Wit, unker, git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy

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". But why did they die out in the first place?

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".

This term, once also used affectionately to describe the closeness between two people, is one of many personal pronouns that have been lost or transformed amid huge social and political change over the centuries.  The English language has become simplified – but at times this has left gaps, creating confusion.

"Wit" means "we two" in Old English, a Germanic language spoken in England until about the 12th Century, which evolved into the English we speak today. Now completely lost, "wit" was part of an extinct group of pronouns used for exactly two people: the dual form, which also includes "uncer" or "unker" ("our" for two people) and "git" ("you two"). That dual form vanished from the English language around the 13th Century. (You can hear how some of these were pronounced in the short clips later in this article.)

"There's a whole history in the [personal] pronouns", including the impact of Viking and Norman invasions on the English language alongside shifting norms and customs that have changed how we talk, says Tom Birkett, a professor of Old English and Old Norse at University College Cork in Ireland.

Many Old English pronouns are still in use, says Birkett. Our oldest English personal pronouns include "he" and "it", as well as "we", "us", "our", "me" and "mine", Birkett says. They have made it through more than 1,000 years of history and upheaval, almost intact.

"'He' definitely is a very old English form, and also 'hit', which lost the 'h' and became 'it'," Birkett says. The Old English "Ic" has also been resilient, losing only one letter, to become the modern English "I".

But other pronouns were cast off – such as the once-common dual form. "It's fairly widespread in Old English texts. Particularly in poetry, we get the use of 'wit' and 'unc' for 'us two, the two of us'," says Birkett.

To illustrate the poetic power of the dual, Birkett gives the example of a love poem, known as Wulf and Eadwacer, that is over 1,000 years old. In the poem, a woman yearns for her lover, Wulf, who is separated from her because he was rejected by her clan. The last line reads, in a modern English translation:

"One can easily split what was never united,

the song of the two of us."

In the Old English original, the words for "the song of the two of us" are "uncer giedd" – meaning "our song", but just for two people.

"The dual pronoun is used in that poem, and I think it's quite an intimate use, because it's all about 'We two together against the world'," says Birkett. "Certainly in poetry, it has that use of creating an intimate connection between two people."

Fighting the "hronfixas"

In the Beowulf, the dual makes a dramatic appearance: two warriors swim in the sea holding swords, "to defend the two of us against whales" ("wit unc wið hronfixas werian" in the original). Thought to be........

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