Pronoun Trouble is a 2025 book by John McWhorter which tells the story of us in seven little words

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting little book from 2025 by John McWhorter titled Pronoun Trouble: The story of us in seven little words. It has 225 pages, and is just 7-1/4” tall by 5-1/4” wide. You can find a preview at Google Books. There are five chapters titled:

 

1] The ‘Your Highness’ of I-ness [page 11]

2] Poor Little You [page 53]

3] We Persisted [page 99]

4] S-He-It Happens [page 121]

5] They Was Plural [page 155]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I began with the Proto-Indo-European word eg, which became one of those [page 21] shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Old English, there are three second-person pronouns for you – singular, dual, and plural [page 78], as shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The Old English versions for she, it, and they were spelled differently [page 122], as shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other languages, like Tok Pisin from eastern New Guinea, have different forms for me and you (or them) [page 106] depending on if there is one, two, or three as is shown above.