Re: Question about anaphora

> (Den/det/de refers to subject,
> denna/detta/dessa refers
> back
> >to the last noun).
>
> Then did "de" come from a previous form "des"? Or was that
> "ss" inserted
> for clarity and to sound like the others?
I doubt that "de" ever's been "des". My dialect has the same /tey/ that
English borrowed from Norse. I guess that's been the pronoun in the dialects
that were the basis for standard Swedish too, but those dialects went
through a dediphtongization process so "stein" became "sten", etc. Probably,
tey has gone through the same process and ended up as de.

>Hm, just to clarify: _de_ is pronounced [dOm], at least in Sweden. I'll
let those with more grounding than me in _nordiska språkhistoria_
explain the discrepancy.

In some parts of sweden it's pronounced /tei/, /tej/, /tey/, or different
versions on that (I even occasionally get in a [T] there...especially if the
previous word ends in a labial). Most people when reading aloud read _de_ as
[dOm]. Me, I'm trying to use [dOm] as accusative, and dem as dative, (since
no one notices).

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