6 1071 disc paul foulkes paul foulkes newcastle ac uk writes hinitial forms feminine pronoun alive necessarily well various parts britain elsewhere guess usually restricted rural areas conservative speakers parts derbyshire example retain form typically written naturally normally regarded misuse possessive pronoun dialect maps eg orton often deal pronouns replies thanks interest search 17 dialects piers plowman justly criticized constrained sampling nonetheless manuscripts show great varieties within dialects hstems feminine singular three plurals exist alongside newer forms hstem least likely occur dual system pronouns seen across manuscripts old pronouns new plan discuss em phenomenon perhaps little er ey hless survivals stressless positions following sent nice statement saying regarding survival hstem feminine might interested know h forms still survive modern traditional dialect least holding 1950s early 60 time survey english dialects h dropping areas concerned left h n w midland area comprising cheshire n derbyshire lancashire w yorkshire believe subject forms w midlands w derive oe h nominative rather modern objective oblique form paper p duncan forms feminine pronoun modern english dialects wakelin ed patterns folk speech british isles london 1972 182200 two notes historical usage 1 neuter singular shared masculne singular form see oed neuter 1755 formerly applied neuters place supplied johnson grammar 2 16th 17th centuries also occurs would preferred oed 86d french _ c est _ construction seems influenced english grammar curious result examining different lines across manuscripts piers proverbial sometimes seen feminine morphology posted examples linguistic explanation phenomenon understood following evolution older english pronoun paradigm modern one one feminine associated allgenders plural masculine associated singular neuter