OE pronouns fell roughly under the same main classes as modern pronouns: personal, demonstrative, interrogative, definite\indefinite.

3 persons, 3 numbers in the 1st & 2nd persons,3 genders in the 3rd person The pronouns of the 1st and 2nd p. had suppletive forms, the pronouns of the 3rd p. had many affinities with the demonstrative pronouns. E.g. ic, wē, wit.

The oblique cases of personal pronouns in combination with the adjective «self» could also serve as reflexive pronouns. In Middle English the pronouns «he» and «she» referred only to animate notions and «it» – to inanimate.

In Early ME the OE Fem. Pronoun of the 3rd person sing. «heo» was replaced by a group of variants «he, ho, scei, sho, she», one of them «she» finally prevailed over the others.

The language preserved the unambiguous form «she» probably to avoid a homonymy clash, since the descendant of OE «heo» – ME «he» coincided with the Masc.pronoun «he».

The other forms of the OE «heo» were preserved: «hire/her», used in ME as the Object. Case and as a Posses. Pronoun, is a form of OE «heo» but not of its new subsitute «she». «Hers» was derived from the form «hire/her».

In the course of ME the OE pronoun of the 3rd person plur. «hie» was replaced by the Scand.loan- word «they». The pronoun «it» is a direct discendant of OE «hit» with «h» lost. In NE the ME forms of the personal pronouns underwent a little change. In Shakespeare’s works both pronouns «thou» and «ye» are found with stylistic differenciation between them.

Eventually «thou» completely vanished from the ordinary literary language and was only preserved in elevated poetic and religious style. In the 16th century distinction between nominative «ye» and objective «you» began to disappear. In the 17th century «ye» finally became archaic.

There were 2 demonstrative pronouns in OE: the prototype of NE “THAT” which destinguished 3 genders in the sing. and had 1 form for all the genders in the plural; the prototype of “THIS” with the same subdivisions: ђes(masc.), ђēos( fem.), ђis(neutr.), & ђās(plural).

The development of the demonstrative pronouns «se, seo, pat» led to the formation of the definite article. This development is associated with a change in form and meaning. In OE texts the pronouns «se, seo, pat» were frequently used as noun-determiners with a weakened meaning, approaching that of the modern definite article.

In the course of ME there arose an important formal difference between the demonstrative pronoun and the definite article: as a demonstrative pronoun «that» preserved number distinctions whereas as a definite article — usually in the weakened form «the» – it was uninflected.

The meaning and functions of the definite article became more specific when it came to be opposed to the indefinite article, which had developed from the OE numeral and indef.pronoun «an». In OE there existed two words, «an», a numeral, and sum», an indef.pronoun, which were often used in functions approaching those of the modern indef.article. «An» seemed to have been a more colloquial word, while «sum» tended to assume a literary character, pasrticularly towards the end of the period, and soon fell into disuse in this function.

hwā(masc, fem.) & hwæt(neutr) had a 4- caseParadigm (NE who, what). The Instrumental case of hwæt was used as a separate interrogative word hwỹ(NE why). Some interr. Pronouns were used as adjective pronouns, e.g. hwelc, hwæђer.

were a numerous class embracing several simple pronouns & a large number of compounds: ān & its derivative æniz(NE one, any); nān made up of ān & the negative particle ne(NE none); nānђinz, made up of the preceding & the noun ђing(NE nothing); nāwiht\nōwiht\nōht(NE not); hwæt- hwuzu(something) etc.

The OE Gen. case of personal pronouns turned into a new class of pronouns — possessive. Though forms of the Gen. case were employed as possessive pronouns, they cannot be regarded as possessive pronouns proper (that is, as a separate class of pronouns). The grammatical characteristics of these forms were not homogeneous. The forms of the 1st and 2nd p. – min, ure and others- were declined like adjectives to show agreement with the nouns they modified, while the forms of the 3rd p. behaved like nouns: they remained uninflected and did not agree with the nouns they modified.

The OE oblique case-forms of personal pronouns and the ME possessive pronouns gave rise to one more type of pronouns – reflexive. Reflexive pronouns developed from combinations of some forms of personal pronouns with the adjective «self». Their origins are obvious from their modern structures: e. g.»myself, ourselves» consist of the Gen.case (or possessive pronoun} and the component self; «himself, themselves» contain the Obj. case of personal pronours as their first components. (In ME and Early NE reflexive pronouns were not as yet fixed in the schemes familiar today)