Our Living Language In Standard English, most possessive pronouns have different forms when used as nouns, or nominals, as in
That book is yours, than when used as adjectives, as in
That is your book. The two exceptions are
his and
its, which retain the same form in both usages. The nominal forms all end in
-s except for
mine. In some Southern U.S. and New England vernacular dialects, all nominal possessive pronouns end in
-n, just like
mine, as in
That book is hern (but not "That's hern book") and
Those cookies are ourn. Although forms such as
hisn and
hern are highly socially stigmatized, from a strictly linguistic standpoint these forms reflect a natural phenomenon in the development of all languages and dialects: Irregular patterns tend to be regularized, thereby eliminating exceptions to language "rules." Further,
hisn, hern, ourn, yourn, and
theirn have a long history in English. They arose in the Middle English period (c. 1100-1500) by analogy with
mine and
thine, forms that are older than
my and
thy and that can be traced to Old English (c. 449-1100). Originally,
my and
thy were used before nouns beginning with consonant sounds, as in
my book, while
mine and
thine were used before nouns beginning with vowel sounds, as in
mine eyes
as
a and
an still are. This distinction persisted into the 18th century. But as nominal pronouns,
mine and
thine remained unchanged. This invariant use of
-n led to its use for all nominal possessive pronouns (except
its, which usually is not used nominally, as in
That book is its). In fact, these
-n forms may be older than the current standard
-s forms, which arose late in the Middle English period, by analogy to
his. Most likely,
hern, ourn, yourn, and
theirn originated somewhere in the central area of southern England, since they can still be found throughout many parts of that region. In the United States, the forms appear to be increasingly confined to older speakers in relatively isolated areas, indicating that these features are at last fading from use. In some Southern-based vernacular dialects, particularly African American Vernacular English, the irregular standard English pattern for nominal possessive forms has been regularized by adding
-s to
mine, as in
That book is mines. See Note at
an1.