"He (the devil) is lyeȝere and vader of leazinges, ase he þet made þe verste leazinge, and yet he hise makeþ and tekþ eche daye."—(Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 47.)
(He is a liar and the father of leasings, as he that made the first leasing, and yet he them, i.e. lies, maketh and teacheth each day.)
In Old Kentish Sermons (Old Eng. Miscell p. 28) has = ha + es = he them.
III. The pronoun he, they (Southern hii, heo; Northumbrian thay). Orm uses þeȝȝ, as well as þeȝȝer (their), þeȝȝm (them).[[36]]
IV. hine, hin, in = him. This form occurs as late as 1340, and still exists under the form en, un, in the modern dialects of the South of England, but is not employed by Orm; nor do we find any traces of whan (whom), another very common example of the -n accusative inflection, either in the Ormulum or the present work.
V. The substitution of n for a vowel-ending in nouns. Dr Guest has noticed this peculiarity, but he confines this substitution to the nominative case of nouns of the n declension,[[37]] and to the definite form of the adjective, which has, no doubt, given rise to the O.E. himseluen, etc., bothen (both), as well as, perhaps, to ouren (ours), heren (theirs), etc.
In the present poem, however, the n seems added to the vowel-ending of all cases except the possessive, in order to rhyme with a verb in the infinitive, a passive participle, or an adverb terminating in -en, and is not always limited to nouns of the -n declension, but represents in A.S. an a or e: 'on boken,'[[38]] on book, l. [4]; 'on soðe-sagen,' on sooth-saw, l. [14]; meten, (acc.) meat, l. [2255], (nom.) [2079]; sunen, (nom.) son, l. [1656]; 'of luuen,' of love, [635]; 'after ðe wunen' (after the custom), l. [688]; steden, (nom.) place, [1114]; 'for on-sagen,' for reproach, [2045]; wliten, (nom.) face, [3614], (acc.) [2289]; 'wið answeren,' in answer, [2673]; bileuen, (acc.) remainder, [3154]; uuerslagen, (acc.) lintel, [3155].
Dr Guest considers this curious nunnation to be a Northern peculiarity, but as we do not meet with it (as far as I know) in any Northumbrian work, his statement is rather doubtful. On the other hand, it is well known that the plurals bretheren (broðeren[[39]] in Shoreham), calveren[[40]] (calves), children,[[41]] doren (doors),[[42]] eyren (eggs),[[43]] honden (hands),[[44]] kine,[[45]] lambren (lambs),[[46]] soulen (souls)—very common forms in the Southern dialects in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries—are examples of the substitution of n for, or in addition to, the vowel-ending, and were unknown in the Northern dialect.
The Southern dialect could drop or retain, at pleasure, the n final in the past participles, the preterite plurals, and infinitive mood of verbs.
VI. A very small Norse element in the vocabulary.