Is it literally just the letter a?
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I'm definitely familiar with US English speakers who say something more like "ah've" than "i've".
that's actually natural. but I was looking for 3rd person singular [unknown gender] pronouns to replace Francis Augustus Brewster’s e/em/es (1841), to find out Middle English speakers already had.
Ah, my brain read the first definition and totally forgot you put 3rd person in the title and failed to see the following definitions. Oops.
It's alright. I still want your input:
- a/am/as
- a/ar/ars
- ae/aer
- e/em/es
- they/them
- [insert your own]
I'm fine with singular they, personally, but as a cis-het guy, I'm not sure I'm the most qualified to be speaking on the subject, heh.
If something shorter was desired, maybe y (pronounced more like /i/) like french uses in another context that otherwise never stands alone in English and shouldn't really be homophonic with anything else meaningful when usage is considered.
So “e/em/es,” (4) or french “J’y” (6)? Does french “y” have accusative or possessive transformations, or is it combinational?
French 'y' is like 'there' in English, roughly (IIRC; it's been decades). But, since English doesn't use it, it doesn't matter. Presumably, it would take a normal 's for possession. I don't know about accusative or dative.
Spoilers for The Long Earth series
What about First Person Singular?
📝
🔍 Marshall, W. [1789] 1873-74. Rural economy of Glocestershire. Reprinted as
Provincialisms of the vale of Gloucester. Publication of the English Dialect
Society, no. 2, 55-60. London: Truebner.
what are the verb conjugations to go with these pronouns? I think Wiktionary might have them...
In Middle English? Unsure I follow.
I’m looking for canonical accusatives & possessive case transformations. It’s looking as if “a” was only a Nominative pronoun: thus it may not have any. At all all.

actual page 25, canonical 2.
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