þem

See also: them

Middle EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

them, þeim, þeime, þeym, þeyme, þeme, þaim, þaime, þaym, þayme, þam, þame, þeȝȝm
þaem, yem, yam, yame, yham (Northern)
yem, yam, yame, yham (northeast Midland)
taim, taym, tam (Northern, after t or d)

Etymology 1Edit

From Old Norse þeim. Compare hem (“them”).

PronunciationEdit

IPA^(key): /θɛi̯m/, /ðɛi̯m/, (originally unstressed) /ðɛm/^[1]^[2]

PronounEdit

þem (nominative þei)

Third-person plural accusative pronoun: them^[3]
- 1430–1440, “II. Playsterers. The Creation, to the Fifth Day.”, in Lucy Toulmin Smith, editor, York Plays: The Plays Performed by the Crafts or Mysteries of York on the Day of Corpus Christi in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries: […] (in Middle English), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, published 1885, →OCLC, lines 17–20, page 9:
  Þe water I will set / to flowe bothe fare and nere, / And þhan þe firmament, / in mydis to set þame sere.
  The water I will set / to flow both far and near, / And then the firmament, / in their midst to set them sere [separately].
(reflexive) themselves

DescendantsEdit

English: them, thame
Scots: thaim, them

See alsoEdit

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
dual³	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
	3rd-person	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.

ReferencesEdit

^ 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.
^ Thurber, Beverly A. (15 February 2011), “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, issue 1, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, pages 65-81.
^ “theim, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2Edit

DeterminerEdit

þem

(Southwest) Alternative form of þan (“the, that, this”)

Etymology 3Edit

NounEdit

þem (plural þemes)

Alternative form of teme (“family, tribe”)

Etymology 4Edit

NounEdit

þem (third-person singular simple present þemeþ, present participle þemende, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle þemed)

Alternative form of temen (“to produce offspring”)

[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. (15 February 2011), “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, issue 1, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, pages 65-81.

[3] “theim, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

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