< Old English

Articles are actually just a special kind of adjective. They are adjectives which show the definiteness of the noun being referred to. In Modern English, we have several articles:

  • The definite article (in Modern English "the") shows that a substantive is a particular noun that the listener should recognize
  • The indefinite (in Modern English "a","an", or "some" for plural) shows that a substantive is not a specific noun that the listener shoulder recognize
  • The negative article (in Modern English "no") shows that there is none of the substantive

In Old English, their definite article was also used as a demonstrative adjective and as a demonstrative pronoun, equivalent to Modern English "that" or "that one". You can see it on the pronouns page here.

Definite articles and demonstratives

Old English had two main determiners: se, which could function as both 'the' or 'that', and þes for 'this'.

the/that/those
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural
Nominativeseþætsēoþā
Accusativeþoneþætþāþā
Genitiveþæsþæsþǣreþāra, þǣra
Dativeþǣmþǣmþǣreþǣm, þām
Instrumentalþȳ, þonþȳ, þon*þāra*þǣm

Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form,[1] and 'the' from the masculine nominative form, with 's' replaced analogously by the 'th' of the other forms.[2]

this/these/yon
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural
Nominativeþesþisþēosþās
Accusativeþisneþisþāsþās
Genitiveþissesþissesþisse, þisreþisra
Dativeþissumþissumþisse, þisreþissum
Instrumentalþȳsþȳs*þīes*þīos

Also, in Old English they generally had no indefinite article (although occasionally their word for "one" - ān could be translated into Modern English as "a" or "an"). So in speaking Old English, a noun with no article at all would often be the equivalent to a noun with an indefinite article in Modern English, for example hūs - "a house", and dēor - "an animal".

There were several words that could be used to translate the negative article "no" in Old English:

  • nān - "not (even) one"
  • nǣniġ - "not any (at all)"

They both followed the normal strong adjectival declension (for which see here) and agreed with the nouns they modified.

Because articles are a kind of adjective, they were declined in agreement with whatever noun they modified.

  1. ↑ "That". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=that. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  2. ↑ "The". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=the. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
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