sche

See also: -'sche, -sche, sch***e, and sch****e

Middle English

Alternative forms

che, cho, sce, scha, schee, scho, sco, se, she, shee, sho, shouȝ, so
scæ, sge (Early Middle English); schew, schewe (Late Middle English)
schoe, schu, schue, shou, shue, shuo (Devon); sse, sso (Gloucestershire); shew, show (Lincolnshire); xe, xhe (Norfolk); cheo, sscheo (Shropshire)
scheo, sȝheo, sheo, shoe (Southwestern, Southwest Midland); choy, schoe, schow, schowe, schoy, schu, shae, shoy (Yorkshire)

Etymology

Most likely from Old English hēo, hīo (“she”), from Proto-West Germanic *hiju, from Proto-Germanic *hijō f (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”), but see she for more. Compare heo.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃeː/
IPA^(key): /ʃoː/ (especially Northern and North Midland)
IPA^(key): /ʃøː/ (Southwestern and Southwest Midland)

Pronoun

sche (accusative hire, genitive hire, possessive determiner hires, hiren)

Third-person singular feminine pronoun: she
It; used also of inanimate objects

Usage notes

In addition to referring to female humans and animals, this pronoun was used for inanimate objects belonging to the feminine grammatical gender early in Middle English. As grammatical gender obsolesced, this pronoun continued to refer to inanimate objects.

Descendants

English: she
West Riding: sho, shoo

Ottawa Valley: she, shi
Middle Scots: scho, sche
- Scots: shoo
Yola: shoo, shu, shea, she, sh'

Middle English personal pronouns
			nominative	accusative	dative	genitive	possessive
singular	1st person		I, ich, ik	me		min mi¹	min
	2nd person		þou	þe		þin þi¹	þin
	3rd person	m	he	him hine²	him	his	his hisen
		f	sche, heo	hire heo	hire		hire hires, hiren
		n	hit		hit him²	his, hit	—
dual³	1st person		wit	unk		unker
dual³	2nd person		ȝit	inc		inker
plural	1st person		we	us, ous		oure	oure oures, ouren
	2nd person⁴		ye	yow		your	your youres, youren
	3rd person	inh.	he	hem he²	hem	here	here heres, heren
	3rd person	bor.	þei	þem, þeim		þeir	þeir þeires, þeiren

¹ Used preconsonantally or before h.
² Early or dialectal.
³ Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third person dual forms in Middle English.
⁴ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd person singular.

References

“shẹ̄, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 9 May 2018.
McIntosh, Angus; Samuels, M[ichael] L.; Benskin, Michael (2013) [1986], Michael Benskin, Margaret Laing, editors, eLALME: A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English‎^[1], Edinburgh: Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics; revised November 2024.

Romansh

Etymology

From Latin sī.

Conjunction

sche

if