The following irregular forms are occasionally met with:
Numerals.—Twinne and thrinne occur for two and three. The ordinal numbers are—
| first (fyrste), the forme, | |
| secunde, that other, tother, | |
| thryd, thrydde, | |
| furþe, | |
| fyfþe, | |
| sexte, | |
| sevenþe, | |
| aȝtþe, | |
| nente, | |
| tenþe, tyþe. | |
The Northumbrian numerals corresponding to sevenþe, aȝtþe, nente, tenþe, are sevend, aghtend, neghend, tend. The Southern forms end in -the, as sevenþe, eiȝteoþe, nyþe, teoþe (tyþe).
[III.] Pronouns.
In the following poems we find the pronoun ho, she, still keeping its ground against the Northumbrian scho.[56] Ho is identical with the modern Lancashire hoo (or huh as it is sometimes written), which in some parts of England has nearly the same pronunciation as the accusative her.
The Northumbrian thay (they) has displaced the older Midland he, corresponding to the Southern pronoun hii, hi (A.S. hí). Hores and thayreȝ (theirs) occasionally occur for here.[57] The genitives in -es, due no doubt to Scandinavian influence, are very common in Northumbrian writers of the fourteenth century, but are never found in any Southern work of the same period.
Hit is frequently employed as an indefinite pronoun of all genders, and is plural as well as singular. It is, as has been previously shown, uninflected in the genitive or possessive case.
Me in Southern writers is used as an indefinite pronoun of the third person, and represents our one, but in the present poems it is of all persons, and seems to be placed in apposition with the subject of the sentence corresponding to our use of myself, thyself, himself, etc.; as,