I do not recollect any examples of plurals in _n_ in the Ormulum, except
_ehne_, eyes; in this poem we have _colen_, coals; _deden_, deeds; _fon_,
foes; _siðen_, sides; _son_, shoes; _steden_, places; _sunen_, sons;
_tren_, trees; _teten_, teats; _wunen_, laws, abilities, etc. (see p.
xxii.)
II. The pronoun _is_ (_es_) = them.[22] In the fourteenth century we only
find this form _is_ (_hise_) in pure _Southern_ writers.[23]
"Diep he _iſ_ dalf under an ooc."[24]—(_Gen. and Ex._, l. 1873, p. 54.)
"For ſalamon findin _iſ_ ſal."[25]—(_Ibid._, l. 1877, p. 54.)
"He toc _iſ_."[26]—(_Ibid._, l. 2654, p. 76.)
"Alle hise fet steppes
After him he filleð,
Drageð dust wið his stert
(_O.E. Miscell._, p. 1.)
ðer he steppeð,
Oðer dust oðer deu,
ðat he ne cunne _is_ finden."[27]
Our author, however, employs this curious pronoun in a way quite peculiar
to himself, for he constantly joins it to a _pronoun_ or a _verb_,[28] and
the compound was at first rather perplexing. _Hes_ = _he_ + _is_, he, them;
_wes_ = _we_ + _is_, we, them;[29] _caldes_, called them; _dedis_, did
(placed) them; _settes_, set them; _wroutis_, wrought them, etc.
"Alle _hes_ hadde wið migte bi-geten."[30]—(_Gen. and Ex._, l. 911, p.
26.)
"Vndelt _heſ_ leide quor-so _heſ_ tok."[31]—(_Ibid._, l. 943, p. 27.)
"Ðe culuer haueð costes gode,
alle _wes_ ogen to hauen in mode."[32]—(_O.E. Miscell._, p. 25.)
"Bala two childre bar bi him,
Rachel _caldes_ dan(.) neptalim;
And zelfa two sunes him ber,
Lia _calde is_(.) Gad(.) and asser."[33]—(_Gen. and Ex._, l. 1700, p.
49.)
"ðe tabernacle he _dedis_ in."[34]—(_Ibid._, l. 3830, p. 109.)
"He _settes_ in ðe firmament."[35]—(_Ibid._, l. 135, p. 5.)
In the Kentish Ayenbite of 1340 _he_ never coalesces with _hise_ (them),
_e.g._:—
"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.