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Pronoun inconsistency.

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milky  #301544  Thu, 07 Dec 06 12:53 PM
Why is the standard form of the reflexive pronoun "himself" and not "hisself"?
  
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Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".
Philip  #301604  Thu, 07 Dec 06 05:17 PM
 Milky wrote:
Why is the standard form of the reflexive pronoun "himself" and not "hisself"?
One can only guess why the 3rd person masculine singular strays from the rule, as does the 3rd person plural.  In the singular, I believe it is probably because of the double 's', which at some time looked and sounded bad to the general population.   
  
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Marius Hancu  #301630  Thu, 07 Dec 06 06:20 PM
As a matter of fact, you may find hissself here and there, but it's sub-standard.

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his·self   

Function:pronoun

substandard : HIMSELF <when he come to hisself they told him it was a Union hospital -- Helen Eustis>

http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com
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