[54] Henry Bradley, in The Making of English, pp. 54-5: "In the parts of England which were largely inhabited by Danes the native pronouns (i. e., heo, his, heom and heora) were supplanted by the Scandinavian pronouns which are represented by the modern she, they, them and their." This substitution, at first dialectical, gradually spread to the whole language.
[55] Cf. Sweet: A New English Grammar, pt. i, p. 344, par. 1096.
[56] Before a noun beginning with a vowel thine and mine are commonly substituted for thy and my, as in "thine eyes" and "mine infirmity." But this is solely for the sake of euphony. There is no compensatory use of my and thy in the absolute.
[57] The Making of English, p. 58.
[58] Cf. The Dialect of Southeastern Missouri, by D. S. Crumb, Dialect Notes, vol. ii, pt. iv, 1903, p. 337.
[59] It occurs, too, of course, in other dialects of English, though by no means in all. The Irish influence probably had something to do with its prosperity in vulgar American. At all events, the Irish use it in the American manner. Joyce, in English As We Speak It in Ireland, pp. 34-5, argues that this usage was suggested by Gaelic. In Gaelic the accusative pronouns, e, i and iad (=him, her and them) are often used in place of the nominatives, sé, si and siad (=he, she and they), as in "is iad sin na buachaillidhe" (=them are the boys). This is "good grammar" in Gaelic, and the Irish, when they began to learn English, translated the locution literally. The familiar Irish "John is dead and him always so hearty" shows the same influence.
[60] Pp. 144-50.
[61] Modern English, p. 300.
[62] A New English Grammar, pt. i, p. 339.
[63] History of the English Language, pp. 274-5.