirs.—-Carlyle.
Some suggest that the word possessing or owning is understood after these possessives; as, This temper of yours (your possessing); others say that of simply marks identity, as does of in city of (=viz.) New York (see Lesson 34). They would make the expression = This temper, your temper.
The s in ours, yours, hers, and theirs is the s of his and its extended by analogy to our, your, her, and their, forms already possessive. Ours, yours, hers, and theirs are consequently double possessives.]
[Footnote ++: Ye is used in Chaucer and in the King James version of the Bible exclusively in the nominative, as was its original _ge__ in the Saxon. Shakespeare uses you in the nominative. You (the Saxon accusative eow) has now taken the place of ye, and is both nominative and objective.