Tales of love and adventure from 1,000 years ago reveal a dazzling range of now-extinct English pronouns. They capture something unique about how people once thought about "two-ness".

Which word would you use to refer to yourself? “I”, presumably, in the singular. And how about you and a group of people? “We”, of course, in the plural.

But how about you and one other person?

In modern English, there is no word for that. You would probably just use “we” or “the two of us”.

But more than 1,000 years ago, you would have said: “wit”.

  • FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    22 days ago

    Yes, it’s specifically a dual pronoun, referring to me and one other, whereas “we” can apply to me and any (positive) number of other people.