Hisself instead of himself.

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WANG CHUN

#420906 Wed, 19 Sep 07 07:37 AM

Hello

I wonder why some nonstandard dialects of English use the reflexive pronouns hisself instead of himself.

Thank you for your answer.

WANG CHUN

Joined on Thu, Sep 23 2004

Full Member (136)

Dialects, Nouns, Pronouns

Mister Micawber

#421082 Wed, 19 Sep 07 03:22 PM

A poor education?

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (21,223)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Alienvoord

#421110 Wed, 19 Sep 07 04:23 PM

One probable reason is that it is more regular than the standard forms. The possessive pronoun is used in almost all cases: myself, yourself, herself, ourselves. The exceptions are himself and themselves. So hisself and theirselves are attempts to regularize the pattern.

Alienvoord

Joined on Tue, Jul 25 2006

Toronto

Full Member (315)

I'm a Canadian English speaker

Nouns, Possessives, Pronouns

Kooyeen

#421151 Wed, 19 Sep 07 05:58 PM

Mister Micawber wrote:

A poor education?

That must be a mistake, right?

I don't know why they use it, but Alienvoord might be right. I think I heard "theyself", but maybe I misheard it and it was actually "theirself" pronounced without the R. Smile [:)]

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (3,973)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.