He (
IPA:
[hi:]) is a
third-person,
singular personal pronoun (
subject case) in
Modern English.
People Animals Generic A greeting phrase used by the Scooby Gang
Other Main article: Gender in English
Gender Etymology The reconstructed
Indo-European language provides a
demonstrative pronoun ko.
Indo-European English is a development of the
West Germanic language family.
Germanic Speakers of
Old English (OE) considered each noun to have a
grammatical gender — masculine, feminine or neuter. selected to have the same grammatical gender as the noun they referred to. For example,
dæg (
IPA:
[dæj],
day) was masculine, so a masculine pronoun was used when referring to a day or days. The personal pronoun for a singular masculine subject was written
he, just like Present-Day English (PrDE). However, OE
he was probably pronounced like PrDE
hay (
IPA:
[he:]). The vowel in
hay is normally longer in duration than in the exlamation
Hey! (
IPA:
[he]). Because the vowel sound of OE
he was long in duration, scholars (and OE dictionaries) now write it as
hē.
Middle English Generic antecedents Gender-specific pronoun English personal pronouns
