þei

See also: yei, thei, and Yei

Gothic

Romanization

þei

1. Romanization of 𐌸𐌴𐌹

Middle English

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *tóy

Proto-Germanic *þai

Proto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛁᛉ (*þaiʀ)

Old Norse þeirbor.

Middle English þei

Borrowed from Old Norse þeir.

Alternative forms

• thei, þey, þeie, þeye, þeiȝ, þeyȝ, þeih, þeyh, þhei, þhey, þai, þay, þeȝ, þe, þee, þi, þie, þy, þye, ai, ay, yei, yey, yai, yay, þeȝȝ; þæȝe (Early Middle English)
• tai, tay, dei, dey, dai, day (after t or d); tei, tey, teȝȝ (Early Middle English)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θæi̯/, /ðæi̯/^[1][2]
• Rhymes: -æi̯

Pronoun

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, 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, 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

• English: they
• Scots: thay
• Yola: thye, thaye, thaay, thaaye, a

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. “thei, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Determiner

þei

1. Alternative form of þi (“thy”)

Etymology 3

Pronoun

þei

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

Etymology 4

Noun

þei (plural þeies)

1. Alternative form of þigh (“thigh”)

Etymology 5

Adverb

þei

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

Conjunction

þei

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

Etymology 6

Numeral

þei

1. Alternative form of tweyn (“two”)