þei

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See also: yei, thei, and Yei

Gothic[edit]

Romanization[edit]

þei

  1. Romanization of 𐌸𐌴𐌹

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Old Norse þeir.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

þei (accusative þem, genitive þeires, þeiren, possessive determiner þeir)

  2. Third-person plural pronoun: they[3]
    • c. 1335-1361, William of Palerne (MS. King's College 13), folio 25, recto, lines 1414-1415; republished as W. W. Skeat, editor, The Romance of William of Palerne‎[1], London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1867, →OCLC, page 52:
      but algate alyſaundꝛine · atte wille hem ſerued / þat non knew here · cunseile but þei þre one
      But Alexandrine would always help them whenever they wanted, so nobody would know their secret except for the three of them.
  3. (rare) Third-person singular pronoun: they
    • c. 1335-1361, William of Palerne (MS. King's College 13), folio 36, recto, lines 2177-2179; republished as W. W. Skeat, editor, The Romance of William of Palerne‎[2], London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1867, →OCLC, page 74:
      þan haſtely hiȝed eche wiȝt · on hoꝛſe ⁊ on fote / huntyng wiȝt houndes · alle heie wodes / til þei neyȝyed ſo neiȝh · to nymphe þe ſoþe
      Then each man went quickly, hunting with hounds amongst tall trees, on horse and on foot, until he came close enough to notice the truth.
  4. (demonstrative) those
Descendants[edit]
  • English: they
  • Scots: thay
  • Yola: thaaye, thaay, thaye, thye, a
See also[edit]
Middle English personal pronouns
nominative accusative dative genitive possessive
singular 1st-person I, ich, ik me min
mi1		 min
2nd-person þou þe þin
þi1		 þin
3rd-person m he him
hine2		 him his his
hisen
f sche, heo hire
heo 		hire hire
hires, hiren
n hit hit
him2		 his, hit —
dual3 1st-person wit unk unker
2nd-person ȝit inc inker
plural 1st-person we us, ous oure oure
oures, ouren
2nd-person4 ye yow your your
youres, youren
3rd-person inh. he hem
he2		 hem here here
heres, heren
bor. þei þem, þeim þeir þeir
þeires, þeiren

1Used preconsonantally or before h.
2Early or dialectal.
3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

References[edit]
  1. ^ Brink, Daniel (1992) “Variation between <þ-> and <t-> in the Ormulum”, in Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr and Robert L. Kyes, editors, On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs; 68), De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 21-35.
  2. ^ Thurber, Beverly A. (2011 February 15) “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, number 1, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, pages 65-81.
  3. ^ “thei, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2[edit]

Determiner[edit]

þei

  1. Alternative form of þi (“thy”)

Etymology 3[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

þei

  1. (Northern) Alternative form of þe (“thee”)

Etymology 4[edit]

Noun[edit]

þei (plural þeies)

  1. Alternative form of þigh (“thigh”)

Etymology 5[edit]

Adverb[edit]

þei

  1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of þouȝ (“though”)

Conjunction[edit]

þei

  1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of þouȝ (“though”)

Etymology 6[edit]

Numeral[edit]

þei

  1. Alternative form of tweyn (“two”)
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