þou

See also: thou

Middle English

Alternative forms

• thou, þu, thu, þoue, thoue, þowe, thowe, þouȝ, thouȝ, þue, ðhu, þeu, þeou, thugh, thogh, þo, tu, tou, towe, you

Etymology

From Old English þū, from Proto-West Germanic *þū, from Proto-Germanic *þū, from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂.

Pronunciation

• (stressed) IPA^(key): /θuː/, /ðuː/
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /ðu/^[1][2]
• (after /t/, /d/, especially early) IPA^(key): /tuː/, /tu/

Pronoun

þou (accusative þe, genitive þin, possessive determiner þi, þin)

2. thou (second-person singular pronoun); you^[3]
   • c. 1275, Judas (Roud 2964, Child Ballad 23, Trinity College MS. B.14.39)‎, folio 34, recto, lines 36-37; republished at Cambridge: Wren Digital Library (Trinity College), 2019 May 29:

     Stille þou be peter. Wel i þe icnowe. / þou wolt fur ſake me þrien . ar þe coc him crowe.

     "Quiet now, Peter. I know you well; / You'll forsake me three times when the cock crows."

Derived terms

Derived terms

• artou
• comsteu
• connowustou
• dorstou
• hastou
• havedestou
• maistou
• miȝtou
• neltou
• tertestou
• thall
• thart
• thatou
• therstou
• wilte
• wiltou
• wolte
• wostou
• þerftou
• þut

 

Descendants

• English: thou, tha (Yorkshire, Lancashire), thow, thu, du (Scotland), thoo (Orkney)
• Scots: thou, du, thoo
• Yola: thou, th'

See also

			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

Middle English personal pronouns

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

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. “thou, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 May 2018.