4. The word she has grown out of the Anglo-Saxon seó. Now seó was in Anglo-Saxon the feminine form of the definite article; the definite article being a demonstrative pronoun.
Compared with the Anglo-Saxon the present English stands as follows:—
She.—The Anglo-Saxon form heó, being lost to the language, is replaced by the feminine article seó.
Her.—This is a case, not of the present she, but of the Anglo-Saxon heó: so that she may be said to be defective in
the oblique cases and her to be defective in the nominative.
Him.—A true dative form, which has replaced the Anglo-Saxon hine. When used as a dative, it was neuter as well as masculine.
His.—Originally neuter as well as masculine. Now as a neuter, replaced by its—"et quidem ipsa vox his, ut et interrogativum whose, nihil aliud sunt quam hee's, who's, ubi s omnino idem præstat quod in aliis possessivis. Similiter autem his pro hee's eodem errore quo nonnunquam bin pro been; item whose pro who's eodem errore quo done, gone, knowne, growne, &c., pro doen, goen, knowen, vel do'n, go'n, know'n, grow'n; utrobique contra analogiam linguæ; sed usu defenditur."—Wallis, c. v.
It.—Changed from the Anglo-Saxon hit, by the ejection of h. The t is no part of the original word, but a sign of the neuter gender, forming it regularly from he. The same neuter sign is preserved in the Latin id and illud.
Its.—In the course of time the nature of the neuter sign t, in it, the form being found in but a few words, became misunderstood. Instead of being looked on as an affix, it passed for part of the original word. Hence was formed from it the anomalous genitive its, superseding the Saxon his. The same was the case with—
Hers.—The r is no part of the original word, but the sign of the dative case. These formations are of value in the history of cases.